Introduction
"Whatever data you need, someone has almost certainly already organized it here."
This is the 177th article in the "One Open Source Project a Day" series. Today's project is public-apis.
Every developer has hit this scenario: you want to add a feature — real-time weather, currency exchange rates, random quotes, IP geolocation — and spend half a day hunting for "where is there a free API I can use," sorting out which ones need registration, which have rate limits, which support CORS…
public-apis exists precisely to solve that problem. A community-maintained list of free APIs: 1,400+ APIs, 50+ categories, each entry annotated with authentication method, HTTPS support, and CORS policy.
474k Stars, GitHub's top three by star count, MIT license.
What You Will Learn
- The complete categorization system (50+ categories, representative APIs in each)
- How to quickly find the API type you need
- Auth methods and usage constraint explanations across API types
Prerequisites
- Understanding of REST API basics
- Knowing what CORS, HTTPS, and API Key authentication are
Project Background
What It Is
public-apis is a pure documentation repository. The core is one very large table in README.md — each row is a usable public API, each column is key metadata:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| API | Service name (with link) |
| Description | Brief feature description |
| Auth | Authentication method (apiKey / OAuth / No) |
| HTTPS | Whether HTTPS is supported (Yes / No) |
| CORS | Cross-origin policy (Yes / No / Unknown) |
CORS = Yes means the API can be called directly from the browser without a backend proxy — hugely important for frontend developers.
Project Stats
- ⭐ GitHub Stars: 474,000+ (top 3 on GitHub)
- 🍴 Forks: 52,400+
- 📄 License: MIT
- 📝 API count: 1,400+
- 🗂️ Categories: 50+
- 📅 Active maintenance: community contributions, updated weekly
Complete Category List
All categories with representative APIs, listed alphabetically.
🐾 Animals
Animal photos, facts, species data
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Cat Facts / Cataas | Random cat facts + cat photo service |
| Dog Facts / Dogs | Random dog facts + Stanford Dogs dataset |
| HTTP Cat / HTTP Dog | Cat/dog photos for every HTTP status code |
| eBird | Recent bird observations within a region |
| IUCN | Red List of Threatened Species |
| Movebank | Animal migration and movement data |
| Petfinder / AdoptAPet | Pet adoption information |
| RandomFox / RandomDuck | Random fox/duck photos |
| The Dog / Shibe.Online | Shiba Inu/cat/bird random photos |
| xeno-canto | Global bird call recordings |
🎌 Anime
Anime databases, images, quotes
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| AniList / AniDB | Anime discovery and tracking databases |
| Jikan | Unofficial MyAnimeList API |
| AnimeChan | 10k+ anime quotes |
| MangaDex | Manga database and community |
| Studio Ghibli | Studio Ghibli film resources |
| Trace Moe | Find anime scene from a screenshot |
| Waifu.im / Waifu.pics | 4,000+ anime image archive |
| Kitsu | Anime discovery platform |
🛡️ Anti-Malware
IP/domain/URL reputation, malware analysis
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| VirusTotal | File/URL malware analysis |
| Google Safe Browsing | Google link/domain flagging |
| AbuseIPDB | IP/domain/URL reputation |
| URLhaus / URLScan.io | Malicious URL query and analysis |
| MalwareBazaar | Malware sample collection and sharing |
| AlienVault OTX | Open threat intelligence exchange |
| Phisherman | Phishing site IP/URL reputation |
🎨 Art & Design
Museum collections, icons, color palettes, image generation
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Art Institute of Chicago | AIC collection data |
| Metropolitan Museum of Art | Met Museum collection |
| Harvard Art Museums | Harvard art collection |
| Rijksmuseum | Dutch national museum collection |
| Europeana | European museums and galleries |
| Colormind | AI color scheme generation |
| Iconify | 200+ open source SVG icon sets |
| DummyImage | Custom placeholder image generation |
| EmojiHub | Emoji by category/group |
| Word Cloud | Word cloud image generation |
🔐 Authentication & Authorization
Login, OTP, access control
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Auth0 | Adaptable authentication and authorization |
| GetOTP | Quick OTP flow implementation |
| Stytch | User infrastructure for modern apps |
| MojoAuth | Passwordless authentication |
