IPFS Ninja

Easily upload images, PDFs, and JSON files to IPFS and get a permanent content identifier (CID) with instant gateway access.

Upload a file to IPFS in 3 steps

1. Start your 7-day trial (no credit card required).
2. POST /upload/new with your file.
3. Receive your permanent CID with instant gateway access.

The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a decentralized, peer-to-peer storage protocol. IPFS breaks files into smaller chunks, distributes them across the network, and assigns each file a unique content identifier (CID) based on its contents.

This means:

• Distributed storage — your files are stored across multiple nodes for improved reliability.
• Content addressing — the CID is derived from the file content itself, ensuring immutability.
• Network-wide accessibility — anyone with the CID can retrieve the file from any IPFS node.

What IPFS Ninja does

IPFS Ninja is a managed service that lets you upload files and pin existing content on IPFS through a simple REST API. No need to run your own IPFS node.

• Upload new files — send any file via POST /upload/new and get a permanent CID
• Pin existing CIDs — already have content on IPFS? Pin it to our cluster via POST /pin to ensure it stays available
• Access via gateway — all pinned content is accessible at ipfs.ninja/ipfs/<CID> (the apex gateway only serves CIDs in your account or in other IPFS Ninja accounts — see Gateway access below)
• Custom metadata — attach key-value pairs to uploads and pins for organization and filtering
• Signed upload tokens — generate time-limited tokens for client-side uploads without exposing your API key
• IPNS mutable names — create stable names that point to changing CIDs via IPNS API, with up to 10 names per account
• Image optimization — resize, convert, and compress images on-the-fly via gateway URL parameters

Dashboard

Track uploads, storage, and gateway bandwidth from your personal dashboard. The dashboard also lets you drive most of the API without writing code:

• Drag-and-drop upload — files, folders (packed into a UnixFS directory in your browser), or .car archives
• Rename files after upload; description auto-fills from the filename on select
• Snapshot a folder to get a single directory CID for everything inside
• Configure S3 CORS per bucket via a form editor (for browser SDK integrations)
• Manage API keys, gateway tokens, IPNS names, and dedicated gateway settings

Gateway access

Every uploaded file is accessible through the IPFS Ninja gateway, which acts as a bridge between the decentralized IPFS network and traditional web browsers.

The gateway URL follows this pattern:

https://ipfs.ninja/ipfs/<CID>

Apex gateway scope

The apex gateway at https://ipfs.ninja/ipfs/<CID> only serves CIDs that have been uploaded or pinned by a registered IPFS Ninja user. Requests for any other CID return HTTP 410 Gone with a pointer to public IPFS gateways like ipfs.io or dweb.link. To serve a third-party CID through our gateway, sign up free and POST /pin it to your account first.

TIP

Your files are also accessible from any public IPFS gateway (e.g. dweb.link, w3s.link) using the same CID — the IPFS network is decentralized.

All paid plans get a dedicated gateway at their own subdomain (<slug>.gw.ipfs.ninja) that only serves files pinned to their account — with optional token-based access control and origin restrictions. The dedicated gateway is the recommended URL for production embedding (videos, NFT viewers, websites).

Supported file types

Type	Formats	Input
JSON	Any valid JSON object or array	string / object
Images	PNG, JPG, WebP, GIF, TIFF, SVG	base64
PDFs	Standard PDF documents	base64
HTML	HTML documents	base64
Any	Any file (binary, text, video, etc.)	base64

All file types are accepted. The type is auto-detected and recorded for your reference.

Security

Gateway responses include security headers (Content-Security-Policy: sandbox, X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff, X-Frame-Options: DENY) that prevent browsers from executing scripts in served content.