SubDL Pro: The Developer Plan for Subtitle Apps and Automation

SubDL Pro is the paid API layer for developers who want to build reliable subtitle workflows on top of SubDL. It is made for TV plugins, bots, media server tools, private apps, subtitle dashboards, and services that need higher limits than a free API key can provide.

A subtitle API has to do more than return a download link. Real integrations need title search, release matching, language filtering, unpacked season files, download limits that make sense, key rotation, account status, and a way to handle missing languages. SubDL Pro is designed to make those workflows easier to operate.

Core quota and pricing

The current API product has two active billing options: $5 monthly and $50 yearly. Both currently include 30,000 API requests per day and 2,000 key-authenticated subtitle downloads per day. Crypto checkout can apply a discounted checkout price when available, while PayPal uses the effective price shown in checkout.

These limits are account-wide. That matters because many real projects use more than one key: a production plugin, a staging key, a server-side worker, a test dashboard, and maybe a private bot. SubDL Pro lets the account own the quota while individual keys remain manageable.

Managed API keys

SubDL Pro supports multiple API keys, with controls to create, disable, enable, soft delete, and rotate them. That sounds like an administrative detail, but it is one of the most important parts of a durable integration.

A single permanent key is risky. If it leaks, every client must be updated at once. If a plugin is retired, old traffic can keep hitting your quota. If a test environment behaves badly, it can affect production. Separate managed keys let you isolate those cases. You can name a key for a specific app, watch its counters, disable it when needed, and keep the rest of your setup alive.

Account status endpoint

The API account endpoint lets a client check the API-key user, key status, usage counters, account-wide request and download limits, active paid plan, period end, and translation quota information when present.

A good plugin should use this endpoint before it assumes a user can perform a paid operation. It can show how many requests remain today, whether API downloads are available, and whether the account has a paid plan. This makes error handling clearer and gives users a better upgrade path when a feature requires SubDL Pro.

Search and autocomplete

SubDL Pro includes paid autocomplete and search endpoints for title discovery. Autocomplete is useful for search boxes, bot commands, media manager lookup flows, and plugins that need to turn a typed query into a real movie or TV entry. Search is useful when a client needs broader matching with type hints such as movie or tv.

Paid search endpoints require an active paid API subscription, count toward the account-wide request quota, and allow a strong per-key burst limit. This is useful for real interfaces, where a single user typing into a search box may trigger several quick requests.

Subtitle search and language intelligence

The public subtitle search endpoint remains the foundation. Clients can search by film name, file name, SubDL ID, IMDb ID, TMDB ID, type, year, season, episode, and language. They can ask for comments, releases, hearing-impaired flags, full-season subtitles, and unpacked files from subtitle packs.

For modern clients, the language metadata is especially useful. Search responses can include available_languages, showing what subtitle languages already exist for a title, and missing_translation_languages, showing supported target languages that are not currently available. This turns a dead end into a product moment: the app can say, for example, that English exists but Persian is missing, and then guide a paid user toward translation.

Key-authenticated downloads

Without a paid key, downloads stay under the anonymous daily IP limiter. With a valid paid API key, subtitle downloads can consume the paid account-wide API download quota instead. This is important for apps and plugins because many users sit behind shared networks, home servers, or hosting environments where IP-only limits are too blunt.

SubDL Pro currently includes 2,000 key-authenticated subtitle downloads per day. A client can pass the key as api_key on the download URL or send it with the x-api-key header. The result is a cleaner, more predictable download path for legitimate automated usage.

Translation jobs through the API

SubDL's translation system is intentionally asynchronous. Paid users with active translation quota can request a missing subtitle language through the Pro translation API. The start request returns a request ID, and the client polls the job endpoint until the subtitle is ready to download.

This flow is better than holding a single HTTP request open. Translation can involve model routing, quota reservation, file parsing, row-by-row progress, publishing, reuse, and download generation. A good API client should treat translation as a job: start it, show progress, handle failure, and download the file only after download_ready becomes true.

The same reuse idea applies through the API. If the same user requests the same source file, target language, and tone, SubDL can reuse a completed translation instead of starting new AI work and consuming quota again.

Recommended integration pattern

A clean SubDL Pro integration usually follows this pattern:

1. Use the account endpoint to confirm key status, limits, and plan state.
2. Use autocomplete or search to find the movie or TV title.
3. Use subtitle search to fetch matching subtitles, release names, languages, and unpacked files.
4. Use paid key-authenticated downloads for automated download flows.
5. If a needed language is missing and the account has translation quota, start a translation job.
6. Poll job status until the file is ready, then download it.

This pattern works for TV plugins, subtitle bots, private media tools, and small apps because it is explicit. The client knows what the account can do, what the title has, what language is missing, and what step is happening now.

Who should choose SubDL Pro

Choose SubDL Pro if your project depends on SubDL regularly. It is especially useful for developers who need higher daily request capacity, predictable download quota, multiple keys, production search and autocomplete, or automation that should not be squeezed through anonymous limits.

If you are a normal viewer who only wants to translate and download subtitles on the website, SubDL Plus is likely the simpler plan. If you are building an app, plugin, bot, or integration, SubDL Pro is the plan designed for your workflow. If you need both human-facing translation and automated API capacity, SubDL Pro is the strongest choice — it already includes everything in SubDL Plus.

Final thought

SubDL Pro is not only about bigger numbers. The real value is operational clarity: named keys, visible counters, higher daily limits, paid search, key-authenticated downloads, and job-based translation when the account is eligible. That is what turns a subtitle API from a quick script into infrastructure you can confidently build on.