Free APIs you can call from the browser
180 services, checked weekly
These free APIs allow calls from JavaScript in a web page on any site (CORS), so a static site, a CodePen or a browser extension can use them without a server of its own. Each was tested with a real request. Keep any API key out of public pages: a key in browser code can be read by anyone.
| Service | Category | API key | Formats | Free use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cohere API | AI models and chat | Needed, free | JSON | Free trial key without a time limit, limited to 1,000 calls per month and a per-minute rate limit; production use needs a paid key. |
| GitHub Models | AI models and chat | Needed, free | JSON | Free for every GitHub account, with daily and per-minute request limits per model that depend on your Copilot plan; paid usage is available for more. |
| Google Gemini API | AI models and chat | Needed, free | JSON | Free tier for most text, speech and embedding models with a free API key and rate limits; content sent on the free tier may be used by Google to improve its products, so use the paid tier for private data. |
| Groq API | AI models and chat | Needed, free | JSON | Free plan with a free API key and rate limits per model; paid plans for higher limits. |
| OpenRouter | AI models and chat | Needed, free | JSON | Free models are limited to 20 requests per minute and 50 per day, or 1,000 per day once you have bought at least 10 credits; other models are paid per token. |
| Z.ai API (GLM Flash models) | AI models and chat | Needed, free | JSON | Free with a free API key for the Flash models: GLM-4.7-Flash, GLM-4.5-Flash and GLM-4.6V-Flash. |
| Jina Reader | AI search and web reading | Not needed | – | Free without an API key at a lower rate limit per IP address; a new free API key comes with 10 million free tokens and higher limits. |
| Voyage AI API | Embeddings and reranking | Needed, free | JSON | Free with a free API key for the first 200 million tokens per account on most current models; paid per token after that. |
| ElevenLabs API | Speech, image and audio | Not needed | JSON | Free plan with 10,000 credits per month (about 10 minutes of speech), for non-commercial use only and with attribution to ElevenLabs; paid plans for commercial use. |
| Pollinations.ai | Speech, image and audio | Not needed | – | Free, works without a key or sign-up; registering gives higher limits. |
| bible-api.com | Books and research | Not needed | JSON | Free and open source, no key needed. |
| Crossref REST API | Books and research | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed; add your e-mail address to requests to use the faster 'polite' pool. |
| Google Books API | Books and research | Not needed | JSON | Free; a free API key is strongly recommended, as the shared quota without a key is often used up. |
| Gutendex | Books and research | Not needed | JSON | Free and open source, no key needed; it is a community service without uptime guarantee, so you can host it yourself for heavy use. |
| Internet Archive Advanced Search | Books and research | Not needed | JSON, XML | Free, no key needed. |
| ISBNdb | Books and research | Needed, paid plans only | JSON | Paid plans with a free trial. |
| Open Library API | Books and research | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed; identify your app with a User-Agent and keep traffic reasonable, and use the bulk data dumps for large jobs. |
| OpenAlex | Books and research | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed for basic use; a free key gives higher limits and is needed for deep paging. |
| PoetryDB | Books and research | Not needed | JSON | Free and open source, no key needed. |
| Semantic Scholar API | Books and research | Not needed | JSON | Free; without a key all users share one rate limit, so request a free API key for regular use. |
| Wikidata Query Service | Books and research | Not needed | JSON, XML | Free, no key needed; data is CC0. |
| Wikipedia REST API | Books and research | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed; send a User-Agent that identifies your app. |
| Brevo (Sendinblue) email API | Communication | Needed, free | JSON | The free plan allows 300 e-mails per day; paid plans remove that limit. |
| Discord webhooks | Communication | Needed, free | JSON | Free; for two-way interaction use the full Discord bot API. |
| InterFax | Communication | Needed, free | XML | Paid per page, with a free developer account for testing. |
| ntfy | Communication | Not needed | – | Free on ntfy.sh, and open source so you can host it yourself. |
| Telegram Bot API | Communication | Needed, free | JSON | Free. |
| Bluesky API | Social media | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed for public data. |
| Lemmy API | Social media | Not needed | JSON, RSS | Free, no key needed for reading. |
| Mastodon API | Social media | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed for public data; posting needs an OAuth token from the server. |
| Tumblr API | Social media | Needed, free | JSON | Free. |
| Alpha Vantage | Currency and finance | Needed, free | JSON, CSV | Free with a free API key and a small daily request limit; premium plans for more requests. |
