40 Free APIs You Can Use In Your Next Programming Project

Free Image, Video, and What-To-Watch APIs To Kick Things Off

Unsplash API - high quality stock photos that do not look stocky

The Unsplash API gives you free access to a huge library of beautiful, high resolution photos that do not have that awkward staged vibe. Think real textures, real places, real people.

You can write a quick function to query images for your blog post by keyword, then show a tasteful banner without buying a license. Or wire it into your group chat bot to pull a relevant image when someone mentions a topic.

Search by term, orientation, color, or even collections. Then save the URLs or download links and render responsive images in your UI. Fast, clean, and it makes any project look more professional.

YouTube Data API - experiment with your own channel like a product

If you want to treat your YouTube channel like a lab, the YouTube API lets you change thumbnails and titles programmatically. That means practical AB testing in code.

Switch two thumbnail variants for a set window, measure click through rate, then automatically set the winner. You can also adjust titles dynamically based on seasonality or trends.

It is surprisingly fun to automate small creative tweaks, and you will learn fast what actually earns clicks for your audience.

What-to-watch search engine - build your own streaming picker

The classic modern day predicament: where on earth is Family Guy - Netflix, Disney Plus, Paramount Plus, lootube. I love this one because it works like a search engine based on movies or shows you give it.

Feed it a title and get back where to watch, by service and region, then display those options in your app. Perfect for a weekend project that helps your group decide what to put on without constant debate.

It is simple to integrate, and even a basic results page with streaming links feels insanely useful in real life.

Lightweight Databases, Logos, Anime, and Game Data Without Headaches

Pantry - a tiny database so you do not spin up a real one

Pricing is wild on most managed databases, and a lot of small apps do not need a full server. Pantry gives you 1,000 requests per month and 100 megabytes of JSON storage with a built in CRUD interface.

It is basically tinydb vibes for Python, but as a service with simple HTTP calls. Perfect for settings, user preferences, short term caches, or MVPs where spinning up Postgres is overkill.

Oh, and it is Canadian too. Had to smile at that.

Clearbit Logo API - grab company logos in one request

Hyper niche, but when you need it, you need it. Clearbit lets you fetch company logos by domain with a single HTTP request.

Drop in twitter.com and you get Twitter’s logo back in a clean format. It is ideal for dashboards, link previews, or B2B tools where that single logo adds instant polish.

It is the classic 2 percent detail that makes a UI feel like a 10 out of 10.

Waifu API - build your anime wife for free

Again, if you care about this, you care about this. The Waifu API lets you fetch anime character images free, and my favorite endpoint is ufi.

When I need to submit a pull request and look like I actually program, I can run content through that endpoint and I am good to go. It is nerdy, it is weird, it is fun.

Use it to add playful flair to community apps or as a reward image in a Discord bot mini game.

IGDB - the Internet Game Database owned by Twitch

Gamers, this one goes deep. IGDB has a free API with intense detail, and it is owned by Twitch, which makes sense given how tied Twitch is to the gaming world.

You can query game versions, genres, covers, screenshots, platforms, even age ratings. If you are building anything around discovery or collections, it is a gold mine.

My favorite Discord channel built a cool app on IGDB data. It is free, so why not try it for your build too.

Discord API - build custom bots that genuinely engage people

The Discord API is perfect for custom bots that play games, level people up, or automate moderation. On my Discord, we run OG roid and it basically does everything.

It is a great way to keep your community active with quests, roles, or scoreboards. MidJourney uses Discord for its entire UX, and there are SDKs for almost every programming language.

If you have an idea for a community feature, the Discord API probably supports it.

News, Fake Data, Forex, Webhooks, Diagrams, Docs, Dogs, and a Panda That Geocodes

World News API - fresh headlines, but go easy on the quota

Want up to date world news in your app? This API has a free tier, but it needs to chill out a bit.

You get 50 points per day and then you are out of calls. Prices jump fast, so make sure you are actually making money before you lean on it in production.

Great for prototypes, dashboards, or a small daily digest feature for your users.

