Match any birth date to its true Chinese zodiac sign and element.
Chinese Zodiac returns the zodiac animal, element, and characteristics for any birth date. Accurately accounts for the Chinese lunar calendar - the zodiac year starts on Chinese New Year, not January 1st.
Try it — live request, no key required
No key required to try it. Get a key to use it in your app.
{
"status": "ok",
"error": null,
"data": {
"date": "1990-01-15",
"zodiacYear": 1989,
"animal": "Snake",
"animalChinese": "蛇",
"element": "Earth",
"elementChinese": "土",
"elementColor": "Yellow/Brown",
"polarity": "Yin",
"traits": [
"Enigmatic",
"Intelligent",
"Wise",
"Decisive"
],
"sexagenaryCyclePosition": 6,
"fullName": "Earth Snake",
"chineseNewYear": "1990-01-27"
}
}
About the Chinese Zodiac API
Supports dates from 1900-2100 with accurate Chinese New Year dates. Also provides the position in the 60-year Sexagenary cycle and personality traits. Look up by date or search for years matching a specific animal.
What people use it for
- Astrology Apps
- Display accurate Chinese zodiac for birth dates
- Birthday Features
- Show zodiac details accounting for lunar calendar
- Cultural Content
- Educational information about Chinese traditions
- Personalization
- Match users with their zodiac characteristics
Ways to call it
One endpoint, many ways in — REST with JSON, XML, YAML and CSV, plus GraphQL and an MCP interface for AI agents.
- JSON
- Default REST response
- XML
- Markup format
- YAML
- Human-readable
- CSV
- Tabular export
- GraphQL
- Query language
- MCP
- For AI agents
Other ways to use Chinese Zodiac
Same data, same APIVerve account, same credit balance — one key works on all of them.
What date range does the API support?
How far does the Starter plan go for birthday lookups?
Do I get personality traits and Chinese characters on the Free plan?
How does the lookup handle birthdays in January and early February?
Can I look up years by animal instead of providing a date?
Request parameters — GET /v1/chinesezodiac
Sent in the query string. Premium parameters are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them. Anything not listed here is dropped rather than passed through.
Required
| Parameter | Type | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
dateRequired | string | 1990-01-15 | The date in YYYY-MM-DD format (years 1900-2100) date |
curl "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/chinesezodiac?date=1990-01-15" \
-H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"Authentication
Send your key in the x-api-key header. That is the only auth step — no token exchange, and no per-endpoint scope to configure.
| Header | When | Value |
|---|---|---|
x-api-keyRequired | Every request | Your API key. Header names are case-insensitive, so X-API-Key is the same header. |
AuthorizationAlternate | Instead of the above | Bearer <key> — for clients that only expose bearer auth. Resolves to the same account and the same billing. |
A 401 means the key is missing, invalid or expired. A 403 means the key is valid but not permitted here — blocked by a key restriction or an IP allow-list. Running out of credits is a 429.
Response — GET /v1/chinesezodiac
Every APIVerve endpoint returns the same three top-level keys, so one response handler covers your whole integration: status, error and data. Only data changes shape.
{
"status": "ok",
"error": null,
"data": {
"date": "1990-01-15",
"zodiacYear": 1989,
"animal": "Snake",
"animalChinese": "蛇",
"element": "Earth",
"elementChinese": "土",
"elementColor": "Yellow/Brown",
"polarity": "Yin",
"traits": [
"Enigmatic",
"Intelligent",
"Wise",
"Decisive"
],
"sexagenaryCyclePosition": 6,
"fullName": "Earth Snake",
"chineseNewYear": "1990-01-27"
}
}
Response fields
Paths are relative to data. Premium fields are absent rather than zeroed on plans that do not include them, so check for presence instead of comparing to 0.
| Field | Type | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
date | string | "1990-01-15" | Input date in YYYY-MM-DD format |
zodiacYear | number | 1989 | Zodiac year based on Chinese lunar calendar |
animal | string | "Snake" | English name of zodiac animal |
animalChinesePremium | string | "蛇" | Chinese character representation of zodiac animal |
element | string | "Earth" | Element associated with zodiac year |
elementChinesePremium | string | "土" | Chinese character for element association |
elementColorPremium | string | "Yellow/Brown" | Color representation of the element |
polarity | string | "Yin" | Yin or Yang polarity classification |
traitsPremium | array | [Enigmatic, ...] | Personality traits associated with zodiac sign |
sexagenaryCyclePositionPremium | number | 6 | Position in the 60-year sexagenary cycle |
fullName | string | "Earth Snake" | Combined element and animal zodiac name |
chineseNewYearPremium | string | "1990-01-27" | Date of the Chinese New Year that began the returned zodiac year |
Response headers
Every response carries your balance, so your own code always knows where it stands without polling anything. All four are exposed to browsers through CORS.
| Header | What it carries |
|---|---|
x-api-remaining-credits | Credits left in the current cycle |
x-api-credits-used | Credits spent in the current cycle |
x-api-max-credits | The allowance for the cycle |
x-api-version | Version of the endpoint that answered |
Errors
Read the HTTP status first, then error for the specific reason. The body names the parameter that has to change.
