Public APIs
A community catalogue of public APIs, with the category lists, auth flags and provider links you can study on this page.
APIs
Who it’s for. People choosing a data source for a prototype, before they write the integration.
What it is
A useful starting point—not another unexplained bookmark.
Public APIs is a community directory of data and services for prototypes, websites and internal tools. Each entry tells you the job in one line, whether you need a key, whether the documented endpoint uses HTTPS, and whether a browser page is likely to be allowed to call it directly. The catalogue below is the README list, on this page, so you can search it before you open GitHub.
What an entry is
A pointer, not a promise.
Someone added the API to a shared list. The line does not prove the service is free, still online, or legal for your product. It is enough to decide whether the API is worth a closer look.
- Name
Who published it
The link goes to that provider’s docs or homepage. That site is the source of truth for endpoints, prices and limits.
- Description
The job in one line
Use it to match a user task. “Random dog pictures” and “foreign exchange rates” are different products even though both are APIs.
- Auth
How you are allowed in
No means the list says you can call it without a key. apiKey means you create a secret and keep it on a server. OAuth means a person signs in.
- HTTPS and CORS
Where the call should live
Prefer HTTPS Yes. CORS Yes means a web page might call it from the browser. CORS No or Unknown means plan on calling it from your server.
Where it fits
Pick the category from the user’s job.
- Money
Finance and currency
Prices, exchange rates and company data. Confirm the delay and the licence before a number is shown to a customer.
- Place
Weather, geocoding, transport
Forecasts, air quality, addresses, maps and transit. These are common first integrations because the response is easy to display.
- Reference
Health, government, science
Useful for lookup features. A health API is reference data, not a diagnosis, and government data still has reuse rules.
- Content
News, books, music, games
Good for a feature that needs outside material. Check whether you may store or redistribute the response.
- Practice
Animals, test data, dictionaries
Friendly first calls while you learn fetch, errors and loading states. Dog pictures will not teach you billing, but they will teach the request path.
- Agents
The same repo’s MCP list
The GitHub README also lists MCP servers for agents. Those entries use transport and install links instead of CORS. Read them in the repository when the client is an agent rather than your own backend.
How to use one
Read the flags, then make one small call.
- No key
- You can try a public example from the provider docs. Still read the rate limit. A keyless API can block you.
- API key
- Create the key on the provider site. Put it in a server environment variable. A public website or mobile app should call your server, not the provider, if the key must stay secret.
- OAuth
- Leave this until the prototype needs a signed-in user. It is the wrong first API if you only want sample JSON.
- HTTPS No
- Skip it for anything you ship. The list still contains older HTTP endpoints.
- CORS Unknown
- Do not guess. Try the call from the place your app will actually run, or read the provider’s CORS note.
Useful for
When to use it
- Finding a data source for a prototype
- Learning how auth, HTTPS and CORS change the design
- Comparing two or three providers before writing code
What you will find
Inside the resource
- More than two thousand entries in 51 categories
- Auth, HTTPS and CORS flags on every entry
- Direct links to each provider
- A search and category browser on this page
Quick start
How I would use it
- 01
Write the user job in one sentence
Example: show today’s weather for a city the person typed. The category comes from that sentence, not from an API that looks interesting.
- 02
Open one category and shortlist three
Use the catalogue on this page. Prefer HTTPS Yes. Note the auth type. Read the one-line description and open the provider link.
- 03
Confirm the real terms
On the provider site, find the endpoint, an example request, the price, the rate limit and what you may do with the data.
- 04
Call one endpoint
Use a test key or a keyless example. Print the JSON. Handle a bad city name and a rate-limit response before you design the screen.
- 05
Hide secrets and cache on purpose
Keep API keys on the server. Cache responses that do not need to be live every second. Replace the API later if the provider changes the free tier.
On this page
The public API catalogue
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Where to go next
Next step
Want to use one of these in a real product?
Tell me the user problem. I will help you choose the resource and the safest first integration.