QuestDB Has a Free API — Time-Series Database at 4 Million Rows per Second

QuestDB is the fastest open-source time-series database. It ingests 4M+ rows/second and queries with standard SQL. Built for IoT, fintech, and DevOps.

What Is QuestDB?

QuestDB is a columnar time-series database optimized for high-throughput ingestion and fast analytical queries. It supports SQL, InfluxDB Line Protocol, and PostgreSQL wire protocol.

QuestDB Cloud free tier:

• 1 instance
• Generous compute
• Standard support

Quick Start

docker run -p 9000:9000 -p 9009:9009 -p 8812:8812 questdb/questdb

Web console: http://localhost:9000

REST API

# Create table
curl -G http://localhost:9000/exec --data-urlencode \
  "query=CREATE TABLE sensors (timestamp TIMESTAMP, device STRING, temp DOUBLE) timestamp(timestamp) PARTITION BY DAY WAL;"

# Insert via InfluxDB Line Protocol (port 9009)
echo "sensors,device=sensor1 temp=22.5 1679500000000000000" | nc localhost 9009

# Query via REST
curl -G http://localhost:9000/exec --data-urlencode \
  "query=SELECT device, avg(temp), max(temp) FROM sensors SAMPLE BY 1h;"

Python Example

import psycopg2

conn = psycopg2.connect(host="localhost", port=8812, user="admin", password="quest", database="qdb")
cur = conn.cursor()
cur.execute("SELECT timestamp, avg(temp) FROM sensors SAMPLE BY 1h")
for row in cur.fetchall():
    print(row)

Use Cases

1. IoT — sensor data at scale
2. Financial data — tick-by-tick market data
3. DevOps — infrastructure metrics
4. Energy — smart grid monitoring
5. Telematics — vehicle tracking

QuestDB vs Alternatives

Feature	QuestDB	TimescaleDB	InfluxDB
Ingestion	4M rows/s	500K rows/s	1M rows/s
Query language	SQL	SQL	InfluxQL
Storage engine	Columnar	Row-based	Custom
PostgreSQL compat	Wire protocol	Full	No

---

Need web data at scale? Check out my scraping tools on Apify or email [e-mail] for custom solutions.