Image: GitHub

public-apis: Free APIs Collection for Developers

Hey there, developers! 👋

If you're on the hunt for free APIs for your next project, you've come to the right place. Today we're diving into public-apis — a GitHub repo that's become the go-to reference for anyone who needs access to public APIs without spending a dime.

This repo has been collected and maintained by the community for years, and the result? Over 1,400 free APIs spanning a wide range of categories, from weather data to pet information. Let's break it down!

What Is public-apis?

public-apis is a GitHub repository containing a comprehensive list of public APIs that can be accessed for free or with a free tier. The repo is manually maintained by a community of contributors — meaning every API in the list has been curated and verified by real people, not just scraped automatically.

Here are some key stats:

• GitHub Stars: 456K+ (one of the most starred repos on GitHub!)
• Forks: 50.3K+
• Commits: 5,100+
• Active Pull Requests: 1,600+
• License: CC0-1.0 (Public Domain — use freely with no restrictions)
• Language: Python
• Total Categories: Over 50 API categories

This repo isn't just a list of links. Each API includes important information:

This information matters because it directly affects how you can use an API in the browser or on the backend.

Why Does public-apis Matter?

As developers, we often need data from various sources — weather, news, financial data, random photos, and so on. The problem is:

1. We don't always have the budget for paid API subscriptions
2. We need quick prototypes before committing to a paid solution
3. We're not sure which APIs are reliable and easy to work with

That's where public-apis comes in. You can:

• Browse APIs by category
• See at a glance whether an API key is required
• Check for HTTPS and CORS support
• Compare multiple APIs within the same category

Plus, since it's an open-source repo licensed under CC0, you can contribute too — if you find a free API that's not listed, just open a pull request!

Available API Categories

public-apis has over 50 API categories. Here's a full overview:

Animals, Anime & Entertainment

• Animals — Cat facts, dog photos, endangered species data, bird migration locations. Great for educational apps or fun Telegram bots.
• Anime — Data from MyAnimeList and Jikan: anime info, manga, characters, release schedules.
• Entertainment — Movie data (TMDb, OMDB), TV shows, podcasts, and other entertainment.
• Games & Comics — Game data from Steam, RAWG, IGDB, and comics from Marvel, DC.

Design, Art & Visual

• Art & Design — Image generation, color palettes, fonts. Includes Unsplash, Pexels, The Noun Project.
• Photography — Photo editing, filters, and image compression.

Security & Authentication

• Anti-Malware — Scan files and URLs for malware.
• Authentication & Authorization — Auth0, Clerk, Firebase Auth.
• Security — Breach checks, vulnerability scanners, threat intelligence.
• Data Validation — Email, phone number, and address validation.

Finance & Business

• Cryptocurrency — Real-time prices, market cap data (CoinGecko, CoinMarketCap).
• Currency Exchange — Real-time and historical exchange rates.
• Finance — Stock market data, financial news, investment analysis.
• Business — Invoicing, CRM, and other business data.
• Shopping — Product data from Amazon, eBay, and other marketplaces.

Development & DevOps

• Development — GitHub API, Stack Overflow, and dev workflow tools.
• Continuous Integration — Trigger and monitor CI/CD pipelines.
• Programming — Code snippets, programming language documentation.
• Open Source Projects — Info on the most popular open-source projects.

Communication & Social

• Email — SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark for transactional email.
• Social — Twitter, Reddit, Mastodon, and other social platforms.
• Phone — Phone number validation and lookup.
• URL Shorteners — Bitly, TinyURL, and alternatives.

Data, Science & Environment

• Science & Math — NASA, weather data, genetics, astronomy.
• Environment — Air quality, carbon emissions, environmental data.
• Health — Health data, drug information, medical research.
• Open Data — Open datasets from governments and organizations.
• Government — Census data, statistics, legislative data.

