Published February 23, 2026 · 25 min read
APIs are the backbone of modern software development. Whether you are building a SaaS product, a mobile app, a weekend side project, or automating your workflow, you are calling APIs. The problem? Most production-grade APIs charge by the request, and costs add up fast. A single project integrating payments, maps, email, and AI can easily run you $200+ per month before you earn your first dollar.
But here is what many developers overlook: dozens of world-class APIs offer generous free tiers in 2026 that are more than enough for prototyping, MVPs, and even lightweight production apps. Some offer thousands of requests per day. Others give you monthly credits worth hundreds of dollars. A few are entirely free with no limits at all.
We compiled the definitive list of 50 free APIs every developer should know, organized across seven categories. For each API, we cover exactly what it does, the current free tier limits, an example endpoint you can test right now, and the authentication method required. Bookmark this page. You will come back to it.
The AI API landscape has exploded. In 2026, nearly every major AI lab offers some form of free access. Whether you need text generation, image creation, embeddings, or classification, you can prototype without spending a cent.
What it does: Access GPT-4o mini, GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, and other OpenAI models for text generation, chat completions, embeddings, image generation with DALL-E, and speech-to-text with Whisper. The most widely adopted AI API in the world.
Free tier: New accounts receive $5 in free credits (expires after 3 months). GPT-4o mini offers a free tier with up to 10 million tokens per month. Free-tier rate limit is 3 requests per minute on paid models.
Example endpoint:
POST https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions
{
"model": "gpt-4o-mini",
"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
}Auth: Bearer token. Sign up at platform.openai.com, generate an API key, pass it as Authorization: Bearer sk-...
What it does: Access Claude Haiku 4.5, Sonnet 4.5, and Opus 4.6 for chat, analysis, coding assistance, and long-context tasks. Claude supports up to 200K token context windows, making it ideal for document processing, code review, and complex reasoning.
Free tier: New API accounts receive approximately $5 in free credits after phone verification. Works across all Claude models. Sonnet free tier provides up to 50,000 tokens per month with 60 requests per minute rate limit.
Example endpoint:
POST https://api.anthropic.com/v1/messages
{
"model": "claude-sonnet-4-5-20250514",
"max_tokens": 1024,
"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
}Auth: API key header. Sign up at console.anthropic.com, pass key as x-api-key: sk-ant-...
What it does: Access Gemini 2.5 Pro, Flash, and Flash-Lite for multimodal AI tasks including text, image, audio, and video understanding. Supports function calling, structured output, and grounding with Google Search.
Free tier: No credit card required. Gemini 2.5 Pro: 5 requests/min, 100 requests/day. Gemini 2.5 Flash: 10 requests/min, 250 requests/day. Free tier data may be used to improve Google products.
Example endpoint:
POST https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/gemini-2.5-flash:generateContent?key=YOUR_KEY
{
"contents": [{"parts": [{"text": "Hello"}]}]
}Auth: API key as query parameter. Get your key at aistudio.google.com
What it does: Run inference on over 100,000 open-source ML models directly from the Hugging Face Hub. Covers text generation, translation, summarization, image classification, object detection, speech recognition, and more. The largest open-source model ecosystem available.
Free tier: Free Serverless Inference API for prototyping and testing. Every user receives monthly credits for inference providers. Rate-limited but functional for development. Not intended for production workloads.
Example endpoint:
POST https://api-inference.huggingface.co/models/meta-llama/Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct
{
"inputs": "What is the capital of France?"
}Auth: Bearer token. Sign up at huggingface.co, generate a token in Settings, pass as Authorization: Bearer hf_...
What it does: Run open-source AI models in the cloud with a simple API. Specializes in image generation (Stable Diffusion, Flux), video generation, audio processing, and LLMs. Models run on GPU infrastructure managed by Replicate.
Free tier: Limited free runs on select models from the "Try for Free" collection. No credit card required for initial free runs. Great for evaluating models before committing to paid usage. Paid usage is billed per-second of compute time.
Example endpoint:
POST https://api.replicate.com/v1/predictions
{
"version": "model_version_id",
"input": {"prompt": "a photo of an astronaut riding a horse"}
}Auth: Bearer token. Sign up at replicate.com, pass as Authorization: Bearer r8_...
What it does: Generate and edit images with Stable Diffusion and Stable Image models. Supports text-to-image, image-to-image, inpainting, outpainting, upscaling, and style transfer. One of the best image generation APIs available.
