Rotate an image
Fix a sideways phone photo or an upside-down scan with a 90, 180 or 270 degree turn written into the pixels themselves, so it looks correct everywhere, not only on the phone. Nothing is resampled, so quality stays intact. You pay per use, with no subscription.
This task is not available right now, so it cannot be purchased. Nothing is charged for it.
How it works & APIand auto-fix the orientation
Why images end up rotated wrong
Most phone cameras don't actually rotate the pixels when you turn the phone sideways to shoot; instead, they write an orientation flag into the image's EXIF metadata and expect the viewer to read it and rotate on display.
That works fine in apps that respect EXIF, and fails badly in the many pipelines, thumbnail generators and older systems that ignore it, which is how a sideways photo ends up looking sideways everywhere except the phone that took it — and why baking the rotation into the pixels themselves fixes it for good.
Right-angle rotation, done losslessly
The common fixes are all quarter turns: 90 or 270 degrees puts a sideways photo upright, and 180 flips an upside-down scan back over. Because these are right-angle rotations, the pixel data is simply reordered — nothing is resampled or estimated, so there's no quality loss and the only change is that width and height swap on a 90 or 270 turn.
How it plugs into automation
Because it's a single asynchronous call, it belongs right after the upload step in any pipeline that ingests photos from unpredictable sources: user-submitted images, scanned paperwork, or camera feeds. Failed rotations retry automatically up to three times before returning a clear error, and a task that never completes is never billed, so a malformed file doesn't cost anything.
What you can do with it
Sideways upload normalization
A photo-sharing app rotates sideways user uploads by 90 degrees to upright so thumbnails never render on their side.
Upside-down scan correction
A document management system rotates a batch of pages that came out of the scanner upside down back the right way with a 180-degree turn before running OCR.
Product photo normalization
An online marketplace rotates seller-submitted product photos to a consistent upright orientation before publishing listings.
Batch fix for legacy archives
An organization digitizing an old photo archive rotates a batch of scans that were fed into the scanner turned 90 or 180 degrees from upright.
FAQ
Can I rotate by a custom angle, not just 90 degrees?
No — rotation is by right angles only: 0, 90, 180 or 270 degrees. That covers sideways and upside-down photos and scans; straightening a scan that's tilted by a few degrees isn't supported here.
Is rotating images free?
No subscription, no tokens, and a failed task is never charged.
Does rotating an image lose quality?
No. Rotation by 90-degree steps only reorders the existing pixels, so it's lossless — the only change is that width and height swap on a 90 or 270 turn.
Why does my photo look sideways on some sites but not on my phone?
Most phones do not turn the pixels; they store an orientation note and expect the viewer to rotate on display. Many sites and thumbnail tools ignore that note, and rotating the pixels themselves fixes the photo for good.
Which turn do I need for a sideways or upside-down image?
A 90 or 270 degree turn puts a sideways photo upright, and 180 degrees flips an upside-down scan back over. On a 90 or 270 degree turn the width and height swap.
Related tools
For developers — API access
Everything on this page is available programmatically. This section is for teams who want to wire it into their own systems; everyone else can just use the tool above.
API endpoint
One authenticated POST creates the task; the result comes back by webhook or a signed link. This capability is currently available through the API, not as an interactive Web tool.
Call it from your stack
curl -X POST https://api.kit.forhosting.com/image/rotate \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $KIT_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"image":"https://ejemplo.com/imagen.jpg"}'const res = await fetch("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/image/rotate", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
"Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.KIT_KEY}`,
"Content-Type": "application/json"
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"image": "https://ejemplo.com/imagen.jpg"
})
});
const { task_id } = await res.json();import os, requests
res = requests.post(
"https://api.kit.forhosting.com/image/rotate",
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['KIT_KEY']}"},
json={
"image": "https://ejemplo.com/imagen.jpg"
},
)
task_id = res.json()["task_id"]<?php
$res = file_get_contents("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/image/rotate", false, stream_context_create([
"http" => [
"method" => "POST",
"header" => "Authorization: Bearer " . getenv("KIT_KEY") . "\r\nContent-Type: application/json",
"content" => '{"image":"https://ejemplo.com/imagen.jpg"}',
],
]));
$task = json_decode($res, true);body := bytes.NewBufferString(`{"image":"https://ejemplo.com/imagen.jpg"}`)
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.kit.forhosting.com/image/rotate", body)
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("KIT_KEY"))
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)Example request
{
"image": "https://ejemplo.com/imagen.jpg"
}Example response
{
"task_id": "tsk_a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6",
"type": "image.rotate",
"status": "queued",
"_links": {
"result": "/tasks/tsk_…/result"
}
}The API is asynchronous: the call returns a task_id immediately and the result arrives by webhook. Polling is capped at 1 req/s per task.
Pricing
Published price — no tokens, no invented credits. A failed task is never charged.
Limits
max_mb | 15 |
max_megapixels | 12 |
Errors
| HTTP | Code | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
401 | unauthorized | Missing or invalid API key. |
402 | insufficient_balance | Your balance doesn't cover the task price. |
404 | unknown_type | That task type doesn't exist. |
429 | rate_limited | Too many requests. Use the webhook instead of polling. |
Technical notes
A photo taken sideways, a scan that came out upside down, a batch of uploads where half the phones recorded orientation differently than the other half — this endpoint fixes it by rotating the image a quarter, half or three-quarter turn (90, 180 or 270 degrees) so the pixels sit the right way up everywhere.
What the endpoint does
You send the image to /image/rotate with the quarter-turn you need — 90, 180 or 270 degrees — and it returns a version with the pixels actually rotated, so the orientation is baked in and correct regardless of what the next system does or doesn't read from metadata. The request returns a task_id right away, the rotation happens asynchronously, and the result reaches you via signed webhook or a signed link valid for 24 hours.
Right-angle rotation, done losslessly
Free-angle rotation to straighten a slightly tilted scan by a few degrees isn't part of this endpoint.
Who needs this
Document management systems correcting scanned pages, photo-sharing apps normalizing user uploads, and e-commerce platforms making sure product photos display upright regardless of how the seller's phone recorded them all lean on exactly this kind of correction.
Technical questions
Can the rotate image API fix a sideways or upside-down photo?
Yes. You send the quarter-turn to apply — 90 or 270 degrees for a sideways photo, 180 for an upside-down one — and it rotates the actual pixels so the file displays correctly everywhere, not just in EXIF-aware viewers.
What's the cost per image?
$0.002 per request plus $0.005 per image, and you're never charged for a task that fails.
Is rotation synchronous?
No, it's asynchronous. You receive a task_id immediately, and the rotated image arrives via signed webhook or a signed link valid for 24 hours.
What formats can I rotate?
The endpoint works with standard raster formats like JPG, PNG and WebP, and you can choose the output format.
Can I rotate many images in one workflow?
You send one image per request, but you can fire off many requests in parallel or script it into a batch job for large volumes.