Education & Information

• Books — Google Books, Open Library, Goodreads.
• Dictionaries — Oxford, Merriam-Webster, Google Translate.
• Text Analysis — Sentiment analysis, summarization, keyword extraction.
• Machine Learning — Ready-to-use ML models, NLP, computer vision.

Productivity & Documents

• Documents & Productivity — PDF generation, OCR, document automation.
• Calendar — Google Calendar, Calendly, and alternatives.
• Jobs — Job listing data from various sources.

Location & Transportation

• Geocoding — Convert addresses to GPS coordinates and vice versa.
• Transportation — Flights, trains, buses, ride-sharing.
• Vehicle — Car specifications, recall information.
• Tracking — Package tracking, domain lookups, and IP tracking.

Music, Video & Weather

• Music — Spotify, Last.fm, Genius (lyrics).
• Video — YouTube, Vimeo, and streaming platforms.
• Weather — Real-time weather: OpenWeatherMap, Weatherstack.

Other

• Blockchain — On-chain data, Web3 wallet info.
• Cloud Storage — Dropbox, Google Drive, Box.
• Events — Eventbrite, Ticketmaster.
• Food & Drink — Recipes, nutrition data, restaurant info.
• Personality — Personality analysis based on data.
• Test Data — Generators for dummy names, addresses, and phone numbers.

How to Use public-apis

1. Clone or Browse Directly

# Clone the repo for offline browsing
git clone https://github.com/public-apis/public-apis.git
 
# Or open it directly in your browser
# https://github.com/public-apis/public-apis

2. Find the Right API

After cloning, open README.md and use the table of contents to navigate to the category you need.

3. Understand Each API's Columns

• Auth: If it says No, you can call it directly. If it says apiKey, you'll need to register with the provider first.
• HTTPS: If Yes, it's safe for production. If No, proceed with caution.
• CORS: If Yes, it can be called from the browser (frontend). If No, you'll need to route it through a backend/proxy.

4. Read the Docs & Start Building!

Click the link in the API column to read the documentation, then integrate it into your project.

Popular API Examples

Weather — OpenWeatherMap

import requests
 
API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY"
city = "Jakarta"
 
url = f"https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?q={city}&appid={API_KEY}&units=metric"
response = requests.get(url)
data = response.json()
 
print(f"Weather in {city}: {data['weather'][0]['description']}")
print(f"Temperature: {data['main']['temp']}°C")
print(f"Humidity: {data['main']['humidity']}%")

Crypto Prices — CoinGecko

import requests
 
url = "https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/simple/price"
params = {"ids": "bitcoin,ethereum,solana", "vs_currencies": "usd,idr"}
 
response = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = response.json()
 
for coin, prices in data.items():
    print(f"{coin.upper()}:")
    print(f"  USD: ${prices['usd']:,.2f}")
    print(f"  IDR: Rp{prices['idr']:,.0f}")

Random Photos — Unsplash

// Can be called directly from the browser since CORS: Yes
async function getRandomPhoto() {
    const accessKey = 'YOUR_ACCESS_KEY';
    const url = `https://api.unsplash.com/photos/random?client_id=${accessKey}`;
    
    const response = await fetch(url);
    const data = await response.json();
    
    console.log(`Title: ${data.alt_description}`);
    console.log(`URL: ${data.urls.regular}`);
    console.log(`By: ${data.user.name}`);
}
 
getRandomPhoto();

Cat Facts — Cat Facts

import requests
 
url = "https://catfact.ninja/fact"
response = requests.get(url)
data = response.json()
 
print(f"Cat Fact: {data['fact']}")

Currency Exchange Rates

import requests
 
url = "https://open.er-api.com/v6/latest/IDR"
response = requests.get(url)
rates = response.json()['rates']
 
idr_amount = 1_000_000
currencies = ['USD', 'EUR', 'GBP', 'JPY', 'SGD']
 
print(f"Rp{idr_amount:,.0f} is equivalent to:")
for currency in currencies:
    converted = idr_amount * rates[currency]
    print(f"  {currency}: {converted:,.2f}")

Use Cases for Developers

1. 📱 Local Weather App

Build a real-time weather app for cities worldwide. Use OpenWeatherMap (free tier: 1,000 calls/day). Tech stack: React Native/Flutter + Node.js/Python FastAPI.

