chinese.pinyin

Convert Chinese (Hanzi) text to pinyin romanization. Choose tone marks (symbol, e.g. hàn yǔ), numbered tones (han4 yu3), or no tones. Auto-segments words and returns the full pinyin string plus a per-syllable array. Deterministic, keyless — useful for transliteration, pronunciation, search indexing, and TTS prep.

price
$0.0010 USDC per call
method
GET/api/chinese/pinyin
payment
x402 v2 · USDC on Base (EIP-3009) or Solana (SPL transfer)
auth
None. Sign the payment, retry with PAYMENT-SIGNATURE.
tier
Tier 0 — no paid upstream

Overview

The pinyin API is a pay-per-call chinese endpoint built for AI agents and autonomous software. Convert Chinese (Hanzi) text to pinyin romanization.

There is no signup and no API key. An agent (or any HTTP client) hits the endpoint, receives an x402 "402 Payment Required" challenge, signs a sub-cent USDC payment on Base or Solana, and retries — the data comes back on the paid request. That makes it a drop-in pinyin data source for an agent tool-use loop, an MCP host, or a backend that needs chinese data on demand without onboarding to yet another vendor portal.

Use cases

Parameters

NameTypeDescription
textrequiredstring
min 1 chars · max 2000 chars
tonestring
one of: symbol | num | none
segmentedbooleanInclude the per-word segment array.

Code samples

cURLbash
# 1. Probe with no auth → 402 envelope with PaymentRequirements
curl -sS 'https://2s.io/api/chinese/pinyin?text=example&tone=symbol&segmented=false'

# 2. Sign + retry with PAYMENT-SIGNATURE:
curl -sS 'https://2s.io/api/chinese/pinyin?text=example&tone=symbol&segmented=false' \
  -H 'PAYMENT-SIGNATURE: <base64-json-payload>'

# Or use the canonical runner (handles probe → sign → retry):
#   EVM_PRIVATE_KEY=0x... node --env-file=.env.local \
#     --experimental-strip-types scripts/x402-pay.ts \
#     'https://2s.io/api/chinese/pinyin?text=example&tone=symbol&segmented=false'
TypeScript / Node — @2sio/sdktypescript
import { TwoS } from '@2sio/sdk'

const client = new TwoS({
  privateKey: process.env.EVM_PRIVATE_KEY as `0x${string}`,
})

const result = await client.chinese.pinyin({
  "text": "example",
  "tone": "symbol",
  "segmented": false
})

console.log('endpoint:', result.endpoint)
console.log('cost:', result.costUsd, 'USDC')
console.log('tx:', result.settlement?.txHash)
console.log('data:', result.data)
Python — 2siopython
import os
from twosio import TwoS

client = TwoS(private_key=os.environ["EVM_PRIVATE_KEY"])

result = client.chinese.pinyin(text="example", tone="symbol", segmented=False)

print("endpoint:", result.endpoint)
print("cost:", result.cost_usd, "USDC")
print("tx:", (result.settlement or {}).get("tx_hash"))
print("data:", result.data)
MCP — Claude Desktop / AgentKit / any MCP hostjson
// 1. Add @2sio/mcp to your MCP host config (Claude Desktop example below).
//    EVM_PRIVATE_KEY funds x402 payments per call.

// claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "2sio": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@2sio/mcp"],
      "env": { "EVM_PRIVATE_KEY": "0x..." }
    }
  }
}

// 2. Once the server is running, agents call this tool via standard MCP:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "chinese.pinyin",
    "arguments": {
      "text": "example",
      "tone": "symbol",
      "segmented": false
    }
  }
}

Response

FieldTypeDescription
okboolean
one of: true
itemsarray
totalintegerTotal matching rows upstream; null when unknown.
sourceobject
Example response datajson
{
  "ok": true,
  "items": [
    {
      "text": "example",
      "toneType": "example",
      "pinyin": "example",
      "segments": [
        "example"
      ],
      "syllables": [
        "example"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "total": 1,
  "source": {
    "provider": "example",
    "url": "example",
    "license": "example"
  }
}

FAQ

Do I need an API key to use the pinyin API?
No. chinese.pinyin is x402-native — there is no signup and no API key. Your client makes the call, receives a 402 with payment requirements, signs a USDC payment, and retries. Funds come from a wallet you control.
How much does the pinyin API cost?
$0.0010 USDC per call, charged per request. There are no monthly fees, seats, or minimums — you pay only for the calls you make.
Can I try the pinyin API for free first?
Yes. Add ?trial=1 (or the header X-2s-Trial: 1) to get a free real call per endpoint per hour, so you can verify the response shape before wiring payment.
Which networks and tokens are supported?
USDC on Base (via EIP-3009 transferWithAuthorization) or Solana (SPL transfer), using the open x402 payment protocol.
How do I call chinese.pinyin from an AI agent or MCP host?
Use @2sio/sdk (TypeScript), 2sio (Python), or the @2sio/mcp server for any MCP host — each handles the probe → sign → retry loop for you. See the code samples on this page.

Discovery

Related: pinyin api · chinese pinyin api · pinyin api for ai agents · x402 chinese api · pinyin api no api key · pay per call pinyin api · chinese api