Free tier: New accounts receive 25 free credits on signup. Community License provides unlimited free access to the full model suite for organizations earning under $1M annual revenue, with no daily limits or credit restrictions.
Example endpoint:
POST https://api.stability.ai/v2beta/stable-image/generate/sd3
Content-Type: multipart/form-data
prompt=a+beautiful+sunset+over+mountainsAuth: Bearer token. Sign up at platform.stability.ai, pass as Authorization: Bearer sk-...
What it does: Enterprise-grade NLP API for text generation (Command R+), semantic search (Embed 4), and document reranking (Rerank 3.5). Particularly strong for RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) pipelines and enterprise search applications.
Free tier: Trial API key provides 1,000 free API calls per month across all endpoints and models. Rate limits: 20 calls/min for Chat, 5 calls/min for Embed. Trial keys are for testing only, not production.
Example endpoint:
POST https://api.cohere.com/v2/chat
{
"model": "command-r-plus",
"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
}Auth: Bearer token. Sign up at dashboard.cohere.com, use your trial key as Authorization: Bearer ...
What it does: Access Mistral Large, Codestral (for code), Pixtral (multimodal), and other models for text generation, code completion, vision tasks, and embeddings. Known for competitive performance at lower cost than GPT-4-class models.
Free tier: The Experiment plan is completely free with no credit card required. Unlimited access to all models. Rate limits: 2 requests/min, 500,000 tokens/min, 1 billion tokens/month. Generous enough for serious prototyping.
Example endpoint:
POST https://api.mistral.ai/v1/chat/completions
{
"model": "mistral-large-latest",
"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
}Auth: Bearer token. Sign up at console.mistral.ai, pass as Authorization: Bearer ...
Use Mistral or Gemini Flash for high-volume, low-complexity tasks (classification, summarization). Reserve OpenAI or Anthropic credits for complex reasoning. Use Hugging Face for specialized models like sentiment analysis or named entity recognition. This approach lets you build production-quality AI features while spending nothing.
Real-time financial data, cryptocurrency prices, weather forecasts, and global statistics. These APIs power dashboards, trading bots, analytics platforms, and data-driven applications.
What it does: Comprehensive cryptocurrency data API covering 15,000+ coins and 900+ exchanges. Provides real-time prices, market cap, volume, historical data, OHLC charts, trending coins, NFT data, and exchange information.
Free tier: Demo plan: 30 calls/min, 10,000 calls/month (requires free registration). Public API (no registration): 5-15 calls/min depending on traffic. One year of historical data included.
Example endpoint:
GET https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/simple/price?ids=bitcoin&vs_currencies=usdAuth: Public API requires no auth. Demo plan uses API key as query parameter &x_cg_demo_api_key=YOUR_KEY. Register at coingecko.com/en/api
What it does: Stock market data including real-time and historical prices, technical indicators (SMA, EMA, RSI, MACD), fundamental data, forex rates, and cryptocurrency prices. Supports US and international markets.
Free tier: 25 API requests per day, 5 requests per minute. Covers most endpoints including historical stock data, technical indicators, and forex. Real-time US market quotes require a premium key.
Example endpoint:
GET https://www.alphavantage.co/query?function=TIME_SERIES_DAILY&symbol=AAPL&apikey=YOUR_KEYAuth: API key as query parameter. Claim your free key at alphavantage.co
What it does: Currency conversion and exchange rate data for 161 currencies. Supports real-time rates, historical rates, and pair conversion. Data is sourced from central banks and financial institutions worldwide.
Free tier: 1,500 API requests per month with the free plan. Updates rates once daily. Supports all 161 currencies. No credit card required.
Example endpoint:
GET https://v6.exchangerate-api.com/v6/YOUR_KEY/latest/USDAuth: API key in URL path. Sign up at exchangerate-api.com
What it does: Current weather, 5-day forecasts, air pollution data, geocoding, and weather maps for any location on Earth. Supports latitude/longitude, city name, and zip code lookups. One of the most popular weather APIs available.
Free tier: 60 calls per minute on standard endpoints (current weather, forecasts). One Call API 3.0 provides 1,000 calls/day free. No credit card required for basic API access.
Example endpoint:
GET https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?q=London&appid=YOUR_KEY&units=metricAuth: API key as query parameter appid=. Register at openweathermap.org
What it does: Access comprehensive global development data covering GDP, population, education, health, climate, and 16,000+ other indicators across 200+ countries. Data spans from 1960 to present. Essential for economics, research, and data visualization projects.
