Free JSON APIs
152 services, checked weekly
These free APIs answer in JSON, the format that JavaScript, Python, PHP and almost every other language read without extra work. Use them in web apps, scripts and mobile apps, or try them in the browser first.
| Service | Category | API key | Formats | Free use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare Workers AI | Artificial intelligence | Needed | JSON | The Workers Free plan includes 10,000 'neurons' (Cloudflare's unit of AI compute) per day; requests above that fail until the daily reset, unless you move to the paid plan. |
| Cohere API | Artificial intelligence | – | 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. |
| ElevenLabs API | Artificial intelligence | – | 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. |
| GitHub Models | Artificial intelligence | Needed | 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 | Artificial intelligence | 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 | Artificial intelligence | Needed, free | JSON | Free plan with a free API key and rate limits per model; paid plans for higher limits. |
| OpenRouter | Artificial intelligence | – | 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. |
| Tavily Search API | Artificial intelligence | – | JSON | Free plan with 1,000 API credits per month and no credit card needed; paid plans for more. |
| 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. |
| ESV Bible API | Books and research | Needed, free | JSON | Free for non-commercial use with a free API key, with limits on how much of the text you may show and store. |
| 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 | – | JSON | Paid plans with a free trial. |
| Library of Congress API | Books and research | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed; the library asks you to keep request rates moderate. |
| 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 | – | JSON | The free plan allows 300 e-mails per day; paid plans remove that limit. |
| Discord webhooks | Communication | – | JSON | Free; for two-way interaction use the full Discord bot API. |
| Mailtrap | Communication | – | JSON | Free plan with 4,000 sent e-mails per month (at most 150 per day, one domain) and a testing sandbox with 50 e-mails per month; paid plans for more. |
| Noteshred | Communication | – | JSON | – |
| Phaxio | Communication | – | JSON | Paid per page, with a free test mode. |
| Resend | Communication | – | JSON | The free plan allows 3,000 e-mails per month (at most 100 per day) and up to 3 domains; paid plans offer more. |
| Slack incoming webhooks | Communication | – | JSON | Free, also on free Slack workspaces. |
| Telegram Bot API | Communication | – | JSON | Free. |
| TheTexting | Communication | – | JSON | – |
| Dlvr.it API | Social media | – | JSON, XML | Free plan with limits; paid plans for more accounts and feeds. |
| Tumblr API | Social media | Needed | JSON | Free. |
| X (Twitter) API | Social media | – | JSON | – |
| 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 | Needed, free | JSON | The free Demo plan needs a free API key and has a monthly call limit; paid plans offer more calls and data. |
| 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. |
| geoPlugin Currency Converter | Currency and finance | – | JSON, XML | – |
| PayPal REST API | Currency and finance | – | 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. |
| Abstract IP Geolocation API | IP to location APIs | – | 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| GeoNames | Location Information | – | 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 | – | JSON | Paid per request, with a monthly free credit from Google Maps Platform. |
| izi.TRAVEL API | Location Information | Needed, free | JSON | Free with an API key from izi.TRAVEL. |
| Nager.Date public holidays | Location Information | Not needed | JSON | Free and open source, no key needed. |
| Nominatim (OpenStreetMap) | Location Information | – | 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. |
| OpenRouteService | Location Information | Needed, free | JSON | Free plan with a free API key and daily limits per service; open source, so you can also host it yourself. |
| Overpass API | Location Information | – | JSON, XML | Free on the public servers with fair use; heavy users should run their own instance. |
| Photon | Location Information | – | 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 | 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. |
| U.S. Sex Offender API | Location Information | – | JSON | – |
| Yelp Places API | Location Information | – | JSON | Paid plans with a free trial. |
| Zippopotam.us | Location Information | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| Zipwise Free ZIP code web services | Location Information | – | JSON, XML | – |
| 7Timer! | Weather forecasts | Not needed | JSON, XML | Free, no key needed; a simple, long-running service without uptime guarantee. |
| Aviation Weather Center Data API | Weather forecasts | Not needed | JSON, XML | Free, no key needed; keep the number of requests reasonable. |
| 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. |
| OpenAQ | Weather forecasts | Needed, free | JSON | Free, with a free API key from your OpenAQ account. |
| OpenWeatherMap | Weather forecasts | – | JSON, XML | Free plan with a limit per minute and per month; paid plans for more calls and features. |
| World Weather Online Local Weather API | Weather forecasts | – | JSON, XML, CSV | Paid plans with a free trial. |
| World Weather Online Marine Weather API | Weather forecasts | – | JSON, XML | Paid plans with a free trial. |