Random Data Generator - fake people, addresses, products without a key

When you test an app, you need a mess of fake data so you can see real lists and forms react to input. Random Data Generator does not require an API key and can emit a lot of different models.

It is probably running on top of Faker.js, but if you just want to hit an endpoint and get JSON, this is perfect. You can seed your local database, fixture your tests, or populate staging with safe fake content.

Foreign exchange rates - free, no auth, and historical data

FX is annoying until it is not, and then you are grateful you wired it in early. This API does not require an auth key, and if you grab the free tier you also get historical rates.

Any app that touches payments or multicurrency tags needs rates somewhere in the flow. This one is free and fair, which is rare in finance data.

Svix - webhooks as a service

When your app does something and needs to notify another app, you use webhooks. Svix gives you webhooks as a service so you do not have to roll your own delivery and retries.

You do need to sign up, but it is free and has SDKs for basically every language. It is a clean way to connect systems without managing a queue yourself.

Kroki-style diagrams from text - turn plain text into PNG or JPEG

Croaky lets you send text and get back a diagram as a PNG or JPEG. Think database schemas, sequence diagrams, or flowcharts generated on the fly.

The database example is handy, but there are tons of other diagram types you can use in docs, blog posts, or your app’s product tours. It is a neat way to convert text models into visuals your users can follow.

Thanks Exoscale for two servers

Sounds funny, only two servers, but I appreciate the support. Little boosts like this keep experiments online while I hammer away at ideas.

Sometimes that is all you need to validate a small service or cron worker before you scale or shut it down.

Google Docs API - yes, you can connect your docs to code

You can connect to Google Docs with an API. Pull your doc content as JSON, build side panel add ons, or connect Docs to other services through your own middleware.

Imagine a button in Docs that syncs a draft to your CMS with labels, or merges comments into your issue tracker. Google Dogs who knew. Could not resist.

HTTP Status Dogs - the least boring status codes on the internet

Status codes are boring, but HTTP status dogs are not. I love the 403 Forbidden pup, and you can fetch any status by code.

Use it to teach beginners, lighten up error pages, or add a smile to a devtools overlay. I would be kind of annoyed if those images took forever to load though, so cache them.

Geokio - the cute panda that geocodes

This cute panda is the face of geocoding places. When someone enters an address as text, you need to translate that into latitude and longitude for Google Maps or your map library.

Google Maps can do it, for a big dollar. Geokio gives you 2,500 free API requests daily, which is a lot for a small app or a test environment.

If you are prototyping delivery zones, radius alerts, or store locators, this free tier will carry you a long way.

Building Faster With AI Inside Your Editor

Machine + GPT 4 in JetBrains - real coding help with real context

I built a lot of these examples using AI with Machine, which is the sponsor of this video. Right now GPT 4 is by far the best large language model for code.

With the Machine extension in JetBrains, it indexes my whole project and embeds it so I can ask specific questions without pasting files into a prompt window. It understands the codebase, not just the single file I am staring at.

It has a 32k context length, so I can dump huge chunks of documentation in and keep building without leaving the editor. That is key when you are integrating new APIs at speed.

Practical flow - ask, integrate, ship

Because this article is full of API projects, I will grab the Geokio API docs, toss the reference into Machine, and ask it to stub a simple app. Then I connect the generated code to what I already have.

I have used JetBrains my entire life, so putting GPT 4 right into that editor is a no brainer. Less window switching, more small wins stacked up fast.

Thanks Machine for sponsoring the build sprint and making the flow smoother.

Tickets, PDFs, File Conversion, Local LLMs, Dictionary, Weather, and Finance Data

Ticketmaster API - event discovery from the source

Ticketmaster has an API. Wild, right. Since Ticketmaster basically has a monopoly on everything live, this API is great for searching events for discovery.

Basically, what you can view in the app you can do here. Not the most flexible thing in the world, but if you want city filters or category listings, it is useful.