Free tier: Completely free. No API key required. No rate limits published. All data is open access under Creative Commons licensing. Supports JSON, XML, and CSV response formats.
Example endpoint:
GET https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/US/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?format=jsonAuth: None required. Just call the endpoint directly.
What it does: Get detailed information about every country in the world including name, capital, population, area, languages, currencies, time zones, borders, flags (SVG and PNG), calling codes, and regional data.
Free tier: Completely free. No API key required. No rate limits. Open-source project. Returns data for 250 countries and territories.
Example endpoint:
GET https://restcountries.com/v3.1/name/germanyAuth: None required. Fully open access.
What it does: Search and retrieve data on over 20 million books including titles, authors, publishers, ISBNs, cover images, subjects, and publication dates. Part of the Internet Archive project. Useful for building reading apps, book databases, and library catalogs.
Free tier: Completely free. No API key required. Open data project with no published rate limits. Covers images available via the Covers API.
Example endpoint:
GET https://openlibrary.org/search.json?q=javascript&limit=5Auth: None required. Open access for all endpoints.
What it does: Real-time cryptocurrency market data including prices, market cap, volume, and historical data for 2,000+ assets. Also provides exchange data and real-time WebSocket price feeds. Clean, fast, and well-documented.
Free tier: 200 requests per minute without an API key. WebSocket connections for real-time price streaming are included. Optional API key increases rate limits to 500 requests/min.
Example endpoint:
GET https://api.coincap.io/v2/assets/bitcoinAuth: None required for basic access. Optional API key via header Authorization: Bearer ... for higher limits.
Access content from Reddit, YouTube, Unsplash, and more. These APIs are the building blocks for content aggregators, social dashboards, automated posting tools, and media-rich applications.
What it does: Access Reddit posts, comments, subreddits, user profiles, search, and voting data. Supports reading public content, submitting posts, managing subreddits, and retrieving trending topics. Over 50 million daily active users worth of content.
Free tier: 100 requests per minute for OAuth-authenticated requests. 10 requests/min for unauthenticated requests. Free for non-commercial use. Commercial use requires approval.
Example endpoint:
GET https://oauth.reddit.com/r/programming/hot?limit=10
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKENAuth: OAuth 2.0. Register an app at reddit.com/prefs/apps, obtain client_id and secret, exchange for access token.
What it does: Search videos, retrieve channel stats, get video details (views, likes, comments), list playlists, access captions, and manage subscriptions. The go-to API for building anything YouTube-related.
Free tier: 10,000 units per day (a search costs 100 units, a video lookup costs 1 unit). Enough for approximately 100 searches or 10,000 video detail lookups per day. No credit card required.
Example endpoint:
GET https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?part=snippet&q=javascript+tutorial&key=YOUR_KEYAuth: API key as query parameter. Enable the YouTube Data API in Google Cloud Console and create credentials.
What it does: Access over 3 million free high-resolution photos. Search by keyword, curate collections, get random photos, and retrieve photographer information. All photos are free to use under the Unsplash License (no attribution required for most uses).
Free tier: Demo mode: 50 requests per hour. After approval for production: 5,000 requests/hour. Image file downloads do not count against rate limits. Completely free for all usage levels.
Example endpoint:
GET https://api.unsplash.com/search/photos?query=nature&per_page=10
Authorization: Client-ID YOUR_ACCESS_KEYAuth: Register an app at unsplash.com/developers, pass your access key as Authorization: Client-ID ...
What it does: Search, trending, and random GIF endpoints. Access millions of GIFs and stickers for chat apps, social features, and content platforms. Supports autocomplete, categories, and GIF upload.
Free tier: Completely free for all usage. No rate limits published for the SDK/API key tier. Requires attribution (Giphy logo). 42 search results per request max.
Example endpoint:
GET https://api.giphy.com/v1/gifs/trending?api_key=YOUR_KEY&limit=10Auth: API key as query parameter. Create an app at developers.giphy.com
What it does: Search and retrieve news articles from over 150,000 sources worldwide. Filter by keyword, source, language, country, and date range. Access top headlines, everything search, and source listing endpoints.
Free tier: 100 requests per day for the Developer plan. Returns articles up to one month old. Limited to non-commercial use. CORS requests from browsers are blocked on the free tier (server-side only).
