The latest articles on DEV Community by komil Hassan (@komil_hassan_c9ce5cad3bbb). https://dev.to/komil_hassan_c9ce5cad3bbb https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4204300%2Fb341707f-5acb-4824-80e7-611cbfe1c57f.jpg https://dev.to/komil_hassan_c9ce5cad3bbb en komil Hassan Sat, 24 Oct 2026 08:55:26 +0000 https://dev.to/komil_hassan_c9ce5cad3bbb/we-checked-1600-free-apis-254-were-already-dead-3jmd https://dev.to/komil_hassan_c9ce5cad3bbb/we-checked-1600-free-apis-254-were-already-dead-3jmd <p>Every tutorial you have ever followed starts the same way: "just use this free API." Nobody tells you the second half of that sentence — that the API might have died two years ago.</p> <p>I run <a href="https://freeapis.akclnt.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">AKCLNT Free APIs</a>, a directory of free APIs. Last month we did something the famous lists never do: we actually <em>checked</em>.</p> <h2> The method (steal it, it is simple) </h2> <ul> <li> <strong>Curated core (111 APIs):</strong> a real GET request to a documented endpoint. One retry. Status, response time, and the response body itself are captured and published.</li> <li> <strong>Wider catalog (1,600+ APIs):</strong> a link check. The official site must answer like a living service — 2xx/3xx, or a login page that proves the service exists. Silence, 404s and 5xx after retries = dropped, not listed.</li> <li> <strong>Weekly re-checks.</strong> A list is a snapshot; APIs are living things. So the checks run every week, and the results are public per API — status history, uptime, health score.</li> </ul> <h2> What we found </h2> <ul> <li> <strong>254 dead links refused entry</strong> since tracking began. Not "deprecated." Dead. Sites that no longer answer at all.</li> <li> <strong>82 APIs verified live</strong> with real endpoint requests at the latest check, and 4 down right now — shown, not hidden.</li> <li>The most common way a free API dies is not dramatic: the startup folds, the side project loses its hosting, the free tier gets acquired into oblivion. The tutorial that recommended it lives on forever.</li> </ul> <h2> The APIs that survive </h2> <p>The pattern is almost boring: the survivors are boringly well-run. Open-Meteo (weather, no key at all), REST Countries, PokeAPI, JSONPlaceholder, Frankfurter (ECB currency data, no key) — the ones run by institutions or by maintainers who treat uptime as the product.</p> <p>If you are picking an API for a project, here is the checklist I now use:</p> <ol> <li> <strong>Does it answer right now?</strong> (Not "did a blog post say it works in 2021.")</li> <li> <strong>Is there a status history?</strong> One green check means nothing. Twenty weekly checks mean something.</li> <li> <strong>What happens when it breaks?</strong> A public status page, or silence?</li> <li> <strong>Keyless or free-key?</strong> Keyless is zero friction for prototypes. A free key is usually <em>more</em> reliable for production, because rate limits are per-user.</li> </ol> <h2> Take the data </h2> <p>The whole catalog is open:</p> <ul> <li>Browse it: <a href="https://freeapis.akclnt.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">freeapis.akclnt.com</a> </li> <li>Raw JSON: <a href="https://freeapis.akclnt.com/data.json" rel="noopener noreferrer">freeapis.akclnt.com/data.json</a> </li> <li>Dataset (CSV + JSON with check history): on Kaggle and HuggingFace — search "Free APIs Directory"</li> <li>Every API has a watch feed — subscribe and get an item the week its status changes.</li> </ul> <p>And if you maintain a free API: your listing page has a live badge you can put on your README. It always shows the status from our latest check. No cost, no account.</p> <p>The next census lands in November. If your favorite free API is missing — or dead — tell me in the comments and I will check it myself.</p> api webdev opensource beginners