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ipinfo.io vs IPPubblico.org — which free IP API should you use in 2026?

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ipinfo.io vs IPPubblico.org — which free IP API should you use in 2026?

ipinfo.io is one of the most established IP geolocation services, with good data quality and a generous free tier. If you're evaluating it for a project, this article gives you a practical, technical comparison against IPPubblico.org — covering what each does well, where they differ, and which fits which use case.

The basics

ipinfo.io IPPubblico.org
API key required Yes (free tier) No
Free tier limit 50,000 req/month No hard limit, fair use
HTTPS Yes Yes
Plain text endpoint No Yes
JSON endpoint Yes Yes
Multilingual response No Yes (43 languages, 7 fully localized)
Pricing beyond free tier Paid plans from $99/mo Free

API key — the core difference

ipinfo.io requires a token even on the free tier:

curl "https://ipinfo.io/8.8.8.8/json?token=YOUR_TOKEN"
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{
  "ip": "8.8.8.8",
  "city": "Mountain View",
  "region": "California",
  "country": "US",
  "loc": "37.4056,-122.0775",
  "org": "AS15169 Google LLC",
  "timezone": "America/Los_Angeles"
}
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This is fine for most backend applications — you register once, store the token in an environment variable, done. But it's a real constraint for:

  • Embedded devices and firmware — a key baked into deployed hardware can't be rotated easily, and if ipinfo.io invalidates it, every device in the field breaks
  • Quick scripts and prototypes — registering for a key adds friction when you just want to test something
  • Open source projects — shipping a default token in a public repo is a bad practice; asking every user to get their own key adds setup steps

IPPubblico has no key at all:

curl "https://ippubblico.org/?api=1"
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{
  "status": "ok",
  "ip": "8.8.8.8",
  "isp": "Google LLC",
  "asn": "AS15169",
  "timezone": "America/Los_Angeles",
  "geo": {
    "city": "Mountain View",
    "region": "California",
    "country": "United States",
    "country_code": "US",
    "lat": 37.4056,
    "lon": -122.0775
  }
}
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Same data, same depth, zero setup.

Rate limits

ipinfo.io's free tier: 50,000 requests/month, which works out to roughly 1,660/day or about one request every 52 seconds on average if spread evenly. In practice traffic isn't evenly spread, so bursts can hit the limit faster than the daily average suggests.

IPPubblico: no monthly cap, with a soft rate limit per IP (currently 10 seconds between requests) to keep the service stable. For a single application or device, this is effectively unlimited for normal use — DDNS updates, geolocation lookups, periodic checks all sit comfortably under that threshold.

If you're building something with unpredictable or bursty traffic and don't want to think about monthly quotas, this matters.

Data quality and depth

ipinfo.io is well known for accurate data, particularly around ASN and organization details, and offers additional paid datasets (privacy detection, carrier data, abuse contacts) that IPPubblico doesn't provide.

IPPubblico's data comes from MaxMind GeoLite2 — the same open dataset used by a large share of the free IP geolocation ecosystem. For city/country/ISP-level data, the two are comparable in accuracy for most use cases. If you specifically need VPN/proxy detection or carrier-level mobile data, ipinfo.io's paid tiers cover that; IPPubblico doesn't.

Multilingual responses — IPPubblico's distinct feature

This is the one capability the comparison isn't close on. IPPubblico returns city, region, and country names in the requester's language:

curl "https://ippubblico.org/?api=1&lang=ja"
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{
  "geo": {
    "city": "東京",
    "region": "東京都",
    "country": "日本"
  }
}
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Localized data is available for German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Chinese — all interface languages (43 total) work for the website, but geo-field localization is currently limited to those seven. ipinfo.io always returns English regardless of any language parameter, because it doesn't have one.

For applications with non-English-speaking users where you want to display "Tokyo, Japan" as "東京、日本" without maintaining your own translation table, this removes a real chunk of work.

Plain text endpoint

ipinfo.io's API is JSON-first; getting just the IP without parsing requires hitting ipinfo.io/ip:

curl "https://ipinfo.io/ip?token=YOUR_TOKEN"
# 203.0.113.42
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This works but still requires a token. IPPubblico has dedicated subdomains for this exact case, no key needed:

curl https://ipv4.ippubblico.org/
# 203.0.113.42

curl https://ipv6.ippubblico.org/
# 2001:db8::1  (or NONE if unavailable)
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For embedded firmware parsing a one-line response with minimal memory, this is a meaningfully simpler integration — no JSON parser needed at all.

Code comparison — Python

ipinfo.io:

import requests

TOKEN = 'your_token_here'

def get_ip_info():
    r = requests.get(f'https://ipinfo.io/json?token={TOKEN}')
    return r.json()

info = get_ip_info()
print(info['city'], info['country'])
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IPPubblico:

import requests

def get_ip_info():
    r = requests.get('https://ippubblico.org/?api=1')
    return r.json()

info = get_ip_info()
print(info['geo']['city'], info['geo']['country'])
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Nearly identical, minus the token management.

When ipinfo.io is the better choice

  • You need VPN/proxy/abuse detection — IPPubblico doesn't offer this
  • You need carrier-level mobile network data
  • You're already paying for a higher tier and need SLA guarantees
  • Your traffic genuinely exceeds what a free, key-less service should reasonably handle, and you want a commercial relationship with uptime commitments

When IPPubblico is the better choice

  • You're building IoT/embedded firmware where API key management is impractical
  • You want zero setup for a prototype or internal tool
  • You need localized geo names for a non-English-speaking user base
  • You don't want to track or worry about a monthly request quota
  • You want a plain text endpoint with no parsing overhead

Quick reference

Need Best choice
VPN/proxy detection ipinfo.io
No API key, zero setup IPPubblico.org
Embedded/IoT firmware IPPubblico.org
Localized language responses IPPubblico.org
Carrier/mobile network data ipinfo.io
Plain text IP only IPPubblico.org
Enterprise SLA ipinfo.io

Full IPPubblico documentation: ippubblico.org/docs.html
Code examples (ESP32, Raspberry Pi, OpenWRT, Python, Node.js, Go): github.com/ippubblico/examples

Which one are you using in production? Curious to hear real-world experiences with either.

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