| Warrant | Authorization and access control APIs |
⛓️ Blockchain
On-chain data, smart contracts, DEX
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Etherscan | Ethereum blockchain explorer API |
| Covalent | Multi-chain data aggregator |
| The Graph | Ethereum GraphQL indexing protocol |
| DefiLlama | DeFi TVL, token prices, volumes, yields |
| Solana JSON RPC | Solana blockchain interaction endpoints |
| Chainlink | Hybrid smart contract building |
📚 Books
Book data, poetry, religious texts
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Google Books | Book information |
| Open Library | Book records, covers, and related data |
| Gutendex | Project Gutenberg library data |
| PoetryDB | Instant access to a vast poetry collection |
| Bible-api | Multi-language Bible API |
| Quran / Quran Cloud | RESTful Quran API (multi-language/translation) |
| Wizard World / PotterDB | Harry Potter universe data |
| Bhagavad Gita | Bhagavad Gita (21+ translations) |
💼 Business
Company info, marketing, payments, procurement
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Clearbit Logo | Company logo search and embedding |
| Freelancer | Freelance platform task data |
| Gmail / Mailchimp | Email sending and marketing campaigns |
| Google Analytics | Data collection and analysis |
| Square | Payment processing and refunds |
| Trello | Kanban task management |
| markerapi | Trademark search |
| Tenders (Hungary/Poland/Romania/Spain/Ukraine) | Government procurement data |
📅 Calendar
Public holidays, religious calendars, working day queries
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Calendarific | Worldwide holidays |
| Nager.Date | Public holidays for 90+ countries |
| Google Calendar | Create/modify Google calendar events |
| Hebrew Calendar | Gregorian ↔ Hebrew calendar conversion |
| Church Calendar | Catholic liturgical calendar |
| UK Bank Holidays | England/Wales/Scotland bank holidays |
☁️ Cloud Storage & File Sharing
File upload, sharing, storage
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Dropbox / Google Drive / OneDrive / Box | Major cloud storage services |
| File.io | Anonymous temporary file sharing |
| Pastebin | Plain text storage |
| Imgbb | Quick private image sharing |
| Pantry | Free JSON storage for small projects |
| Web3 Storage | Free 1TB IPFS file storage |
⚙️ Continuous Integration
CI/CD platform APIs
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| CircleCI | GitHub code automated testing |
| Travis CI | CI builds and testing |
| Bitrise | Mobile dev build pipelines |
| Azure DevOps Health | Azure service health status |
| Buddy | CI/CD platform |
💰 Cryptocurrency
Real-time/historical prices, DEX, on-chain data
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| CoinGecko | Crypto prices, market cap, dev/social data |
| CoinMarketCap | Crypto rankings and prices |
| Binance / Kraken / Bitfinex | Major exchange market data |
| DefiLlama | Open DeFi data (TVL/prices/volumes/yields) |
| Ethplorer | Ethereum token balances, addresses, history |
| Mempool | Bitcoin transaction fees and mempool |
| 1inch / 0x | DEX aggregated quotes and liquidity |
| Hyperliquid | Open interest and funding rate data |
💱 Currency Exchange
Real-time/historical exchange rates, conversion
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Exchangerate.host | Free forex and crypto rates |
| Fixer / Currencylayer | Exchange rates and conversion |
| Frankfurter | Rates, conversion and historical time series |
| Currency-api | 150+ currencies, no rate limits |
| ExchangeRate-API | Free currency conversion |
| Central Bank APIs (Czech/Polish/Russian) | Official central bank rates |
✅ Data Validation
Address verification, phone numbers, VAT numbers
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Lob.com | US address verification |
| US Street Address | US postal address validation |
| VATlayer / VATComply | EU VAT number validation |
| PurgoMalum | Profanity and obscenity content filter |
| Postman Echo | HTTP method test server |
🛠️ Development
Screenshots, QR codes, IP lookup, code execution, web scraping
The largest category in the list — 100+ APIs. Grouped by sub-function:
IP & Networking
| API | Purpose |
|:----|:--------|
| IPify / IPinfo | Simple IP address APIs |
| ip-fast.com | IP address, country, and city |
| Cloudflare Trace | IP, timestamp, user agent, country code |
| MAC address vendor lookup | MAC address manufacturer lookup |