| Status | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
400 | Input was rejected | Read error; it names the parameter that has to change. |
401 | Key missing or invalid | Check the header name and the key value. |
403 | Key valid, but not permitted here | A key restriction or an IP allow-list — never a bad key. |
429 | Rate limited, or out of credits | Read error to tell them apart, then back off or top up. |
What a call costs — 2 credits per call
Credits are shared across every APIVerve API — one balance, one key, one bill. Failed requests never count against it, so a rejected input costs nothing.
| Plan | Per month | Credits | Chinese Zodiac calls | Per 1,000 calls |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | 200 | 100 | Free |
| Starter | $29.99 | 200,000 | 100,000 | $0.30 |
| Pro | $99.99 | 1,000,000 | 500,000 | $0.20 |
| Mega | $299.99 | 4,000,000 | 2,000,000 | $0.15 |
Calls are what the credits buy at this API's rate — spend them here, on any of the other APIs, or across both. Nothing is reserved per endpoint.
Call it from cURL — GET /v1/chinesezodiac
No SDK to install — this is a plain HTTPS call to /v1/chinesezodiac with your key in the x-api-key header. Swap in a real key and it runs as-is.
curl "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/chinesezodiac" \
-H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"Resources
Also published for
Only the languages APIVerve ships a client for are listed — the rest call the endpoint directly over HTTPS.
Call it from Node.js — GET /v1/chinesezodiac
Install the Node.js SDK, then call the Chinese Zodiac API with your key. The client wraps the same HTTPS request, so anything it returns is what the endpoint returns.
npm install @apiverve/chinesezodiacconst res = await fetch("https://api.apiverve.com/v1/chinesezodiac", {
headers: { "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY" },
});
const { data } = await res.json();
console.log(data);Resources
Also published for
Only the languages APIVerve ships a client for are listed — the rest call the endpoint directly over HTTPS.
Call it from Python — GET /v1/chinesezodiac
Install the Python SDK, then call the Chinese Zodiac API with your key. The client wraps the same HTTPS request, so anything it returns is what the endpoint returns.
pip install apiverve-chinesezodiacimport requests
res = requests.get(
"https://api.apiverve.com/v1/chinesezodiac",
headers={"x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
)
print(res.json()["data"])Resources
Also published for
Only the languages APIVerve ships a client for are listed — the rest call the endpoint directly over HTTPS.
Call it from C# / .NET — GET /v1/chinesezodiac
Install the C# / .NET SDK, then call the Chinese Zodiac API with your key. The client wraps the same HTTPS request, so anything it returns is what the endpoint returns.
dotnet add package APIVerve.API.ChineseZodiacusing var client = new HttpClient();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY");
var json = await client.GetStringAsync("https://api.apiverve.com/v1/chinesezodiac");
Console.WriteLine(json);Resources
Also published for
Only the languages APIVerve ships a client for are listed — the rest call the endpoint directly over HTTPS.
Call it from Go — GET /v1/chinesezodiac
No SDK to install — this is a plain HTTPS call to /v1/chinesezodiac with your key in the x-api-key header. Swap in a real key and it runs as-is.
req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/chinesezodiac", nil)
req.Header.Set("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY")
res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
defer res.Body.Close()
body, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
fmt.Println(string(body))Resources
Also published for
Only the languages APIVerve ships a client for are listed — the rest call the endpoint directly over HTTPS.
Call it from PHP — GET /v1/chinesezodiac
No SDK to install — this is a plain HTTPS call to /v1/chinesezodiac with your key in the x-api-key header. Swap in a real key and it runs as-is.
$ch = curl_init("https://api.apiverve.com/v1/chinesezodiac");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, ["x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"]);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
echo $response;Resources
Also published for
Only the languages APIVerve ships a client for are listed — the rest call the endpoint directly over HTTPS.
Call it from Ruby — GET /v1/chinesezodiac
No SDK to install — this is a plain HTTPS call to /v1/chinesezodiac with your key in the x-api-key header. Swap in a real key and it runs as-is.
require "net/http"
uri = URI("https://api.apiverve.com/v1/chinesezodiac")
req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
req["x-api-key"] = "YOUR_API_KEY"
res = Net::HTTP.start(uri.hostname, uri.port, use_ssl: true) { |h| h.request(req) }
puts res.bodyResources
Also published for
Only the languages APIVerve ships a client for are listed — the rest call the endpoint directly over HTTPS.
Zero-code embed — one snippet, no backend
Drop an interactive Chinese Zodiac form onto any page. The widget calls the API for you, so no key ever appears in your markup and there is nothing to deploy.
Changelog — Chinese Zodiac API
Every change to this endpoint, newest first. Breaking changes ship as a new version and the previous one keeps serving — response fields are added, never removed or retyped in place, so an integration written against v1 keeps working.
Entries are picked up from dated catalog snapshots, so the first one appears after the next snapshot that moves something. A period where nothing changed produces no entry — silence is a valid changelog for the Chinese Zodiac API.
Astrology
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