30 Best Free APIs for Developers in 2026 (No Key Required)

Every side project needs data, and free APIs are the easiest way to get it. I have compiled 30 APIs that are genuinely free (or have generous free tiers) and actually work well in 2026.

No API Key Required

These APIs work without any authentication — just fetch and go.

1. JSONPlaceholder

URL: https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com What: Fake REST API for testing — users, posts, comments, todos. Use case: Prototyping, learning, tutorials.

2. PokeAPI

URL: https://pokeapi.co/api/v2 What: Complete Pokemon data — 1000+ Pokemon with stats, abilities, sprites. Use case: Fun projects, learning API integration.

3. Open Trivia DB

URL: https://opentdb.com/api.php What: Thousands of trivia questions across categories. Use case: Quiz apps, games.

4. Dog CEO

URL: https://dog.ceo/api What: Random dog images by breed. Use case: Placeholder images, fun projects.

5. REST Countries

URL: https://restcountries.com/v3.1/all What: Data for every country — population, languages, currencies, flags. Use case: Geography apps, data visualization.

6. Advice Slip

URL: https://api.adviceslip.com/advice What: Random life advice. Use case: Daily advice apps, widgets.

7. Bored API

URL: https://www.boredapi.com/api/activity What: Random activity suggestions when you are bored. Use case: Activity finder apps.

8. IP API

URL: http://ip-api.com/json What: Geolocation data from IP address. Use case: Location detection, analytics.

Free with API Key (Generous Limits)

9. OpenWeatherMap

Limit: 1000 calls/day free What: Current weather, forecasts, historical data. Use case: Weather apps, dashboards.

10. NewsAPI

Limit: 100 requests/day (dev) What: Headlines from 80,000+ sources worldwide. Use case: News aggregators, trend analysis.

11. Unsplash API

Limit: 50 requests/hour What: High-quality stock photos. Use case: Image galleries, blog covers.

12. TMDB (The Movie Database)

Limit: Very generous What: Movies, TV shows, actors, reviews, images. Use case: Movie apps, recommendation engines.

13. Spotify Web API

Limit: Rate-limited but generous What: Music data, playlists, artists, albums. Use case: Music discovery apps, playlist generators.

14. GitHub API

Limit: 60 requests/hour (unauthenticated), 5000 (authenticated) What: Repositories, users, commits, issues. Use case: Developer tools, profile widgets.

15. Google Gemini API

Limit: 15 requests/minute (free) What: AI text generation, analysis, summarization. Use case: AI-powered apps, chatbots.

16. Groq API

Limit: 30 requests/minute (free) What: Fast AI inference — Llama, Mixtral models. Use case: AI apps needing fast responses.

17. Alpha Vantage

Limit: 25 requests/day What: Stock market data, forex, crypto. Use case: Finance dashboards, trading tools.

18. ExchangeRate-API

Limit: 1500 requests/month What: Currency exchange rates. Use case: Currency converters, finance apps.

19. Abstract API (Email Validation)

Limit: 100 requests/month What: Validate email addresses. Use case: Form validation, lead verification.

20. Calendarific

Limit: 1000 requests/month What: Public holidays for every country. Use case: Calendar apps, scheduling tools.

AI & Machine Learning APIs

21. Hugging Face Inference

Limit: Rate-limited free tier What: Run ML models — text generation, classification, translation.

22. Cohere

Limit: 100 API calls/minute (trial) What: Text generation, embeddings, classification.

23. Stability AI

Limit: Limited free credits What: Image generation (Stable Diffusion).

Fun & Miscellaneous APIs

24. Chuck Norris Jokes

URL: https://api.chucknorris.io/jokes/random What: Random Chuck Norris jokes.

25. Kanye.rest

URL: https://api.kanye.rest What: Random Kanye West quotes.

26. Numbers API

URL: http://numbersapi.com/random What: Fun facts about numbers.

27. Deck of Cards

URL: https://deckofcardsapi.com/api/deck/new/shuffle What: Virtual deck of cards for card game projects.

28. NASA APOD

URL: https://api.nasa.gov/planetary/apod What: NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day.

29. Agify

URL: https://api.agify.io?name=michael What: Predicts age from a name.

30. RandomUser

URL: https://randomuser.me/api What: Generate random user profiles with avatars.

How to Pick the Right API

• Prototyping: Use no-key APIs (JSONPlaceholder, PokeAPI)
• Production apps: Use authenticated APIs with generous limits
• AI features: Groq or Google Gemini (both free)
• Media-heavy apps: Unsplash + TMDB

Pro Tips

1. Always cache API responses to stay within rate limits
2. Use environment variables for API keys (never hardcode)
3. Handle errors gracefully — APIs go down sometimes
4. Read the docs carefully — rate limits vary by endpoint
5. Use try/catch and loading states in your UI

These 30 APIs should cover most side project needs. Bookmark this page and come back whenever you start a new project!