| NetworkCalc | Subnet, DNS, binary, and security calculators |
Screenshots & Web
| API | Purpose |
|:----|:--------|
| ApiFlash / Browshot / Screenshot | Web page screenshot APIs |
| ScreenshotAPI.net | Pixel-perfect website screenshots |
| SavePage.io | Desktop/mobile website screenshots |
| import.io | Extract structured data from websites or RSS |
QR Codes & Barcodes
| API | Purpose |
|:----|:--------|
| QR code (goqr.me) | Generate and decode QR code images |
| QR Code Crafter | SVG/PNG/JPG/WebP/PDF/EPS QR codes |
| QR Codes | Single GET request QR code generation (with logo embedding) |
| Orca Scan | Barcode image generation (QR/Code 128/EAN/Data Matrix) |
Code Execution
| API | Purpose |
|:----|:--------|
| Judge0 CE | Online code execution engine |
| Wandbox | 35+ language code compiler |
| Codex | Multi-language online compiler |
Web Scraping
| API | Purpose |
|:----|:--------|
| ScraperApi / ScrapeNinja / ZenRows | Anti-bot web scraping APIs |
| Webclaw | Web content extraction for LLMs |
| ProxyCrawl | Anti-captcha scraping service |
Dev Utilities
| API | Purpose |
|:----|:--------|
| JSONPlaceholder / ReqRes | Fake REST APIs for testing |
| Httpbin | HTTP request & response testing |
| GitHub / GitLab | Repository, code, user info APIs |
| APIs.guru | Wikipedia for Web APIs (OpenAPI specs) |
| npm Registry | Node.js package info |
| Genderize / Agify / Nationalize | Infer gender/age/nationality from names |
📖 Dictionaries
Definitions, synonyms, pronunciation
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Free Dictionary | Definitions, phonetics, pronunciations, examples, synonyms |
| Merriam-Webster | Dictionary and thesaurus data |
| Oxford | Dictionary data |
| Wiktionary | Collaborative dictionary data |
| Lingua Robot | Definitions, pronunciations, synonyms, antonyms |
| Chinese Character Web | Chinese character definitions and pronunciations |
📄 Documents & Productivity
PDF generation, file conversion, project management
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| OCR.Space | Image/PDF text recognition (free tier) |
| iLovePDF | PDF merge/split/text extraction |
| CloudConvert | Audio/video/document/ebook conversion |
| Notion / Airtable | Knowledge base and spreadsheet integration |
| JIRA | Bug tracking and agile project management |
| ClickUp / Monday / Todoist | Task and project management |
| PandaDoc | Document generation and e-signature |
| DocStruct | AI extraction of invoices/receipts/contracts to JSON/CSV |
| WakaTime | Automatic programmer time tracking |
Email validation, disposable inboxes, sending services
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Sendgrid / Mailtrap | Cloud SMTP email delivery services |
| Guerrilla Mail / mail.tm | Temporary disposable email addresses |
| Kickbox / MailboxValidator | Email address deliverability verification |
| EVA / Disify | Email verification (including disposable detection) |
| Hunter | Domain email search and verification |
| ImprovMX | Free email forwarding service |
🎭 Entertainment
Jokes, memes, quotes, horoscopes
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| chucknorris.io | Curated Chuck Norris jokes |
| JokeAPI | Multi-language jokes with filtering |
| Imgflip | Popular meme templates array |
| justmeme.wtf | 2,400+ meme template API |
| Random Useless Facts | Random but true facts |
| TasteDive | Content-based recommendations (movies/music/games/books) |
| CosmyDay Astrology | Natal charts and sky event computations |
🌍 Environment
Air quality, carbon emissions, renewable energy
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| IQAir / OpenAQ | Air quality and weather data |
| Carbon Interface / Climatiq | Carbon emission estimates (flights/driving/energy) |
| Open-Meteo | Free weather API for non-commercial use |
| UK Carbon Intensity | Official UK grid carbon intensity API |
| PM2.5 Open Data Portal | Low-cost PM2.5 sensor open data |
| kanari | Global wildfire detection and water bomber tracking |
| PVWatts | Photovoltaic solar energy generation prediction |
🎟️ Events
Concerts, ticketing, venues
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Eventbrite | Event search |
| Ticketmaster | Events, attractions, venue search |
| SeatGeek | Events, venues, and performer search |
💹 Finance
Stocks, funds, macroeconomics, SEC filings
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Alpha Vantage / Twelve Data | Real-time and historical stock data |
| Financial Modeling Prep | Real-time and historical stock data |
