At the University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons (FHGR), our students are engaged in creating data stories—simple websites that tell compelling narratives through data. To achieve this, they need reliable public data sources that provide real-time data, often accessed via APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). But where can one find quality public data sources?
While the internet is full of resources listing thousands of public APIs, their quality is often inconsistently checked, if at all. Consequently, many of these data sources become outdated, no longer publicly available, or cease to be free.
To address this issue, I developed freepublicapis.com—a web app that lists free public APIs. What sets it apart? All APIs are tested every single day and ranked based on stability, error rate, and latency. If an API stops functioning, it is promptly removed from the site.
Currently, we have over 100 APIs listed, covering a wide range of categories for students and developers:
- Weather: Get real-time and forecasted weather data.
- Public Data: Access open datasets from governments and organizations.
- Transportation: Information on public transportation systems worldwide.
- Finance: Retrieve market data, cryptocurrency prices, and financial statistics.
- Health: Access health-related information and data services.
- Entertainment: APIs for movies, TV shows, music, and more.
- Environment: Data on air quality, climate, and environmental conditions.
- Sports: Real-time sports data, including scores, statistics, and schedules.
- Gaming: APIs for game data, including trivia, character info, and game stats.
- Food & Drink: Recipe databases, nutritional information, and more.
- Art & Culture: Access to art collections, museums, and cultural data.
- Lifestyle: APIs for fashion, home, and lifestyle content.
- Animals: Data on pets, wildlife, and related content.
- Development: Tools and resources for developers, including testing and prototyping APIs.
Does your company or city offer exciting public datasets? Add your favourite API to freepublicapis.com and help us expand our repository of reliable public data sources.