| CoinGecko API | Currency and finance | Not needed | JSON | The free Demo plan needs a free API key and has a monthly call limit; paid plans offer more calls and data. |
| ECB Data Portal API | Currency and finance | Not needed | JSON, XML, CSV | Free, no key needed; cite the ECB as the source. |
| ExchangeRate-API (open access) | Currency and finance | Not needed | JSON | Free, with attribution required; the keyed plans give more frequent updates, conversion endpoints and historical data. |
| Finnhub | Currency and finance | Needed, free | JSON | Free plan with a free API key and a per-minute limit; paid plans for more data and markets. |
| Frankfurter | Currency and finance | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed and no usage limits. |
| Free Currency Exchange Rates API (fawazahmed0) | Currency and finance | Not needed | JSON | Free. |
| Kraken Spot REST API (public market data) | Currency and finance | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed for the public market data endpoints, within Kraken's rate limits. |
| Open Exchange Rates | Currency and finance | Needed, free | JSON | Free with a free API key, for 1,000 requests a month with hourly updated rates. |
| PayPal REST API | Currency and finance | Needed, free | JSON | Free to use; PayPal charges a fee per transaction. |
| TimeAPI.io | Currency and finance | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| World Bank Indicators API | Currency and finance | Not needed | JSON, XML | Free, open data, no key needed. |
| Coin Boss API | Finance | Not needed | JSON | The documented endpoints are currently free to use. |
| Abstract IP Geolocation API | IP to location APIs | Needed, free | JSON | Free plan with a monthly request limit; paid plans for more requests and features. |
| country.is | IP to location APIs | Not needed | JSON | Free and open source, no key needed. |
| HostIP.info API | IP to location APIs | Not needed | – | – |
| ip-api | IP to location APIs | Not needed | JSON | Free for non-commercial use without a key, at up to 45 requests per minute over HTTP; commercial use and HTTPS need the paid Pro plan. |
| ipapi.co | IP to location APIs | Not needed | JSON, XML, CSV | Free without a key up to about 1,000 requests per day; paid plans for more. |
| ipify | IP to location APIs | Not needed | JSON | Free and open source, no key and no usage limit. |
| ipinfo.io | IP to location APIs | Needed, free | JSON | A free account with a token raises the limits; paid plans add details such as privacy detection (VPN, proxy, Tor) and company data. |
| IPInfoDB IP Location API | IP to location APIs | Needed, free | JSON, XML | Free with a free API key. |
| ipquery.io | IP to location APIs | Not needed | JSON, XML | Free, no key needed, within a rate limit. |
| ipwho.is | IP to location APIs | Not needed | JSON | Free without a key for non-commercial use; the paid ipwhois.io plans are for commercial use and higher volumes. |
| BigDataCloud Free Reverse Geocode to City API | Location Information | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed, under a fair use policy: client-side calls with the device's own location only. |
| Geoapify | Location Information | Needed, free | JSON | Free with a free API key, for 3,000 credits a day, also for commercial use; attribution to Geoapify and the data sources is required. |
| GeoNames | Location Information | Needed, free | JSON, XML | Free with a free GeoNames account (username) and a daily credit limit; paid premium service for heavy use. |
| Google Places API | Location Information | Needed, free | JSON | Free only with billing turned on (a payment method is required), up to a monthly cap per type of request: 10,000 for Essentials calls such as autocomplete and basic place details, 5,000 for Pro and 1,000 for Enterprise; above the cap, paid per request. |
| Nager.Date public holidays | Location Information | Not needed | JSON | Free and open source, no key needed. |
| Nominatim (OpenStreetMap) | Location Information | Not needed | JSON | The public server is free to use but has a strict usage policy: at most one request per second, a User-Agent or Referer that identifies your app, no bulk geocoding, and attribution to OpenStreetMap. |
| OSRM demo server | Location Information | Not needed | JSON | Free for reasonable non-commercial use, no key needed, at most one request per second. |
| Overpass API | Location Information | Not needed | JSON, XML | Free on the public servers with fair use; heavy users should run their own instance. |
| Photon | Location Information | Not needed | JSON | The public server at photon.komoot.io is free for fair use; for heavy use you can host Photon yourself, as it is open source. |
| Postcodes.io | Location Information | Not needed | JSON | – |
| REST Countries | Location Information | Needed, free | JSON | The current version (v5) needs an API key and has a free tier for small apps; the old keyless v3 API was retired. |
| Sunrise-Sunset | Location Information | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed; the provider asks for a link back. |
