# Is there a way to check if a stream is live without using tokens? **URL:** \ **Category:** API\ **Created:** [December 25, 2021, 1:39am UTC](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-check-if-a-stream-is-live-without-using-tokens/35639 "2021-12-25T01:39:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![add1ctedt0games](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@add1ctedt0games](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/u/add1ctedt0games)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 1:39am UTC](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-check-if-a-stream-is-live-without-using-tokens/35639/1 "2021-12-25T01:39:05Z")
I’m a novice coder, trying to make an extension that would let you organize channels you follow into folders, check if each channel is live, and link to each channel, and I think I successfully managed to get the streamer profile picture without using any tokens and want to avoid using them if I can just to avoid over complicating things since I don’t really get why it would need any authorization to see if a channel’s live. ---
**Author:** ![BarryCarlyon](https://d3ovvz0v2ajtpu.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/discuss.dev.twitch.com/barrycarlyon/32/253_2.png) [@BarryCarlyon](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/u/BarryCarlyon)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 1:55am UTC](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-check-if-a-stream-is-live-without-using-tokens/35639/2 "2021-12-25T01:55:26Z")
All of Helix/the API requires the user of a token. (not just a ClientID) No token, no data. For an extension, I assume you mean a browser extension, you can use implicit auth to obtain a token to use, the user will just need to (re)login to Twitch and provide a new token ever 60 days or so ---
**Author:** ![Dist](https://d3ovvz0v2ajtpu.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/discuss.dev.twitch.com/dist/32/7192_2.png) [@Dist](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/u/Dist)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 10:10am UTC](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-check-if-a-stream-is-live-without-using-tokens/35639/3 "2021-12-25T10:10:28Z")
> [@add1ctedt0games](#): > > I don’t really get why it would need any authorization to see if a channel’s live. So Twitch know which apps are making API requests, can rate-limit requests, and potentially block bad actors. Something that is not possible with just a Client ID. ---
**Author:** ![Angorrot](https://d3ovvz0v2ajtpu.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/discuss.dev.twitch.com/angorrot/32/16148_2.png) [@Angorrot](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/u/Angorrot)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2022, 2:09pm UTC](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-check-if-a-stream-is-live-without-using-tokens/35639/4 "2022-01-04T14:09:32Z")
It is possible to code this in php without tokens, but it wont grab streamer profile pictures. Extension wise, would def need token. ---
**Author:** ![BarryCarlyon](https://d3ovvz0v2ajtpu.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/discuss.dev.twitch.com/barrycarlyon/32/253_2.png) [@BarryCarlyon](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/u/BarryCarlyon)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2022, 5:36pm UTC](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-check-if-a-stream-is-live-without-using-tokens/35639/5 "2022-01-04T17:36:53Z")
> [@Angorrot](#): > > It is possible to code this in php without tokens, To call the API requires a Token. if using PHP you can use an App Access Token as streamer online status (and their profile picture) is public data. A PHP example of generating a token: > > > //github.com/BarryCarlyon/twitch\_misc/tree/main/authentication/app\_access\_tokens/php ---
**Author:** ![BarryCarlyon](https://d3ovvz0v2ajtpu.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/discuss.dev.twitch.com/barrycarlyon/32/253_2.png) [@BarryCarlyon](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/u/BarryCarlyon)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2022, 5:59pm UTC](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-check-if-a-stream-is-live-without-using-tokens/35639/7 "2022-01-04T17:59:50Z")
> [@Angorrot](#): > > If you wanted to do it without api, This is screen scraping and generally considered to be bad from and make be against the Developer TOS. [https://www.twitch.tv/p/en/legal/developer-agreement/](https://www.twitch.tv/p/en/legal/developer-agreement/) Additionally if you are in PHP just generate an app access token. This also won’t work since the Twitch website uses JS to post render the page after it’s loaded. (last I checked). The intended way to get this data is via the API, not screenscraping. As such I have removed your post ---
**Author:** ![Angorrot](https://d3ovvz0v2ajtpu.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/discuss.dev.twitch.com/angorrot/32/16148_2.png) [@Angorrot](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/u/Angorrot)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2022, 6:01pm UTC](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-check-if-a-stream-is-live-without-using-tokens/35639/8 "2022-01-04T18:01:24Z")
Ah, it does work but I did not know it was against terms. I’ll keep that in mind before responding to future post. ---
**Author:** ![BarryCarlyon](https://d3ovvz0v2ajtpu.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/discuss.dev.twitch.com/barrycarlyon/32/253_2.png) [@BarryCarlyon](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/u/BarryCarlyon)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2022, 6:06pm UTC](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-check-if-a-stream-is-live-without-using-tokens/35639/9 "2022-01-04T18:06:11Z")
if it aint on > **[Home](https://dev.twitch.tv/docs/)** > > Live Streaming, Meet Developers. Then it’s not supported and most likely not allowed. The intended way to get data from Twitch is to call one of the third party products, such as the API, or EventSub. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://d2opxh93rbxzdn.cloudfront.net/original/2X/0/05909729875cce3b53e59d5561c4d23bb14948fc.png) [@system](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 6:06pm UTC](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-check-if-a-stream-is-live-without-using-tokens/35639/10 "2022-02-03T18:06:48Z")
Closed on February 3, 2022, 6:06pm UTC This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.