| Finnhub | Stocks/currencies/crypto real-time RESTful + WebSocket |
| IEX Cloud | Real-time and historical stock and market data |
| FRED | Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis economic data |
| Polygon | Historical stock market data |
| Plaid / Nordigen | Connect user bank accounts, access transaction data |
| Yahoo Finance | Low-latency real-time stock/crypto data |
| SEC EDGAR | US public company annual reports API |
| YNAB | Budgeting and financial planning |
🍔 Food & Drink
Nutrition data, recipes, food products
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Edamam nutrition | Nutritional analysis |
| Edamam recipes | Recipe search |
| Chomp | Grocery product and food data |
| Open Food Facts | Open food nutrition database |
| TheMealDB | Global meal and recipe database |
🎮 Games & Comics
Game databases, esports, card games, comics
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| PokéAPI | Complete Pokémon database |
| Steam | Steam game and user data |
| IGDB | Internet Game Database |
| Magic The Gathering / Scryfall | MTG card data |
| Open Trivia | Programmable multi-category trivia questions |
| BoardGameGeek | Board game database |
| Clash of Clans / Clash Royale | Supercell mobile game data |
| Final Fantasy XIV | FF14 game data |
| xkcd Comics | xkcd webcomic data |
| Marvel | Marvel comics universe data |
| Riot Games | League of Legends/TFT game data |
🗺️ Geocoding
Coordinate conversion, address search, mapping services
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Google Maps | Maps, routing, places |
| Mapbox | Customizable maps and navigation |
| HERE Maps | Map and geographic data services |
| Nominatim (OpenStreetMap) | Open-source geocoding |
| OpenCage | Forward/reverse geocoding |
| GeoNames | Global place names and geographic data |
| LocationIQ | Geocoding and reverse geocoding |
| REST Countries | Country info (geography/language/currency) |
| Zippopotam | Postal code lookup |
🏛️ Government
US/EU/global government open data
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Data USA | US government open data |
| FBI Crime Data | US crime statistics |
| census.gov | US Census Bureau data |
| USASpending.gov | Federal spending data |
| regulations.gov | Federal regulatory data |
| Congress.gov | Legislative information |
🏥 Health
Medical data, disease statistics, drugs
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| openFDA | US food/drug/device data |
| MedlinePlus | Health and medical information |
| USDA FoodData Central | Comprehensive food and nutrition data |
| Open Disease | Global disease statistics |
| CMS.gov | Medicare and Medicaid data |
💼 Jobs
Job search, remote work, government positions
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Adzuna | Job listing aggregator |
| Reed | UK job board |
| Remotive / Jobicy | Remote work listings |
| USAJOBS | US federal government positions |
| GitHub Jobs | Developer-focused positions |
| DevITjobs UK | UK tech job listings |
🤖 Machine Learning
AI models, image recognition, NLP
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| OpenAI | GPT family language models |
| Hugging Face | Open-source ML model hosting |
| Clarifai | AI image and video recognition |
| Cohere | NLP and text generation models |
| Wolfram Alpha | Computational knowledge engine |
| Roboflow | Computer vision training tools |
| Dialogflow | Google conversational AI |
| Imagga | Image analysis and tagging |
🎵 Music
Music catalogs, lyrics, concert info
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Spotify | Music streaming and discovery |
| Last.fm | Music discovery and scrobbling |
| Genius | Lyrics and music annotation |
| Musixmatch | Lyrics and music metadata |
| MusicBrainz | Open music encyclopedia |
| Discogs | Music database and marketplace |
| Bandsintown / Songkick | Artist tour and concert data |
| Deezer | Streaming music library access |
| TheAudioDB | Music metadata and artwork |
| Jamendo | Free music for creative use |
📰 News
Global news aggregation, historical archives
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| New York Times | NYT article search |
| The Guardian | Guardian newspaper articles |
| HackerNews | Tech community news and discussions |
| Gnews / Currents | Aggregated global news |
| Newscatcher / NewsData | Multi-country, multi-language news |
| Mediastack | Live news and blog articles |
| Chronicling America | US historical newspaper archive |