Example endpoint:
GET https://newsapi.org/v2/top-headlines?country=us&apiKey=YOUR_KEYAuth: API key as query parameter or header X-Api-Key: .... Register at newsapi.org
What it does: Access articles, users, comments, tags, and listings from DEV.to, the largest developer blogging platform. Create and publish articles programmatically, retrieve trending posts, and build developer content aggregators.
Free tier: Completely free. No published rate limits for read operations. Write operations (publishing articles) require authentication. All public content is freely accessible.
Example endpoint:
GET https://dev.to/api/articles?per_page=10&top=7Auth: Public read endpoints require no auth. Write operations use API key header api-key: .... Generate key in DEV.to settings.
What it does: Access all Hacker News content including top stories, new stories, best stories, ask/show/job posts, comments, and user profiles. Powered by Firebase, supports real-time updates via streaming.
Free tier: Completely free. No API key required. No rate limits. All content is public. Firebase-backed endpoints support real-time subscriptions for live story updates.
Example endpoint:
GET https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/topstories.json
GET https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/12345.jsonAuth: None required. Fully open access.
What it does: Comprehensive movie and TV show data including titles, cast, crew, ratings, reviews, trailers, images, release dates, and recommendations. Covers 900,000+ movies and 160,000+ TV shows. Powers countless media apps.
Free tier: Completely free for all non-commercial usage. Rate limit of approximately 40-50 requests per second. Requires attribution. Commercial use needs separate approval.
Example endpoint:
GET https://api.themoviedb.org/3/movie/popular?api_key=YOUR_KEY&language=en-USAuth: API key as query parameter or Bearer token. Register at themoviedb.org
Use our free web tools to generate the meta tags, sitemaps, and social cards for your API-powered projects. All free, no signup required.
Get the Source Bundle - $9.99 Reseller LicenseInfrastructure, hosting, databases, and platform APIs that let you build and deploy full-stack applications without paying for servers. These free tiers are generous enough to run real side projects.
What it does: Interact with repositories, issues, pull requests, commits, releases, gists, users, organizations, and GitHub Actions workflows. The definitive API for developer tooling, CI/CD integrations, and code analysis.
Free tier: Unauthenticated: 60 requests/hour. Authenticated (personal access token): 5,000 requests/hour. GitHub App installations get up to 15,000 requests/hour. All public repository data is freely accessible.
Example endpoint:
GET https://api.github.com/repos/facebook/react
Authorization: Bearer ghp_...Auth: Personal access token or OAuth app. Generate token in GitHub Settings > Developer settings. Pass as Authorization: Bearer ghp_...
What it does: Deploy serverless functions at the edge across 300+ data centers worldwide. Includes Workers KV (key-value storage), D1 (SQLite database), R2 (object storage), Queues, and Durable Objects. A complete serverless platform.
Free tier: 100,000 requests per day for Workers. 1 GB R2 storage. 5 GB D1 storage. Workers KV: 100,000 reads/day, 1,000 writes/day. As of February 2026, Queues are now included in the free plan with up to 10,000 queues.
Example endpoint:
PUT https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{id}/workers/scripts/{name}
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKENAuth: API token or API key + email. Create tokens at Cloudflare Dashboard
What it does: Deploy frontend applications, serverless functions, and full-stack frameworks (Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit). Manage deployments, domains, environment variables, and edge functions programmatically.
Free tier: Hobby plan: 100 GB bandwidth/month, 150,000 function invocations/month, 1 million edge requests/month. Unlimited projects. Includes KV storage (30,000 requests), Postgres (60 compute hours). Single user only.
Example endpoint:
GET https://api.vercel.com/v9/projects
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKENAuth: Bearer token. Generate at vercel.com/account/tokens
What it does: Full backend-as-a-service with Postgres database, authentication, real-time subscriptions, file storage, edge functions, and auto-generated REST and GraphQL APIs. The open-source Firebase alternative.
Free tier: 500 MB database, 1 GB file storage, 50,000 monthly active users, unlimited API requests, 500,000 edge function invocations. Two active projects. Projects pause after 1 week of inactivity.
Example endpoint:
GET https://YOUR_PROJECT.supabase.co/rest/v1/todos?select=*
apikey: YOUR_ANON_KEY
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ANON_KEYAuth: Anon key (public) or service role key (server-side). Get keys from your project dashboard at supabase.com
What it does: Serverless Postgres database with branching, autoscaling, and a generous free tier. Supports standard Postgres wire protocol, so any Postgres client or ORM works out of the box. Ideal replacement for PlanetScale since its free tier was removed.
