Classify migration guide

Migrate from Akismet to Botpoison Classify

Three edits: swap the API key, point the same form-encoded request at Classify, and read a JSON label instead of a "true" or "false" body. Your handler keeps its routes, its fields and its inbox.

Last verified 16 October 2026

Migrate this project's spam filtering from Akismet to Botpoison Classify.
Follow the guide at https://botpoison.com/migrate/from-akismet.md
Make the three edits it describes, and keep the form's fields and routes.

Why sites move off Akismet

Akismet's free Personal plan is for personal sites. A business or commercial site needs a paid plan.

comment-check answers in plain text: true for spam, false for not, and anything else is an error that still arrives with status 200. There is no score, so there is nothing to hold a borderline message on.

Akismet grew up on blog comments, and its parameters still say so: blog, comment_author, comment_content. Classify takes the form as it arrived, whatever its fields are called.

What maps to what

Key: Akismetapi_key in the body; ClassifyA secret key, as a bearer token, an X-Api-Key header or secretKey

Endpoint: AkismetPOST to /1.1/comment-check on rest.akismet.com, form-encoded; ClassifyPOST to /classify on api.botpoison.com, form-encoded, as now; JSON also works

What you send: Akismetuser_ip, comment_author, comment_author_email, comment_content and more; ClassifyThe same form fields, without user_ip, blog or comment_type

Answer: Akismettrue or false as text, and a pro-tip header for blatant spam; Classifylabel, spam or clean, a score from 0 to 1, and the model

Errors: AkismetStatus 200, with some other text in the body; ClassifyA 4xx or 5xx status, with a JSON message

	Akismet	Classify
Key	`api_key` in the body	A secret key, as a bearer token, an `X-Api-Key` header or `secretKey`
Endpoint	POST to `/1.1/comment-check` on rest.akismet.com, form-encoded	POST to `/classify` on api.botpoison.com, form-encoded, as now; JSON also works
What you send	`user_ip`, `comment_author`, `comment_author_email`, `comment_content` and more	The same form fields, without `user_ip`, `blog` or `comment_type`
Answer	`true` or `false` as text, and a pro-tip header for blatant spam	`label`, spam or clean, a `score` from 0 to 1, and the `model`
Errors	Status 200, with some other text in the body	A 4xx or 5xx status, with a JSON message

The three edits. Off Akismet, onto Classify

Swap the key

Replace the Akismet API key with a Classify secret key, kept in your server's environment like the old one.

Shell

-AKISMET_KEY=xxxxxxxx
+BOTPOISON_CLASSIFY_SECRET_KEY=sk_xxxxxxxx

Point the request at Classify

Keep the form-encoded request and its comment fields. Swap the URL and the key, name the model in _model, and drop blog, user_ip and comment_type.

JavaScript

-const akismet = await fetch("https://rest.akismet.com/1.1/comment-check", {
+const classify = await fetch("https://api.botpoison.com/classify", {
   method: "POST",
   body: new URLSearchParams({
-    api_key: process.env.AKISMET_KEY,
-    blog: "https://example.com",
-    user_ip: req.ip,
-    comment_type: "contact-form",
+    secretKey: process.env.BOTPOISON_CLASSIFY_SECRET_KEY,
+    _model: "spam-standard",
     comment_author: req.body.name,
     comment_author_email: req.body.email,
     comment_content: req.body.message,
   }),
 });

PHP

-$akismet = file_get_contents("https://rest.akismet.com/1.1/comment-check", false, stream_context_create(["http" => [
+$classify = file_get_contents("https://api.botpoison.com/classify", false, stream_context_create(["http" => [
   "method" => "POST",
   "header" => "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
   "content" => http_build_query([
-    "api_key" => getenv("AKISMET_KEY"),
-    "blog" => "https://example.com",
-    "user_ip" => $_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"],
-    "comment_type" => "contact-form",
+    "secretKey" => getenv("BOTPOISON_CLASSIFY_SECRET_KEY"),
+    "_model" => "spam-standard",
     "comment_author" => $_POST["name"],
     "comment_author_email" => $_POST["email"],
     "comment_content" => $_POST["message"],
   ]),
 ]]));