| MarketAux | Financial news with sentiment analysis |
📊 Open Data
General datasets, knowledge bases, city data
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia / Wikidata | Encyclopedia content and structured knowledge |
| World Bank | Global development indicators |
| OpenCorporates | Global company data |
| Teleport | City quality of life data |
| Universities List | World university directory |
| Archive.org | Internet Archive access |
| Quandl | Financial and economic datasets |
📋 Patent
Patents and intellectual property
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| USPTO | US patent and trademark search |
| EPO | European Patent Office data |
| TIPO | Taiwan IP Office |
💬 Personality
Inspirational quotes, advice, affirmations
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Quotable / FavQs.com | Random inspirational quotes |
| Advice Slip | Random life advice |
| kanye.rest | Kanye West quotes |
| Affirmations.dev | Positive affirmations |
| Programming Quotes | Developer-oriented quotes |
| Forismatic | Inspirational sayings |
📱 Phone
Phone number validation and lookup
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| numverify | Global phone number validation and lookup |
| Twilio | SMS and voice call platform |
| Vonage | Multi-channel communication APIs |
| Abstract Phone Validation | Global phone number lookup |
📷 Photography
Photo libraries, placeholder images, image optimization
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Unsplash | High-quality free photographs |
| Pexels | Free stock photography |
| Pixabay | Royalty-free images and videos |
| Lorem Picsum | Random placeholder photos |
| Imgur | Community image hosting |
| Flickr | Photo sharing platform |
| Shutterstock / Getty Images | Commercial stock photography |
| PhotoRoom | Background removal API |
| Wallhaven | Wallpaper discovery |
| ReSmush.it | Image optimization service |
💻 Programming
Competitive programming, code execution
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Codeforces | Competitive programming data |
| KONTESTS | Upcoming programming contest aggregator |
| Judge0 CE | Online code execution |
| Hackerearth | Coding challenges and developer info |
🔬 Science & Math
Space, astronomy, earthquakes, academic research
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| NASA | Space imagery, APOD, Mars rover photos |
| Open Notify | ISS real-time position and astronauts aboard |
| SpaceX REST | SpaceX launches, rockets, capsule data |
| Launch Library 2 | Rocket launch schedule data |
| arXiv | Academic preprint repository |
| PubMed | Biomedical literature database |
| USGS Earthquake Hazards | Real-time seismic activity |
| Newton | Advanced math solver |
| Nobel Prize | Laureate and prize history |
🔒 Security
Vulnerabilities, threat intelligence, identity
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Shodan | Internet-connected device search |
| HaveIBeenPwned | Breach and password exposure check |
| National Vulnerability Database | US CVE and vulnerability data |
| VirusTotal | File/URL malware analysis |
| BinaryEdge | Internet-wide threat scanning |
| Censys | Internet host and certificate scanning |
| GreyNoise | Internet background noise scanning |
| GitGuardian | Secrets detection in repositories |
| Mozilla Observatory | Website security grading |
| Snyk | Open-source vulnerability scanning |
🛍️ Shopping
E-commerce platforms, product data
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| eBay | Marketplace product listings |
| Best Buy | Electronics product and store data |
| WooCommerce | WordPress e-commerce integration |
| Shopee / Lazada | Asian e-commerce platforms |
| FakeStoreAPI | Mock e-commerce product data for testing |
🌐 Social
Major social platform APIs
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Social graph and page data | |
| Photo and story platform | |
| Microblogging platform | |
| Forum and community data | |
| Professional network data | |
| YouTube Data | Video and channel metadata |
| TikTok | Short-form video platform data |
| Twitch | Game streaming platform data |
| Discord/Slack | Communication and collaboration platforms |
| ProductHunt | New product launch community |
🏆 Sports & Fitness
All sports data, live scores
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| API-FOOTBALL | Soccer statistics and fixtures |
| NBA / MLB / NHL | US professional league official data |