2. 🤖 Telegram Chatbot with Real-time Data

A Telegram bot that provides weather info, breaking news, or crypto prices. Here's a concept:

from telegram import Update
from telegram.ext import Application, CommandHandler, ContextTypes
import requests
 
async def weather(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE):
    city = context.args[0] if context.args else "Jakarta"
    url = f"https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?q={city}&appid=API_KEY&units=metric"
    data = requests.get(url).json()
    
    message = f"🌤 Weather in {city}:\n"
    message += f"📐 Temperature: {data['main']['temp']}°C\n"
    message += f"💧 Humidity: {data['main']['humidity']}%"
    
    await update.message.reply_text(message)

3. 📊 Financial Dashboard

A dashboard displaying real-time stock market (Marketstack) and cryptocurrency (CoinGecko) data.

4. 🎓 Education Platform

A learning platform with dictionary APIs, book recommendations, and science data for students.

5. 🛒 E-commerce Prototype

Rapid e-commerce prototyping using product data from the Shopping category — no manual data entry required.

6. 📸 Automatic Portfolio Generator

Use the Unsplash/Pexels API to automatically generate a portfolio page with high-quality photos.

Tips for Using Free APIs

1. Always Check Rate Limits

Tip: Cache data that doesn't change often so you don't burn through API calls.

2. Use Environment Variables

# ❌ DON'T do this
API_KEY = "«redacted:sk_live_…»"  # Hardcoded in your code!
 
# ✅ Use environment variables
import os
API_KEY = os.environ.get("OPENWEATHER_API_KEY")

Never commit API keys to Git!

3. Handle Errors Properly

import requests
from requests.exceptions import RequestException
 
def fetch_data(url):
    try:
        response = requests.get(url, timeout=10)
        response.raise_for_status()
        return response.json()
    except requests.exceptions.Timeout:
        print("⏰ Request timed out — try again later")
    except requests.exceptions.HTTPError as e:
        print(f"❌ HTTP Error: {e.response.status_code}")
    except RequestException as e:
        print(f"❌ Error: {e}")
    return None

4. Read the Docs Before You Code

Pay attention to: which endpoints to call, required parameters, response format, and limitations (rate limits, quotas).

5. Check API Status Periodically

Some free APIs occasionally go down or switch to a paid model. Keep an eye on the public-apis repo for updates.

How to Contribute

Want to help grow this list? It's easy:

1. Fork the public-apis repo
2. Add a new API that's not already listed
3. Make sure the format matches:

   | [API Name](https://link.com) | Description | `apiKey` | Yes | Yes |

4. Submit a Pull Request with a clear title
5. Wait for a maintainer review

Contribution tips:

• Make sure the API is truly free or has a free tier
• Include a link to the full documentation
• Fill in the Auth, HTTPS, and CORS columns accurately
• Check that the API isn't already listed (avoid duplicates)

Alternatives & Complementary Resources

Conclusion

public-apis is an essential resource every developer should have bookmarked. With over 1,400 well-curated free APIs, you'll never have to stress about finding data for your projects.

What makes this repo stand out:

• ✅ All free — specifically APIs you can use at no cost or with a free tier
• ✅ Community-curated — every API verified by real humans
• ✅ Complete info — auth, HTTPS, and CORS details at a glance
• ✅ Actively maintained — 5,100+ commits and active community PRs
• ✅ Open Source — CC0 licensed, free to use and contribute to

So the next time you're brainstorming a new project and need data, start with public-apis. The free API you need might already be on the list!

Bookmark the repo now: github.com/public-apis/public-apis

Happy coding, and may your projects run smoothly! 🚀

This article is based on the public-apis/public-apis repository, licensed under CC0-1.0.