Stop Paying for APIs Blindly! The 450K-Star GitHub Project That Gives You 1,400+ Free APIs

One repository. 50+ categories. 1,400+ free APIs. 448,968 GitHub stars. And it's been hiding in plain sight since 2016.

If you've ever paid for a weather API, a geocoding service, or a currency exchange endpoint before checking whether a free alternative exists — this post is for you.

The public-apis GitHub repository is one of the most successful open-source projects of all time, and yet a surprising number of developers still don't know about it. Let's change that.

What is public-apis?

public-apis is a community-curated collective list of over 1,400 free APIs, organized across 50+ categories. Think of it as the "Awesome Lists" of APIs — but on steroids.

Metric	Value
⭐ GitHub Stars	448,968
🍴 Forks	49,331
👥 Contributors	1,365+
📝 Total Commits	4,877+
📂 Categories	50+
🔌 APIs Listed	1,400+
🗓️ Created	March 20, 2016
📜 License	MIT

Every API entry includes:

Description — what it does
Auth type — apiKey, OAuth, or No (truly free!)
HTTPS support — because it's almost 2027
CORS support — critical for frontend devs

The Categories: Something for Everyone

Here's a taste of what's inside:

🎮 Games & Comics

PokéAPI — every Pokémon, every generation (GraphQL available)
RAWG.io — 500,000+ games across 50 platforms
Scryfall — Magic: The Gathering card database
Marvel API — official Marvel Comics data
Chess.com — read-only REST API

📊 Finance & Crypto

Alpha Vantage — real-time and historical stock data
CoinGecko — cryptocurrency prices, market data, no API key needed
Finnhub — real-time stocks, currencies, and crypto
SEC EDGAR — access to every US public company filing
FRED — Federal Reserve economic data
CongressInvests — real-time congressional stock trade disclosures 🔥

🌍 Geocoding

OpenStreetMap — the Wikipedia of maps
REST Countries — data on every country
OpenCage — forward & reverse geocoding
What3Words — three words for every 3m² on Earth

🤖 Machine Learning

Hugging Face — AI model hub with inference API
Groq — fast AI inference with free tier (Llama, Mixtral, Gemma)
Jina AI — free embeddings, reranking, text processing
Roboflow Universe — pre-trained computer vision models

🎬 Entertainment

SWAPI — every Star Wars data point you've ever wanted
The Lord of the Rings API
Studio Ghibli API
Harry Potter characters with imagery
Rick and Morty API
IMDbOT — unofficial IMDb data (no key needed!)

🛠️ Development

JSONPlaceholder — fake REST API for prototyping
GitHub API — programmatic access to everything GitHub
Judge0 CE — online code execution in 50+ languages
Mockaroo — generate fake data in JSON, CSV, SQL, XML

🌦️ Weather

Open-Meteo — free global weather forecast (no API key!)
OpenWeatherMap — the go-to for weather data
US National Weather Service — official, free, no key required
AQICN — air quality index for 1,000+ cities
Pirate Weather — Dark Sky-compatible, free

The Backstory: From Side Project to GitHub Legend

The repository was created by Matheus Felipe (matheusfelipeog) on March 20, 2016. What started as a personal reference list of free APIs grew into something far bigger than anyone expected.

Today, the project is stewarded by APILayer (the company behind IPstack, Weatherstack, Marketstack, and more), who maintain the repository alongside a massive community of contributors. The project remains MIT-licensed and fully open source.

Fun fact: This is currently the #5 most-starred repository on all of GitHub — behind only freeCodeCamp, build-your-own-x, and a handful of others. It has more stars than React, Vue, TensorFlow, and Bootstrap combined (well, almost).

5 APIs You Should Bookmark Right Now

1. REST Countries → `https://restcountries.com/v3.1/all`

Zero auth. Returns every country with flags, currencies, languages, capitals, timezones. Perfect for dropdown menus.

2. Open-Meteo → `https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast`

No API key. Free global weather. 7-day forecast with hourly granularity. The liberating alternative to paid weather APIs.

3. CoinGecko → `https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/simple/price`

No API key needed for basic usage. Crypto prices, market caps, 24h changes. The free tier is generous.

4. JSONPlaceholder → `https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts`

Fake REST API with posts, comments, users, todos, albums, photos. Essential for prototyping and testing.

5. NASA APIs → `https://api.nasa.gov`

APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day), Mars Rover photos, Earth imagery. Free API key, rate limit of 1,000/hour.

How to Navigate the Repository

The README is massive — here's how to find what you need fast:

Use the Index at the Top: Click any category to jump directly to it
Check the Auth Column: Look for No entries if you want zero-friction APIs
Watch the CORS Column: If you're building a frontend-only app, Yes in CORS is critical
Ctrl+F is Your Friend: Search for specific keywords (e.g., "pokemon", "blockchain", "cat")

There's also a public-apis official website and a searchable API explorer if you prefer a GUI.

The Fine Print: When "Free" Isn't Free

A few things to keep in mind:

"Free" doesn't always mean unlimited: Many APIs have rate limits (even the ones marked No for auth). Always read the docs.
apiKey ≠ paid: Many APIs require an API key but are still free within generous limits. NASA, OpenWeatherMap, Finnhub — all free-tier.
CORS may block you: If CORS is Unknown or No, you'll need a backend proxy or server-side calls.
Not all are production-ready: Some are hobby projects. Test thoroughly before shipping.

Why This Matters More Than Ever

In 2026, the API economy is massive. Companies spend thousands per month on API subscriptions — often for services that have free, open alternatives. The public-apis repository democratizes access to data in a way that few other projects have.

Whether you're a student building a portfolio project, an indie hacker shipping an MVP, or a senior engineer prototyping a new feature — this repository saves you time, money, and the frustration of hunting for free endpoints.

The project is open-source (MIT). If you find a great free API that's not listed, open a PR. That's how it grew from zero to 448,968 stars — one contribution at a time.

Quick Links

📂 Repository: github.com/public-apis/public-apis
🔍 Searchable Explorer: freepublicapis.com
🌐 Official Site: publicapis.dev
💬 Discord Community: Join here

Have you used any of these APIs in your projects? Found a hidden gem that deserves more attention? Drop a comment below — let's build a better list together.