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Node.js quick start
Last updated: Apr-15-2026
This quick start lets you get an end-to-end implementation up and running using the Node.js SDK in 5 minutes or less.
Prerequisites
1. Set up and configure the SDK
Install the SDK
In a terminal in your Node.js environment, run:
Set your API environment variable
In a terminal, set your CLOUDINARY_URL environment variable.
Copy the API environment variable format from the API Keys page of the Cloudinary Console Settings. Replace <your_api_key> and <your_api_secret> with your actual values. Your cloud name is already correctly included in the format.
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On Mac or Linux:
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On Windows:
- When writing your own applications, follow your organization's policy on storing secrets and don't expose your API secret.
- If you use a method that involves writing your environment variable to a file (e.g.
dotenv), the file should be excluded from your version control system, so as not to expose it publicly.
Configure Cloudinary
Create a new file called index.js and copy and paste the following into this file:
2. Upload an image
Copy and paste this into index.js:
3. Get and use details of the image
Copy and paste this into index.js:
4. Transform the image
Copy and paste this into index.js:
5. Run your code
Copy and paste this into index.js to call the functions you just created:
Save your changes then run the script from the terminal:
You can see the image that has been uploaded to your Cloudinary storage by copying the secure_url that is returned in the upload response and pasting it in a browser.
You can use the returned image tag to display the image on your website. For now, copy and paste the URL to see the transformed image in the browser:
View the completed code
You can find the full code example for this quick start on GitHub.
Next steps
- Learn more about the Node.js SDK by visiting the other pages in this SDK guide.
- Get comprehensive details about Cloudinary features and capabilities:
- Upload guide: Provides details and examples of the upload options.
- Image transformations guide: Provides details and examples of the transformations you can apply to image assets.
- Video transformations guide: Provides details and examples of the transformations you can apply to video assets.
- Transformation URL API Reference: Provides details and examples of all available transformation parameters.
- Admin API guide: Provides details and examples of the methods available for managing and organizing your media assets.
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