| Zippopotam.us | Location Information | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| Bright Sky | Weather forecasts | Not needed | JSON | Free for all purposes, no key needed; the DWD terms of use apply to the data. |
| MET Norway Weather API | Weather forecasts | Not needed | JSON | Free, also for commercial use, under an open licence that asks for attribution; send a User-Agent that identifies your app and cache the results. |
| National Weather Service API | Weather forecasts | Not needed | JSON | Free and no key needed; send a User-Agent that identifies your app. |
| NOAA Tides and Currents API | Weather forecasts | Not needed | JSON, XML, CSV | Free, public domain, no key needed. |
| Open-Meteo | Weather forecasts | Not needed | JSON | Free for non-commercial use; commercial use needs a paid plan. |
| OpenWeatherMap | Weather forecasts | Needed, free | JSON, XML | Free plan with a limit per minute and per month; paid plans for more calls and features. |
| RainViewer Weather Maps API | Weather forecasts | Not needed | JSON | Free for personal and educational use, no key needed; credit RainViewer with a link. |
| USNO Astronomical Applications API | Weather forecasts | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| World Weather Online Local Weather API | Weather forecasts | Needed, free | JSON, XML, CSV | Free with a free API key and no card, up to 100 requests a day, for personal, educational and research use; paid plans for commercial use. |
| World Weather Online Marine Weather API | Weather forecasts | Needed, free | JSON, XML | Free with a free API key, up to 500 calls a day; paid plans for more. |
| wttr.in | Weather forecasts | Not needed | – | Free and open source, no key needed. |
| Colormind API | Graphics | Not needed | JSON | Free for personal and non-commercial use, no key needed; commercial use by arrangement. |
| icon.horse | Graphics | Not needed | – | Free on the Hobby plan, 1,000 icons a month with no account; paid plans raise the limit and add custom fallbacks. |
| Iconify API | Graphics | Not needed | – | Free, no key needed; the server is open source and can be self-hosted. |
| placehold.co | Graphics | Not needed | – | Free, no key needed. |
| RoboHash | Graphics | Not needed | – | Free, no key needed; images are CC-BY, so credit RoboHash. |
| The Color API | Graphics | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| UI Avatars | Graphics | Not needed | – | Free, no key needed and no sign-up. |
| Image-Charts | Chart APIs | Not needed | – | The free plan is free forever with unlimited charts, but adds a small 'image-charts.com' watermark; paid plans remove it. |
| Kroki | Chart APIs | Not needed | – | Free public server; open source, so you can also run it yourself. |
| mermaid.ink | Chart APIs | Not needed | – | Free and open source, no key needed. |
| QuickChart | Chart APIs | Not needed | – | Free plan with a monthly limit; paid plans for more charts. |
| Art Institute of Chicago API | Image and photo | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| DiceBear avatars | Image and photo | Not needed | XML | Free and open source, no key needed. |
| Flickr API | Image and photo | Needed, free | JSON, XML | Free for non-commercial use with a free API key; commercial use needs permission. |
| goQR.me QR code API | Image and photo | Not needed | – | Free, no key needed. |
| GrabzIt | Image and photo | Needed, free | – | Free to try. |
| Gravatar API | Image and photo | Not needed | JSON, XML | Free; avatars need no key, the profile API uses a free API key. |
| Imgur API | Image and photo | Needed, free | JSON | Free for non-commercial use with a free client ID; commercial use needs an agreement with Imgur. |
| Lorem Picsum | Image and photo | Not needed | – | Free, no key needed. |
| Microlink | Image and photo | Not needed | JSON | The free plan allows 50 requests per day without a key; paid plans offer more. |
| Pexels API | Image and photo | Needed, free | JSON | Free with an API key, limited to 200 requests per hour and 20,000 per month, and apps must show a link to Pexels and credit photographers where possible. |
| Pixabay API | Image and photo | Needed, free | JSON | Free with a free API key; results must be cached and hotlinking full images is not allowed. |
| Rijksmuseum API | Image and photo | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed; most images are in the public domain. |
| The Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection API | Image and photo | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| Unsplash API | Image and photo | Needed, free | JSON | Free; a new app starts in demo mode with 50 requests per hour and can apply for a higher limit. |
| Wikimedia Commons API | Image and photo | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed; check the licence of each file before you use it. |
| Dailymotion API | Video | Not needed | JSON | Free; reading public data needs no key. |
| OMDb API | Video | Needed, free | JSON, XML | Free with a free API key, 1,000 requests a day. |
| PeerTube API | Video | Not needed | JSON | Free and open source, no key needed for public data. |