ILovePDF - the tool that fixes the PDFs I do not love

The irony behind I Love PDF is that I hate PDFs. With a burning fiery passion. But ILovePDF makes it easy to extract text, edit PDFs, remove passwords, compress, and a lot more.

They have libraries in Ruby, Node, and PHP, but plain REST calls are usually good enough. If your users upload documents, you probably need at least two of these actions.

CloudConvert - convert files without building a pipeline

I tried so hard to find a simple API to convert files reliably and CloudConvert is the best one I found. Cloud Covert, CloudConvert, you know the one.

You get 25 conversions on the free tier. That is it folks. If file conversion is a core feature, this is still the cheapest way to get it done right.

But if you only ever convert between two very specific types, automate it with Python locally and save the quota for users who really need it.

Ollama - run LLMs locally with a simple API

Ollama lets you run large language models on your machine and exposes a local API on localhost. Models like Llama 2, Mistral, or LLaVA are all available.

If you are building privacy centric apps and still want AI features, this is awesome and free. Your data stays on your box, and you still get completion and embedding style endpoints.

It is shockingly good for prototyping AI features without cloud costs.

Free Dictionary API - define words without a login

The Free Dictionary API is exactly what it sounds like. No API key required, and it is run off donations, so props to them.

Build a browser extension that lets you highlight a word and get a clean definition. That way you do not get roasted in your group chat for asking what a word means.

OpenWeather - the weather data workhorse

Hey look, the API we all used when we learned Python, Java, or React, and it is buried this far into the list. Jokes aside, OpenWeather is goated.

You get 1,000 API calls free per day, and it is reliable. Weather data can feel boring, but you can do fun things like connecting it to AI to suggest what to wear or when to run errands.

Use it at your discretion. Or do a little Easter egg on your site that changes theme based on rain.

Core trading data API - build a bot with fundamentals

If you want to build a trading bot like I did, this is the API I used for a lot of the core functions. All the technical terms like P E ratio and more are there, plus historical data.

You get 25 requests per day, which is okay for testing strategies and caching results. It even has data on wheat, corn, and cotton, in case the Amish start writing trading algos.

Did I open source that yet. I should check.

Yahoo Finance via yfinance - the lifeline of Yahoo

Yahoo Finance is the only thing keeping Yahoo alive. I am convinced. As for an official API, it is weird. I do not even know if they have a proper one.

But the yfinance package in Python reliably, well most of the time, fetches historical stock data. It seems like a nightmare to maintain, so props to the maintainer keeping it steady.

Cards, CMS, Music, Podcasts, Speech, Quotes, Food, Payments, Email, Anime, Favorite Apps, Trading, Space, Movies, Dates, and Planes

Deck of Cards API - simple concept, delightful execution

The Deck of Cards API is hilarious because cards are not that complex. But if you are making a game or a card based UI, it is perfect.

You can draw two cards from an endpoint and it just feels right. There are piles, shuffling decks, shuffling piles, listing cards in piles. Okay, maybe it is a bit complex after all.

It is also cute. That matters when you are building something playful.

WordPress REST API - headless without the pain

I used to work with WordPress and never realized this was this good. It has a REST API you can query directly.

If you want to start a site for a client or yourself, but also want to do the fancy TypeScript, React, Astro front end, this is a great way to do it. Honestly, without the plugin mess, WordPress is pretty great.

I said it. I said it. I said it again.

Spotify API - your music history as a feature

Spotify’s API is popular for a reason. You can retrieve artists, songs, and yes, the pennies they pay artists every year.

Spin up a serverless function that grabs your latest listened song every 30 minutes and shows it on your website. It is a tiny window into your taste that users love.

Podcast Index - metadata and transcripts that unlock ideas

Podcast Index lets you grab information on podcasts, and the part I care about most is the transcript. It gives you a downloadable URL and the transcript is time coded.

That means you can do cool AI things like highlight specific moments, build topic maps, or make those annoying videos with one word at a time popping up on screen. The data is there if you want to play.