Free tier: 0.5 GB storage, 1 project, 10 branches. 191.9 compute hours per month on shared compute. Always-available default branch. No credit card required.
Example endpoint:
POST https://console.neon.tech/api/v2/projects
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY
Content-Type: application/jsonAuth: API key for management API. Standard Postgres connection string for database queries. Sign up at neon.tech
What it does: Serverless Redis with REST API and native Redis protocol support. Use for caching, rate limiting, session storage, real-time leaderboards, and message queues. Also offers Kafka and QStash (message queue) products.
Free tier: 256 MB data, 500,000 commands per month, up to 10 databases. REST API included for edge-compatible access. Per-request pricing beyond free tier at $0.2 per 100K commands.
Example endpoint:
GET https://YOUR_ENDPOINT.upstash.io/get/mykey
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKENAuth: REST token or Redis password. Get credentials from console.upstash.com
What it does: Edge-hosted SQLite databases with embedded replicas. Sub-millisecond reads from the nearest edge location. Compatible with SQLite syntax and tools. Supports multi-tenancy with database-per-user architecture.
Free tier: 500 databases, 9 GB total storage, 25 million row reads/month, 25 locations. No credit card required. Embedded replicas work offline and sync automatically.
Example endpoint:
POST https://YOUR_DB-YOUR_ORG.turso.io/v2/pipeline
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN
{"requests": [{"type": "execute", "stmt": {"sql": "SELECT * FROM users"}}]}Auth: Database token. Sign up at turso.tech
What it does: Fake REST API for testing and prototyping. Provides endpoints for posts, comments, albums, photos, todos, and users. Returns realistic fake data that mimics a real API. Perfect for frontend development, tutorials, and demos.
Free tier: Completely free. No API key. No rate limits. Open-source project running on Vercel. Supports GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE methods (writes are faked but return proper responses).
Example endpoint:
GET https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1Auth: None. Fully open.
Send emails, SMS messages, push notifications, and chat messages. Communication APIs are essential for user onboarding, alerts, two-factor authentication, and customer engagement.
What it does: Modern email API built for developers. Send transactional emails with a simple REST API or SDKs for Node.js, Python, Ruby, Go, and more. Supports custom domains, DKIM signing, and React Email templates.
Free tier: 3,000 emails per month (100 per day). No analytics on the free plan (open/click tracking requires Pro). Ideal for side projects and early-stage products. No credit card required.
Example endpoint:
POST https://api.resend.com/emails
{
"from": "[email protected]",
"to": "[email protected]",
"subject": "Hello",
"html": "<p>Welcome!</p>"
}Auth: Bearer token. Sign up at resend.com, pass as Authorization: Bearer re_...
What it does: Industry-standard email delivery API by Twilio. Send transactional and marketing emails, manage contacts, templates, and suppressions. Supports SMTP relay and REST API. Trusted by companies sending billions of emails monthly.
Free tier: 60-day free trial: 100 emails per day. Note: SendGrid retired its permanent free plan in May 2025. After the trial, Essentials starts at $19.95/month. Consider Resend or Mailgun for permanent free tiers.
Example endpoint:
POST https://api.sendgrid.com/v3/mail/send
Authorization: Bearer SG.YOUR_API_KEY
{
"personalizations": [{"to": [{"email": "[email protected]"}]}],
"from": {"email": "[email protected]"},
"subject": "Hello",
"content": [{"type": "text/html", "value": "Welcome!"}]
}Auth: Bearer token. Sign up at sendgrid.com
What it does: Create Telegram bots that send messages, photos, documents, polls, and inline keyboards. Handle user commands, process payments, run games, and build interactive experiences. Over 900 million Telegram users to reach.
Free tier: Completely free. No per-message charges. No monthly fees. Unlimited bots. Rate limits: 30 messages/second broadcast, 1 message/second per chat, 20 messages/minute per group. File uploads: 10 MB photos, 50 MB files.
Example endpoint:
POST https://api.telegram.org/bot{YOUR_TOKEN}/sendMessage
{
"chat_id": 123456789,
"text": "Hello from my bot!"
}Auth: Bot token in URL. Create a bot via @BotFather on Telegram to receive your token.
What it does: Send messages, embeds, and files to Discord channels without a bot. Webhooks are one-way: you push content to Discord. Ideal for deployment notifications, error alerts, monitoring dashboards, and community updates.
