How to use the CloudConvert API in PHP

Online file converter for audio, video, document, ebook, archive, image, spreadsheet, presentation. This guide calls it from PHP with code we've run against the live endpoint.

Online · 401 msEndpoint tested Oct 24, 2026

1. What you need

PHP 7.4+ with the cURL extension (enabled by default on most hosts).

An API key from the provider (apiKey authentication). Endpoint: https://cloudconvert.com/api/v2

2. Make the request

PHP

<?php
$ch = curl_init("https://cloudconvert.com/api/v2");
curl_setopt_array($ch, [CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 10]);
$data = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true);
curl_close($ch);
print_r($data);

3. The response

Trimmed from the live response on Oct 24, 2026.

JSON

{
  "redirect": "/docs"
}

4. Before you ship

Set a timeout and handle non-200 responses: free APIs can rate-limit or go down.
Cache responses where you can, instead of calling the API on every page view.
Keep the API key in an environment variable, never in source control.
Read the official documentation ↗ for rate limits and terms of use.

FAQ

Does the CloudConvert API need an API key in PHP?

Yes. It uses apiKey authentication: read the key from an environment variable and send it with each request.

Can I call the CloudConvert API from the browser?

Not reliably: it doesn't send CORS headers. Call it from a server, serverless function or script.

What does the CloudConvert API return?

JSON. The example response on this page is trimmed from a real response our health check received on Oct 24, 2026.

Same API in: Python · Node.js · Java · Go · Ruby · C#
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