Deepgram - speech to text with extras

Deepgram is a speech to text AI like OpenAI’s Whisper, but with extra features. You can get timestamps for each word, summarize audio, and even sentiment analysis.

You do need to sign up and get a key, but no credit card and you get 200 credits. That is more than enough to build a working demo.

I built a project where it sped up certain podcast hosts and slowed down others. It was hilarious and surprisingly listenable.

ZenQuotes - one call, instant inspiration

ZenQuotes is probably the one you used in a tutorial. You do not need a key and it is perfect for trying out a new programming language or dropping a silly Easter egg into your Discord bot.

Call the API, get the quote, display it. Beyond simple, and fun to style.

Open Food Facts - scan a barcode, get the truth

Open Food Facts is awesome. Enter a barcode number and it returns the full product details for that exact item.

I built an app last week where I rebuilt a full flow from scratch and saved the result to a database with a nutritional score. It felt like a cheat code to have all that data so easily.

Stripe - the way to accept payments without pain

Stripe’s API is revolutionary. I do not have to do the hard sell here.

It is easy to get started and accept payments whether you are building a store or a financial automation tool. It is not free, it is 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction, but the developer experience is worth it.

If you want truly free, you could try crypto, but you will probably lose money there in other ways.

Resend - sending emails without the ancient pain

Resend makes sending emails extremely easy. You should have seen the hacks I built to get email working before this.

It is a simple integration in basically any language, plus you can create email templates using React. And yes, email still uses HTML tables. We suffer together.

One last thing though. They called their reliable email infrastructure Resend. Am I the only one raising an eyebrow.

trace.moe - identify the anime by a single frame

Trace Moe is an API that finds an anime series based on the frame you upload. You get a 1,000 monthly quota, and the whole thing is open source.

It is seriously impressive. If you are a programmer and not an anime fan yet, these folks are lapping you in side projects. Just give up and join them already.

Your favorite apps probably have APIs - use the data you already have

I am tossing a bunch of these into one slot because the pattern is the same. Most of your favorite tools like Notion, Obsidian, Jira, and for me Todoist, have APIs you can call.

It is your data, and if the app is not free, the API probably is not free either, but it unlocks custom workflows. Automate your task inbox, mirror notes to a website, or sync tickets to a custom dashboard.

Alpaca - automated stock trading the popular way

Alpaca is the most popular path to automated stock trading bots. The docs are clear and there are SDKs for pretty much every language.

I could not sign up because I am Canadian, but if you can, it is a smooth build experience. You just need actual money to run it, which is not free, but the API is approachable.

NASA APIs - real data from space

NASA has a ton of APIs and they are all awesome. Where do you even begin.

There are endpoints for astronomy pictures of the day, Mars weather observations, and so much more. You do not need an API key, but it is recommended if you want higher limits.

This is some of the only open space data you can get, which makes it perfect for games, dashboards, or curiosity projects.

The Movie Database - TMDB for film nerds

TMDB is like IMDb but not owned by Amazon. One of my favorite apps is Letterboxd, and TMDB’s API reminds me how many incredible experiences you can build for movie lovers like me.

It is free for non commercial use, so if you are building a small application for you and your friends, have fun. There are wrappers in a ton of languages to make it even easier.

DigiDates - one shot date utilities

Digi Dates helps you deal with dates without dragging in a giant dependency. Validate a date, check a leap year, things like that.

If your project needs one tiny date function, pulling in Arrow for Python or Moment.js for JavaScript is overkill. One API endpoint can be perfect for the use case.

Quick thank you and the last one

Before number 40, if you are new here, hit subscribe. We just crossed 500,000 subscribers and I am grateful. Truly.

OpenSky Network - track planes in real time

The OpenSky Network lets you track planes in real time, similar to those accounts that got banned for it. For open data, they offer clients in Python and Java, or you can just call the REST API.

Map a flight path, build alerts, or create a cool public dashboard for your city’s airport. It is shockingly fun to watch the sky in data.

Okay, let us deploy that Waifu bot

That is the vibe. Pick a couple of these endpoints, wire them together, and ship something delightful.