Upload a file to ImageKit directly from client-side code using short-lived, server-generated authentication parameters
domain: imagekit.io · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Verified — individually fact-checked against live docscommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Verified steps
On your backend, use the private API key to generate client upload authentication parameters: a one-time `token`, an `expire` Unix timestamp (must be under 1 hour in the future), and a `signature` computed as HMAC-SHA1 of token+expire keyed with the private API key
Expose these three values (plus your public key) to the client only through an authenticated endpoint your own app controls — never expose the private key itself
From the client, call the ImageKit upload endpoint with the file, the public key, and the token/expire/signature triple instead of the private key
For trusted server-side uploads, skip the token/signature dance entirely and call the same upload API using HTTP Basic auth with the private API key
Confirm the returned file object's `fileId` and URL to verify the upload landed in the expected Media Library folder
Known gotchas
The signature must always be computed server-side with the private key — never ship the private API key to client code, since client uploads rely on the token/signature scheme specifically to avoid that exposure
Each token/signature/expire triple is meant for a single upload attempt; reusing a stale token past its expiry window will cause the client upload to fail
Client-side uploads still require the authentication endpoint itself to be behind your own app's user authentication, otherwise anyone can mint upload credentials for your Media Library
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