Python

-akismet = requests.post("https://rest.akismet.com/1.1/comment-check", data={
-    "api_key": os.environ["AKISMET_KEY"],
-    "blog": "https://example.com",
-    "user_ip": request.remote_addr,
-    "comment_type": "contact-form",
+classify = requests.post("https://api.botpoison.com/classify", data={
+    "secretKey": os.environ["BOTPOISON_CLASSIFY_SECRET_KEY"],
+    "_model": "spam-standard",
     "comment_author": request.form["name"],
     "comment_author_email": request.form["email"],
     "comment_content": request.form["message"],
 })

-ip, _, _ := net.SplitHostPort(r.RemoteAddr)
-req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://rest.akismet.com/1.1/comment-check", strings.NewReader(url.Values{
-  "api_key":              {os.Getenv("AKISMET_KEY")},
-  "blog":                 {"https://example.com"},
-  "user_ip":              {ip},
-  "comment_type":         {"contact-form"},
+req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.botpoison.com/classify", strings.NewReader(url.Values{
+  "secretKey":            {os.Getenv("BOTPOISON_CLASSIFY_SECRET_KEY")},
+  "_model":               {"spam-standard"},
   "comment_author":       {r.FormValue("name")},
   "comment_author_email": {r.FormValue("email")},
   "comment_content":      {r.FormValue("message")},
 }.Encode()))
 req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
 res, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
 if err != nil {
   http.Error(w, "", http.StatusBadGateway)
   return
 }

Shell

-curl "https://rest.akismet.com/1.1/comment-check" \
-  --data-urlencode "api_key=$AKISMET_KEY" \
-  --data-urlencode "blog=https://example.com" \
-  --data-urlencode "user_ip=203.0.113.7" \
-  --data-urlencode "comment_type=contact-form" \
+curl "https://api.botpoison.com/classify" \
+  --data-urlencode "secretKey=$BOTPOISON_CLASSIFY_SECRET_KEY" \
+  --data-urlencode "_model=spam-standard" \
   --data-urlencode "comment_author=Jo" \
   --data-urlencode "comment_author_email=jo@example.com" \
   --data-urlencode "comment_content=Hello, could you send me a quote?"

Read the label instead of the text body

Akismet answers "true" for spam in the response body. Classify answers JSON, with spam or clean as the label.

JavaScript

-const isSpam = (await akismet.text()) === "true";
+const isSpam = (await classify.json()).label === "spam";
 if (isSpam) return fileAway(req.body);

-reply, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
-isSpam := string(reply) == "true"
+var out struct{ Label string `json:"label"` }
+json.NewDecoder(res.Body).Decode(&out)
+isSpam := out.Label == "spam"
 if isSpam {
   fileAway(r.PostForm)
   return
 }

What behaves differently

A score instead of a hint. Akismet's X-akismet-pro-tip: discard marks the blatant cases. Classify's score does that job with a number you can start a review queue from.

An outage answers 503. It is not counted. Deliver the message as clean, so an outage never loses a real one.

Questions

Is there a WordPress plugin?: No. Classify is an API, so it fits wherever your own code handles the submission: a form handler, a comment route, a signup.
Is there a test value, like akismet-guaranteed-spam?: Yes. With the secret key test, a message containing botpoison-test-spam answers spam and anything else answers clean. Test calls never count. See test mode.
Moving from OOPSpam instead?: See the guide from OOPSpam.

Sources

comment-check Akismet developer documentation
Akismet pricing Akismet

Akismet is a trademark of Automattic. Botpoison is not affiliated with Automattic.

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Remove the h-captcha div and the form-encoded siteverify request. Nobody labels images again.

To Classify

Spam classifier

From OOPSpam
A score from 0 to 6 against your threshold becomes a label, with the score kept for a review queue.

Switch to Classify for free

Stop spam now

No credit card required

Three edits

Your fields stay as they are

Free to start