| Ergast F1 | Formula One historical race data |
| balldontlie | NBA statistics |
| Cricket Live | Cricket live scores |
| SportsDB / TheSportsDB | Multi-sport statistics database |
| Strava | Athlete activity tracking |
| Wger | Workout and exercise database |
🧪 Test Data
Fake data, placeholders, random users
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| JSONPlaceholder | Fake REST API for testing and prototyping |
| RandomUser | Generated user profile data |
| FakerAPI | Realistic fake data generation |
| FakeStoreAPI | Mock e-commerce product data |
| Mockaroo | Custom test data schemas |
| Bacon Ipsum | Meat-themed lorem ipsum text |
| Dicebear Avatars | Generated placeholder avatars |
| RoboHash | Unique robot/monster avatar images |
| This Person Does Not Exist | AI-generated face images |
| UUID Generator | RFC-compliant UUID creation |
📝 Text Analysis
NLP, translation, sentiment analysis
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Google Cloud NLP | Sentiment/entity/syntax analysis |
| IBM Watson NLU | Advanced text understanding |
| Detect Language | Language identification from text |
| Meaningcloud | Deep semantic text analysis |
| EdenAI | Multi-provider NLP aggregator |
| SYSTRAN | Professional translation API |
| Microsoft Text Analytics | Cognitive language services |
📦 Tracking
Package and shipment tracking
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Aftership | Multi-carrier shipment tracking |
| UPS | UPS parcel tracking |
| Ship24 | Universal parcel tracking |
| Postmon / Correios | Brazilian postal tracking |
| Pixela | Goal and habit tracking visualization |
✈️ Transportation
Flights, public transit, real-time schedules
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| ADS-B Exchange | Global real-time flight tracking |
| Aviationstack | Real-time flight status and global aviation data |
| Amadeus for Developers | Travel and flight search platform |
| Skyscanner | Global flight price comparison |
| Uber | Ride-hailing price and availability |
| GraphHopper | Route planning and navigation engine |
| TransitLand | Open transit data aggregator |
| Navitia | Open transit data platform |
| AIS Hub | Marine vessel tracking |
| Transport for London/NYC/Paris/Berlin/… | Real-time transit data for world cities |
🔗 URL Shorteners
Link shortening and tracking
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Bitly | Link management and shortening |
| TinyURL | Classic URL shortener |
| Rebrandly | Custom domain link shortening |
| Kutt | Open-source link shortening |
| Cutt.ly / Shrtcode | URL shorteners with analytics |
🚗 Vehicle
Vehicle info, VIN decoding, safety ratings
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| NHTSA | US vehicle safety ratings and recalls |
| Car Query | Vehicle specification database |
| Vehicle APIs | VIN decoding and specs |
| Tesla | EV telemetry and vehicle control |
| Carnumber | UK vehicle registration lookup |
🎬 Video
Movie/TV databases, streaming info
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| The Movie Database (TMDB) | Community movie and TV metadata |
| OMDB | Open Movie Database |
| YouTube | Video/channel/playlist metadata |
| IMDb-API | Movie and TV metadata |
| TVMaze | TV show schedule and episode data |
| Watchmode | Streaming availability across platforms |
| SWAPI | Star Wars universe encyclopedic data |
| The Lord of the Rings | Tolkien universe reference API |
| An API of Ice And Fire | Game of Thrones universe data |
| Breaking Bad / Ron Swanson | Classic TV show quotes |
| Vimeo / DailyMotion | Video hosting platforms |
🌤️ Weather
Real-time/historical weather, forecasts, air quality
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Open Weather Map | Global current and forecast weather |
| AccuWeather | Detailed global weather conditions |
| Tomorrow.io | Hyperlocal weather intelligence |
| Visual Crossing | Historical and forecast weather data |
| NOAA Climate Data | US historical climate records |
| National Weather Service | Official US forecast and alerts |
| Open-Meteo | Free weather API for non-commercial use |
| AirVisual / AQICN | Air quality + weather combined |
| Storm Glass | Marine weather and tide data |
| RainViewer | Radar-based precipitation tracking |
Deep Dive
How to Find the API You Need
public-apis offers three main discovery methods:
Method 1: Browse the README
Open the GitHub repo, jump to the relevant category in the table of contents, browse alphabetically.
