DEV Community

Cover image for GitHub API Without a Token — What Public Data You Can Access for Free
Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

Posted on • Edited on

GitHub API Without a Token — What Public Data You Can Access for Free

#github #api #webdev #beginners

GitHub's REST API lets you access a surprising amount of data without any authentication. Here's what you can query for free.

Search Repositories 

curl 'https://api.github.com/search/repositories?q=web+scraping&sort=stars&per_page=5'
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Returns: repo name, description, stars, forks, language, owner, URL.

Get User Profile 

curl 'https://api.github.com/users/torvalds'
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Returns: name, bio, company, location, followers, public repos count.

List User Repos 

curl 'https://api.github.com/users/torvalds/repos?sort=stars&per_page=10'
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Search Code 

curl 'https://api.github.com/search/code?q=cheerio+scraper+language:javascript'
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Rate Limits

  • Without token: 60 requests/hour (per IP)
  • With token: 5,000 requests/hour
  • Search API: 10 requests/minute (unauthenticated)

For most research tasks, 60 requests/hour is enough. If you need more, generate a personal access token (free).

Use Cases

  1. Technology landscape — what repos exist in your industry?
  2. Competitor analysis — what are competitors building?
  3. Hiring research — what tech stacks do target companies use?
  4. Market research — GitHub stars = developer interest signal

I use GitHub API as one of 9 data sources in my market research tool — it shows the technology landscape for any industry.

More Free APIs

Need GitHub data extracted at scale? Repo lists, contributor stats, issue tracking — $20 flat rate. Email: Spinov001@gmail.com | Order via Payoneer ($20) | All services

What do you use the GitHub API for? I have been building tools that analyze trending repos to spot tech shifts before they go mainstream. Would love to hear your use cases!

More free tools: 77 Web Scraping Tools & APIs

What free API tool do you wish existed? Drop your idea below — I might build it next. 👇

More from me: 10 Dev Tools I Use Daily | 77 Scrapers on a Schedule | 150+ Free APIs
Also: Neon Free Postgres | Vercel Free API | Hetzner 4x More Server
NEW: I Ran an AI Agent for 16 Days — What Actually Works

Need data from the web without writing scrapers? Check my *Apify actors** — ready-made scrapers for HN, Reddit, LinkedIn, and 75+ more sites. Or email me: spinov001@gmail.com*

Top comments (0)