Free tier: Completely free. No API key required. Rate limit: 30 requests per minute per webhook. Supports rich embeds with titles, descriptions, images, fields, and colors. Maximum 10 embeds per message.
Example endpoint:
POST https://discord.com/api/webhooks/{id}/{token}
{
"content": "Deployment complete!",
"embeds": [{"title": "v2.1.0", "color": 65280}]
}Auth: None (webhook URL is the secret). Create in Discord server Settings > Integrations > Webhooks.
What it does: Send and receive SMS, MMS, and WhatsApp messages worldwide. Supports programmable voice calls, video, and verification (2FA). The most widely used communication API in production applications.
Free tier: Free trial credit (amount varies) upon signup. No credit card required to start. Trial limits: 50 messages/day, verified recipients only. After trial, SMS costs $0.0079/segment in the US. Phone number costs $1.15/month.
Example endpoint:
POST https://api.twilio.com/2010-04-01/Accounts/{SID}/Messages.json
From=+15551234567&To=+15559876543&Body=Hello!Auth: HTTP Basic Auth with Account SID and Auth Token. Sign up at twilio.com
What it does: Send push notifications to phones and desktops via a simple HTTP PUT/POST request. No app registration, no SDK integration, no Firebase setup. Subscribe to topics and receive instant notifications. Open-source and self-hostable.
Free tier: Completely free on ntfy.sh. No API key required. Default rate limit of approximately 250 messages per day. Supports attachments up to 15 MB. Available as Android app, iOS app, and web app.
Example endpoint:
POST https://ntfy.sh/my-alerts
{
"topic": "my-alerts",
"title": "Server Alert",
"message": "CPU usage above 90%",
"priority": 4
}Auth: None required for public topics. Optional token auth for access control.
Display maps, geocode addresses, look up IP locations, and calculate routes. Essential for delivery apps, store locators, travel platforms, and location-based features.
What it does: Beautiful, customizable vector maps with geocoding, directions, navigation, isochrones, and static map image generation. Mapbox GL JS renders maps using WebGL for smooth, interactive experiences. The developer-friendly alternative to Google Maps.
Free tier: 50,000 map loads per month for web. Each map load includes unlimited tile requests and user interactions. Beyond the free tier: $5 per 1,000 additional loads. Geocoding: 100,000 requests/month free.
Example endpoint:
GET https://api.mapbox.com/geocoding/v5/mapbox.places/San+Francisco.json?access_token=YOUR_TOKENAuth: Access token as query parameter. Sign up at mapbox.com
What it does: Free geocoding and reverse geocoding powered by OpenStreetMap data. Convert addresses to coordinates and coordinates to addresses. Covers the entire world with community-maintained map data.
Free tier: Completely free. No API key required. Rate limit: 1 request per second (absolute maximum). Results are detailed with address components, bounding boxes, and OSM metadata. Must comply with usage policy (no heavy bulk geocoding).
Example endpoint:
GET https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=Berlin+Germany&format=json&limit=1Auth: None. Include a custom User-Agent header identifying your application (required by usage policy).
What it does: Geolocate any IP address to get country, city, region, latitude, longitude, timezone, ISP, and organization data. Supports IPv4 and IPv6. Useful for content personalization, fraud detection, and analytics.
Free tier: 1,000 requests per day. No API key required. Supports JSON, JSONP, XML, CSV, and YAML response formats. Accuracy: country-level 99.5%, city-level 70-90%.
Example endpoint:
GET https://ipapi.co/8.8.8.8/json/Auth: None for free tier. API key available for higher limits.
What it does: The most comprehensive mapping platform: Maps JavaScript API, Places API, Directions API, Geocoding API, Street View, and more. Unmatched global coverage and data quality. The industry standard for mapping.
Free tier: As of March 2025, the previous $200/month credit was replaced with free usage thresholds per API. Essentials tier: 10,000 free calls/month per API. Covers Maps, Geocoding, Places, Directions, and more. Credit card required.
Example endpoint:
GET https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=New+York&key=YOUR_KEYAuth: API key as query parameter. Enable APIs in Google Cloud Console
What it does: Forward and reverse geocoding combining data from OpenStreetMap, government datasets, and other open sources. Returns structured address components, timezone, currency, annotations (country calling code, what3words), and confidence scores.
Free tier: 2,500 requests per day. No credit card required. Rate limit: 1 request per second. Supports 50+ languages. GDPR-compliant with no data tracking.