Method 2: Keyword search
Press t on the repo page to enter file search, or search directly:
# Search in browser address bar
https://github.com/public-apis/public-apis/search?q=weather
Method 3: Use companion tools
The community has built several searchable interfaces on top of public-apis:
https://publicapis.dev # Searchable web UI
https://api.publicapis.org # REST API form of public-apis
The REST API form supports filtering by category, auth requirement, and CORS:
# Get all APIs requiring no auth and supporting CORS
curl "https://api.publicapis.org/entries?auth=null&cors=yes"
# Get APIs by category
curl "https://api.publicapis.org/entries?category=weather"
# Get a random API
curl "https://api.publicapis.org/random"
Understanding the Auth Field
The Auth field has three values that directly determine integration cost:
| Auth Value | Meaning | Integration Cost |
|---|---|---|
No |
No authentication required | Lowest — call directly |
apiKey |
API Key required | Register to get a key; usually has a free tier |
OAuth |
OAuth authorization required | Highest — full authorization flow needed |
Prototyping/learning: prioritize Auth = No.
Production projects: apiKey is the norm; most provide free tiers.
Need to act on behalf of users: only then reach for OAuth (e.g., reading a user's Google Calendar).
Why CORS Matters
For frontend developers, CORS = Yes means the API can be called directly from the browser — no backend proxy needed.
// CORS = Yes: call directly from the browser
const response = await fetch('https://api.chucknorris.io/jokes/random');
const joke = await response.json();
// CORS = No: requires a backend proxy
// Browser → your backend server → target API
Project Links & Resources
Official Resources
- 🌟 GitHub: https://github.com/public-apis/public-apis
- 📄 License: MIT
- 🔍 Searchable UI: publicapis.dev
- 🤝 Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
Related Resources
- awesome-public-datasets — similar project focused on downloadable datasets (not APIs)
- rapidapi.com/hub — commercial API marketplace (includes paid APIs)
Summary
Key Takeaways
- 474k Stars represents real developer need: every developer occasionally needs "data of some type without building the service" — this repo compresses that process to seconds
- 50+ categories, 1,400+ entries: from animal photos to financial data, AI models to public transit — almost no gaps
- Auth / HTTPS / CORS are the three critical columns: these three tell you the integration cost and use context
- CORS = Yes is the frontend developer's quick filter: direct browser call, no proxy — the first choice for rapid prototyping
Who This Is For
- Frontend developers: quickly find data sources callable directly from the browser (filter: CORS=Yes, Auth=No)
- Beginners learning API development: a treasure chest of practice data sources — from cat photos to weather forecasts, every type is covered
- Hackathon participants: 48 hours to find the data your project needs
- Full-stack developers: integrate existing APIs rather than reinventing the wheel
- Technical content creators: source material for API tutorials and demo projects
One-Line Verdict
public-apis' value isn't in how many entries it has — it's that it permanently answers the question "I need some kind of data, where do I find it?" in a single place.
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