ShareYourGroupShareYourGroupFree Public APIs

Using free APIs politely

Free APIs are run by people who pay for the servers. A few habits keep them free.

Limits we read

ServiceWhat its page says
GitHub REST60 requests per hour for unauthenticated calls, tied to your IP address
Open-MeteoFree for non-commercial use, under 10,000 calls a day, 5,000 an hour, 600 a minute
Open Library1 request per second by default, 3 if identified with a User-Agent and email; cache responses
PokeAPICache resources locally whenever you request them
Sunrise-SunsetFree, no key, but a visible link to sunrise-sunset.org is required

Habits

  1. Cache. Save answers that change slowly (a country's name, a book's record) for hours or days.
  2. Do not poll. Ask when the user asks, not every second.
  3. Back off. If you receive 429 (too many requests), wait before you try again, and wait longer each time.
  4. Give credit if the terms say so, and keep the licence in mind (CC BY needs attribution).
  5. Keep keys private. If a service gives you a key, use it only from a server.
  6. Have a fallback. Free services can be slow or go away. Show a message and do not break the page.

Commercial use

Some free tiers are for non-commercial use only. Open-Meteo says so in its terms, and has paid plans for commercial use. If you earn money from your site or app, read the terms before you rely on a free API.

Our own try-it boxes

Each API page of this directory sends one request when you press the button, directly from your browser. No request is made when the page loads.

What if an API disappears?

Keep your code in one small function so that you can replace the source quickly.

Can I hide the API address from users?

Not from a web page: anyone can read the network traffic of the page. Use a server if the address or key is private.

Sources

  • GitHub Docs, rate limits for the REST API
  • open-meteo.com/en/terms
  • openlibrary.org/developers/api
  • pokeapi.co/docs/v2
  • sunrise-sunset.org/api

Read on 14 November 2026.

This is an independent directory. It is not connected with any of the services listed. Each address was called on 14 November 2026 with curl, Python, Node.js and Chrome (from a page on another site), and the answer shown is a real one. APIs change: check the service's own page before you depend on it.