| Art Institute of Chicago API | Image and photo | Not needed | JSON | Free, 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. |
| 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 | JSON | Free for non-commercial use with a free client ID; commercial use needs an agreement with Imgur. |
| 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 | – | 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. |
| 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 | – | JSON | Free with a Vimeo account; some features need a paid Vimeo plan. |
| YouTube Data API | Video | Needed | 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. |
| Copyleaks API | Language and text | – | JSON | Paid plans with a free trial. |
| Datamuse | Language and text | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed, up to 100,000 requests per day. |
| DeepL API | Language and text | Needed, free | JSON | The DeepL API Free plan gives 500,000 characters per month with a free account (it uses its own server, api-free.deepl.com); DeepL API Pro is paid per character. |
| Free Dictionary API | Language and text | Not needed | JSON | Free and open source, no key needed. |
| Google Cloud Translation API | Language and text | – | JSON | Paid per character, with a free monthly allowance; it replaces the old Google Language API. |
| Microsoft Translator | Language and text | – | JSON | Free tier of 2 million characters per month with an Azure account; paid above that. |
| WebPurify | Language and text | – | JSON, XML | Free to try, paid service. |
| 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. |
| 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 | – | JSON | Free. |
| Launch Library 2 | News feeds and APIs | Not needed | JSON | Free without a key with a low hourly request limit; supporters get higher limits. |
| NewsAPI.org | News feeds and APIs | Needed, free | JSON | The free Developer plan needs a free API key but is for development and testing only; using it in production needs a paid plan. |
| 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 Guardian Open Platform | News feeds and APIs | Needed, free | JSON, XML | Free developer key for non-commercial use, with a daily limit; commercial use by agreement with the Guardian. |
| The New York Times APIs | News feeds and APIs | Needed, free | JSON | Free, with a free API key and a daily request limit. |
| 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 | – | 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 | – | 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. |
| TheMealDB | Other | – | 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 | – | JSON | – |
| NoMore404 | Web development services | – | JSON | Free plan with five monitors checked every five minutes, as long as you sign in at least once every six months; paid plans from 9 euro per month add more monitors and checks. |
| PagerDuty | Web development services | – | 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 | – | JSON | – |
| StatusCake | Web development services | – | JSON | Free plan with 10 uptime monitors checked every 5 minutes, plus one page speed, one SSL and one domain monitor; paid plans for faster checks and more monitors. |
| Wufoo Form Builder API | Web development services | – | 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 | – | JSON | Free and part of WordPress. |
| DNS over HTTPS (Google Public DNS) | Data validators | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| LanguageTool API | Data validators | Not needed | JSON | – |
| 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. |
| VIES VAT number validation | Data validators | Not needed | JSON, XML | Free, no key needed. |
| Uploadcare | Hosting and storage | Needed | JSON, XML | – |
| crt.sh certificate search | Security related services | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed; avoid very heavy automated use. |
| Google Safe Browsing API | Security related services | Needed, free | JSON | Free for non-commercial use with a free API key; commercial use needs Google's Web Risk API. |
| MDN HTTP Observatory API | Security related services | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| RDAP (WHOIS) | Security related services | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| SSL Labs API | Security related services | – | JSON | Free, but version 4 needs registration with an organisation e-mail address, and commercial use needs permission from Qualys. |
| urlscan.io API | Security related services | Needed, free | JSON | Free with a free API key and daily limits; paid plans for private scans and more volume. |
| VirusTotal API | Security related services | Needed, free | JSON | The free public API needs a free key, has a limit of a few requests per minute and a daily cap, and may not be used in commercial products. |
| Wayback Machine Availability API | SEO and site checks | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed; the CDX API offers a full list of snapshots. |
| 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. |
| Random User Generator | Testing and mock data | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed. |
| Bitly API | URL shorteners | – | JSON | Free plan with a monthly limit on links; paid plans for more links, custom domains and full statistics. |
| Shorty - URL Shortener | URL shorteners | – | JSON | – |
Questions
How do I call a JSON API?
Send an HTTP GET request to the API's address, for example with fetch() in JavaScript, requests in Python or curl on the command line, and parse the JSON text you get back. Our tutorial shows it step by step.