| TMDB API | Video | Needed, free | JSON | Free for non-commercial use with a free API key and attribution to TMDB; commercial use needs a licence. |
| TVmaze API | Video | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed, with a rate limit of a few dozen calls per 10 seconds; the data is licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA. |
| Vimeo API | Video | Needed, free | JSON | Free with a Vimeo account; some features need a paid Vimeo plan. |
| YouTube Data API | Video | Needed, free | JSON | Free with a Google API key and a daily quota of 10,000 units; each call costs a number of units, searches costing the most. |
| Datamuse | Language and text | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed, up to 100,000 requests per day. |
| Free Dictionary API | Language and text | Not needed | JSON | Free and open source, no key needed. |
| Google Cloud Translation API | Language and text | Needed, free | JSON | Free only with billing turned on (a payment method is required), for the first 500,000 characters a month; above that, paid per character. |
| Merriam-Webster Dictionary API | Language and text | Needed, free | JSON | Free with a free API key for non-commercial use, up to 1,000 queries a day for two reference APIs; commercial use needs Merriam-Webster's approval. |
| Microsoft Translator | Language and text | Needed, free | JSON | Free tier of 2 million characters per month with an Azure account; paid above that. |
| MyMemory Translation API | Language and text | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed: 5,000 characters a day anonymously, or 50,000 a day when you add a valid email address in the de parameter. |
| PurgoMalum | Language and text | Not needed | JSON, XML | Free, no key needed. |
| RhymeBrain API | Language and text | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed, up to 350 requests an hour, with a link back to rhymebrain.com required. |
| Wordnik API | Language and text | Needed, free | JSON | Free with a free API key for nonprofit or research use, up to 100 calls an hour; commercial use needs a paid plan. |
| Currents API | News feeds and APIs | Needed, free | JSON | The free plan gives 250 requests per day with a free API key and may be used commercially, with attribution and a link to the original article. |
| GDELT DOC 2.0 API | News feeds and APIs | Not needed | JSON, CSV, RSS | Free, no key needed; limit requests to one every five seconds. |
| GNews | News feeds and APIs | Needed, free | JSON | The free plan needs a free API key, has a daily request limit and is meant for development and non-commercial use. |
| Hacker News API | News feeds and APIs | Not needed | JSON | Free. |
| Hacker News Search API (Algolia) | News feeds and APIs | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed, up to 10,000 requests an hour per IP address. |
| Launch Library 2 | News feeds and APIs | Not needed | JSON | Free without a key with a low hourly request limit; supporters get higher limits. |
| NewsData.io | News feeds and APIs | Needed, free | JSON | The free plan needs a free API key, gives a daily number of credits and may be used commercially. |
| Spaceflight News API | News feeds and APIs | Not needed | JSON | Free and open source, no key needed. |
| The New York Times APIs | News feeds and APIs | Needed, free | JSON | Free, with a free API key and a daily request limit. |
| The News API (thenewsapi.com) | News feeds and APIs | Needed, free | JSON | Free with a free API key: 100 requests a day and 3 articles per request; the headlines endpoint and larger limits are paid. |
| World News API | News feeds and APIs | Needed, free | JSON | Free with a free API key: 50 points a day, one request per second and one month of history, with a link back to worldnewsapi.com required; paid plans remove the link and raise the limits. |
| Carbon Intensity API (GB) | Other | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| CBS Open Data (Statistics Netherlands) | Other | Not needed | JSON, XML | Free, no key needed. |
| Deck of Cards API | Other | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| Dog CEO Dog API | Other | Not needed | JSON | Free and open source, no key needed. |
| Genderize, Agify and Nationalize | Other | Not needed | JSON | Free up to 100 names per day; paid plans for more. |
| JokeAPI | Other | Not needed | JSON, XML | Free, no key needed, with a limit of about 120 requests per minute. |
| NASA APIs | Other | Needed, free | JSON | Free; the shared DEMO_KEY works for trying things out, and a free personal key gives much higher limits. |
| Open Brewery DB | Other | Not needed | JSON | Free and open source, no key needed. |
| Open Food Facts API | Other | Not needed | JSON | Free, open data, no key needed; send a User-Agent that identifies your app. |
| Open Trivia Database | Other | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed; the questions are licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA. |
| openFDA | Other | Not needed | JSON | Free; works without a key, and a free API key raises the daily limit. |
| PokéAPI | Other | Not needed | JSON | Free and open source, no key needed. |