Example endpoint:
GET https://api.opencagedata.com/geocode/v1/json?q=Tokyo&key=YOUR_KEYAuth: API key as query parameter. Sign up at opencagedata.com
What it does: High-resolution weather forecasts with hourly and daily data for any location. Covers temperature, precipitation, wind, humidity, UV index, and air quality. Uses data from national weather services. Open-source alternative to OpenWeatherMap.
Free tier: Completely free for non-commercial use. No API key required. Up to 10,000 requests per day. 16-day forecasts, historical weather back to 1940, and climate data included.
Example endpoint:
GET https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast?latitude=52.52&longitude=13.41&hourly=temperature_2mAuth: None required. Commercial use requires a paid subscription.
Not every API needs to be serious. These APIs are perfect for side projects, hackathons, learning, and adding delight to your applications. Many have no rate limits and require zero authentication.
What it does: Comprehensive data for all Pokemon across all generations. Covers species, abilities, moves, types, evolutions, items, locations, and game versions. Returns detailed JSON with linked resources. The most popular learning API for beginners.
Free tier: Completely free. No API key required. No rate limits. All data is cached and served from a CDN. Over 100 endpoints covering every aspect of the Pokemon universe. Fully open-source.
Example endpoint:
GET https://pokeapi.co/api/v2/pokemon/pikachuAuth: None. Fully open access at pokeapi.co
What it does: Access Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD), Mars Rover photos, Near Earth Object tracking (NeoWS), Earth satellite imagery, NASA Image and Video Library, and more. Over a dozen APIs covering space science, Earth observation, and mission data.
Free tier: Demo key (DEMO_KEY): 30 requests/hour, 50/day. Registered API key: 1,000 requests per hour. Completely free. No credit card required. All NASA data is public domain.
Example endpoint:
GET https://api.nasa.gov/planetary/apod?api_key=YOUR_KEYAuth: API key as query parameter. Get your free key instantly at api.nasa.gov
What it does: Open-source REST API for SpaceX launch data including past and upcoming launches, rockets, capsules, crew members, launchpads, landing pads, Starlink satellites, and company information. Community-maintained and frequently updated.
Free tier: Completely free. No API key required. No rate limits. Supports filtering, sorting, pagination, and population of related resources. All data is publicly available.
Example endpoint:
GET https://api.spacexdata.com/v4/launches/latestAuth: None. Open access at github.com/r-spacex/SpaceX-API
What it does: Get random programming, general, knock-knock, pun, and dark humor jokes. Supports single-line and two-part (setup/delivery) formats. Filter by category, type, language, and content flags. Available in multiple languages.
Free tier: Completely free. No API key required. Rate limit: 120 requests per minute. Supports JSON, XML, YAML, and plain text responses. Blacklist flags for sensitive content control.
Example endpoint:
GET https://v2.jokeapi.dev/joke/Programming?type=singleAuth: None. Fully open at jokeapi.dev
What it does: Generate realistic fake user profiles with names, emails, photos, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, and login credentials. Supports 30+ nationalities. Perfect for populating UI prototypes, testing databases, and demo data.
Free tier: Completely free. No API key required. No rate limits. Generate up to 5,000 users per request. Open-source project. Supports seed values for reproducible results.
Example endpoint:
GET https://randomuser.me/api/?results=5&nat=usAuth: None. Fully open at randomuser.me
What it does: Get public holidays for over 100 countries. Includes holiday names, dates, types (public, bank, school, optional), and whether it is a fixed or movable holiday. Covers years from 1925 to 2075. Essential for scheduling and calendar applications.
Free tier: Completely free. No API key required. No rate limits. Open-source, self-hostable. Supports ISO 3166 country codes. Returns localized holiday names.
Example endpoint:
GET https://date.nager.at/api/v3/PublicHolidays/2026/USAuth: None. Fully open at date.nager.at
Free tiers are powerful, but they require strategy. Here is how to get the most out of them without hitting limits or degrading your user experience.
Most API data does not change every second. Cache responses locally (in-memory, Redis via Upstash, or even localStorage) and set reasonable TTLs. A weather API response is valid for 10 minutes. Cryptocurrency prices can be cached for 30-60 seconds. Country data almost never changes. Caching alone can reduce your API calls by 90% or more.
When you hit a rate limit (HTTP 429), do not immediately retry. Wait 1 second, then 2, then 4, then 8. Most APIs include a Retry-After header telling you exactly how long to wait. Libraries like axios-retry and tenacity (Python) handle this automatically.