| Police API (data.police.uk) | Other | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed, up to 15 requests a second; the data is under the Open Government Licence. |
| TheMealDB | Other | Not needed | JSON | The test key '1' is free for development and education; public apps are asked to become a supporter for a small fee. |
| USGS Earthquake API | Other | Not needed | JSON | Free, public domain data, no key needed. |
| Where the ISS at? | Other | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed, with a limit of about one request per second. |
| GitHub REST API | Web development services | Not needed | JSON | Free; unauthenticated requests are limited to 60 per hour, a free personal access token raises that to 5,000. |
| HQAPI | Web development services | Needed, free | JSON | – |
| jsDelivr Data API | Web development services | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed; contact jsDelivr before sending more than about 100 requests per minute for long periods. |
| PagerDuty | Web development services | Needed, free | JSON | Free plan for up to 5 users with one on-call schedule and 100 SMS or phone notifications per month; paid plans for larger teams. |
| Sentry | Web development services | Needed, free | JSON | – |
| Wufoo Form Builder API | Web development services | Needed, free | JSON, XML | Free with a Wufoo account; the limits depend on your Wufoo plan. |
| DEV Community API (Forem) | Blogs and publishing | Not needed | JSON | Free. |
| WordPress REST API | Blogs and publishing | Not needed | JSON | Free and part of WordPress. |
| DNS over HTTPS (Google Public DNS) | Data validators | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| Kickbox Open disposable email check | Data validators | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed; full email verification is a separate paid Kickbox service. |
| LanguageTool API | Data validators | Not needed | JSON | – |
| Nu HTML Checker (W3C) | Data validators | Not needed | – | Free and open source; for heavy use, run your own copy of the checker. |
| numverify | Data validators | Needed, free | JSON | The free plan gives 100 requests per month with a free API key, without a time limit; paid plans give more requests. |
| OpenIBAN | Data validators | Not needed | JSON | Free and open source, no key needed. |
| Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) | Hosting and storage | Needed, free | XML | Paid, with a 12-month free tier for new AWS accounts. |
| Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) | Hosting and storage | Needed, free | XML | Paid, with a 12-month free tier for new AWS accounts. |
| Uploadcare | Hosting and storage | Needed, free | JSON, XML | – |
| crt.sh certificate search | Security related services | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed; avoid very heavy automated use. |
| MDN HTTP Observatory API | Security related services | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| OSV API | Security related services | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| Pwned Passwords API | Security related services | Not needed | – | Free, no key needed. |
| RDAP (WHOIS) | Security related services | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| Shodan InternetDB | Security related services | Not needed | JSON | Free for non-commercial use, no key needed; commercial use needs a Shodan enterprise license. |
| Google PageSpeed Insights API | SEO and site checks | Needed, free | – | Free; a free API key raises the request limits. |
| Open PageRank API | SEO and site checks | Needed, free | JSON | Free with a free API key that works from one IP address; paid plans remove that limit. |
| Wayback Machine Availability API | SEO and site checks | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed; the CDX API offers a full list of snapshots. |
| DummyJSON | Testing and mock data | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| httpbin | Testing and mock data | Not needed | JSON | Free and open source, no key needed; you can also run it yourself in Docker. |
| JSONPlaceholder | Testing and mock data | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| ReqRes | Testing and mock data | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed for the demo endpoints, with a per-IP rate limit; a free account with its own API key stores your data, and paid plans raise the limits. |
| Bitly API | URL shorteners | Needed, free | JSON | Free plan with a monthly limit on links; paid plans for more links, custom domains and full statistics. |
| da.gd URL shortener | URL shorteners | Not needed | – | Free, no key needed. |
| v.gd API | URL shorteners | Not needed | JSON, XML | Free, no key needed, with hourly limits per IP address. |
Questions
What does CORS mean for an API?
CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) is how a server tells browsers that JavaScript on other websites may read its answers. Without it, a fetch() from your page fails in the browser, even though the same request works from a server or with curl.
Can I put my API key in browser JavaScript?
Only for keys that are meant to be public, such as keys limited to your own domain. Anyone can read a key in a web page, so for other keys call the API from your own server.