If an API supports webhooks (GitHub, Stripe, Telegram), use them. A webhook pushes data to you when something changes, consuming zero API calls. Polling the same endpoint every 5 seconds to check for changes wastes hundreds of requests per hour.
Some APIs (like CoinGecko or OpenWeatherMap) allow multiple API keys. For legitimate use cases with separated concerns (different microservices, different projects), having multiple keys with separate quotas is a valid strategy. Always comply with each API's terms of service.
Never expose API keys in frontend JavaScript. Route all API calls through your backend (Cloudflare Worker, Vercel serverless function, or Supabase Edge Function). This protects your keys, lets you add caching, and gives you a single point to add rate limiting and logging.
Most API dashboards show usage stats. Check them weekly. Set up alerts (via Discord webhook or Ntfy push notification) when you hit 80% of your free tier limit. Getting surprised by an overage charge is entirely preventable.
"The best API is the one that is fast, reliable, and free. In 2026, you can build a full production application using nothing but free tiers if you architect it right."
| # | API | Free Limit | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | OpenAI | $5 credits + 10M tokens/mo (mini) | API Key |
| 2 | Anthropic | $5 credits + 50K tokens/mo | API Key |
| 3 | Google Gemini | 100-250 req/day (model varies) | API Key |
| 4 | Hugging Face | Monthly credits, 100K+ models | API Key |
| 5 | Replicate | Limited free runs on select models | API Key |
| 6 | Stability AI | 25 credits + Community License | API Key |
| 7 | Cohere | 1,000 calls/month | API Key |
| 8 | Mistral AI | 1B tokens/month, all models | API Key |
| 9 | CoinGecko | 10,000 calls/month | API Key |
| 10 | Alpha Vantage | 25 req/day | API Key |
| 11 | ExchangeRate-API | 1,500 req/month | API Key |
| 12 | OpenWeatherMap | 60 calls/min | API Key |
| 13 | World Bank | Unlimited | None |
| 14 | REST Countries | Unlimited | None |
| 15 | Open Library | Unlimited | None |
| 16 | CoinCap | 200 req/min | None |
| 17 | 100 req/min (OAuth) | OAuth 2.0 | |
| 18 | YouTube Data | 10,000 units/day | API Key |
| 19 | Unsplash | 50 req/hr (demo), 5K/hr (prod) | API Key |
| 20 | Giphy | Unlimited | API Key |
| 21 | News API | 100 req/day | API Key |
| 22 | DEV.to | Unlimited (read) | API Key (write) |
| 23 | Hacker News | Unlimited | None |
| 24 | TMDb | Unlimited (non-commercial) | API Key |
| 25 | GitHub | 5,000 req/hr (auth) | API Key |
| 26 | Cloudflare Workers | 100K req/day | API Key |
| 27 | Vercel | 100 GB BW, 150K invocations/mo | API Key |
| 28 | Supabase | 500 MB DB, 50K MAU | API Key |
| 29 | Neon Postgres | 0.5 GB, 191.9 compute hrs/mo | API Key |
| 30 | Upstash Redis | 500K commands/mo, 256 MB | API Key |
| 31 | Turso | 500 DBs, 9 GB, 25M reads/mo | API Key |
| 32 | JSONPlaceholder | Unlimited | None |
| 33 | Resend | 3,000 emails/month | API Key |
| 34 | SendGrid | 100 emails/day (60-day trial) | API Key |
| 35 | Telegram Bot | Unlimited (free forever) | Bot Token |
| 36 | Discord Webhooks | 30 req/min per webhook | Webhook URL |
| 37 | Twilio | Free trial credit, 50 msg/day | API Key |
| 38 | Ntfy | 250 notifications/day | None |
| 39 | Mapbox | 50K map loads/month | API Key |
| 40 | Nominatim (OSM) | 1 req/sec (unlimited daily) | None |
| 41 | ipapi.co | 1,000 req/day | None |
| 42 | Google Maps | 10K free calls/mo per API | API Key |
| 43 | OpenCage | 2,500 req/day | API Key |
| 44 | Open-Meteo | 10K req/day (non-commercial) | None |
| 45 | PokeAPI | Unlimited | None |
| 46 | NASA | 1,000 req/hr | API Key |
| 47 | SpaceX | Unlimited | None |
| 48 | JokeAPI | 120 req/min | None |
| 49 | Random User | Unlimited | None |
| 50 | Nager.Date | Unlimited | None |
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