Public Data API

Weather, currencies, geography, holidays, books, papers, energy and other open data from 16 public sources, in one JSON format.

Free and open data APIs are scattered across hundreds of sites with their own keys, limits and formats. API.SH wraps the useful ones behind one key: weather and natural hazards, exchange rates and economic data, geocoding, public holidays, books and research papers, energy and fuel prices, vehicles, recipes, visas, barcodes and universities. 69 endpoints in this category, from $1 per 1,000 calls.

Get a free API key See all platforms
  • 16 platforms
  • 69 endpoints
  • from $1 / 1,000 calls
  • 1,000 free credits / month

Public data APIs on API.SH

Each platform has its own page with endpoints, example responses and prices. One API key works for all of them.

Weather API8 endpoints · from $1/1k Exchange Rates API4 endpoints · from $1/1k Geo Data API9 endpoints · from $1/1k Calendar API7 endpoints · from $1/1k Economic Data API3 endpoints · from $1/1k Research Papers API5 endpoints · from $1/1k Books API5 endpoints · from $1/1k Energy API4 endpoints · from $1/1k Fuel Prices API2 endpoints · from $1/1k Natural Hazards API4 endpoints · from $1/1k Vehicles API7 endpoints · from $1/1k Universities API1 endpoint · from $1/1k Food API4 endpoints · from $1/1k Lottery API3 endpoints · from $1/1k Recipes API2 endpoints · from $1/1k Visas API2 endpoints · from $1/1k Barcode Lookup API1 endpoint · from $1/1k

What teams build with public data data

App features without five providers

Add weather, currency conversion, geocoding and holidays to an app with one key and one bill.

WeatherExchange RatesGeo DataCalendar

Economic and energy dashboards

Chart economic indicators, energy and fuel prices over time.

Economic DataEnergyFuel Prices

Research and reference data

Look up books, research papers and universities for catalogs and AI grounding.

BooksResearch PapersUniversities

Popular public data endpoints

platformendpointper 1,000 calls
Weather Air quality
/weather/v1/air-quality
 $1
1 credit
Exchange Rates Currency conversion
/fx/v1/convert
 $1
1 credit
Geo Data City and place search
/geo/v1/cities
 $1
1 credit
Calendar Business days
/calendar/v1/business-days
 $1
1 credit
Economic Data Economic indicator search
/econ/v1/indicators
 $1
1 credit
Research Papers Researcher's works by ORCID
/papers/v1/author
 $1
1 credit
Books Book search
/books/v1/search
 $1
1 credit
Energy Grid carbon intensity (Great Britain)
/energy/v1/carbon-intensity
 $1
1 credit
Fuel Prices Fuel prices near a place (France, Austria)
/fuel/v1/stations
 $1
1 credit
Natural Hazards Disaster alerts (GDACS)
/hazards/v1/alerts
 $1
1 credit
Vehicles Vehicle owner complaints
/vehicles/v1/complaints
 $1
1 credit
Universities University search
/universities/v1/search
 $1
1 credit

One request, clean JSON

Air quality from Weather: GET https://api.api.sh/weather/v1/air-quality. Every other public data endpoint works the same way.

curl "https://api.api.sh/weather/v1/air-quality" \
  -H "x-api-key: $APISH_KEY"
import os, requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.api.sh/weather/v1/air-quality",
    params={},
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["APISH_KEY"]},
    timeout=120,
)
res.raise_for_status()
data = res.json()

Why API.SH for public data data

  • Public data only: no logins, cookies or accounts on the source sites
  • One key and one JSON shape across 16 public data platforms and 482 in all
  • Blocks, retries and parsing handled for you: no scraper to maintain
  • Pay per call; failed calls cost nothing
  • Also in n8n, Zapier, Make, Google Sheets and AI agents (MCP)

Compared with other data APIs

Other providers sell each platform as a separate actor, scraper or subscription. On API.SH every public data platform is under one key and one balance, priced per call on the pricing page.

vs RapidAPIvs Apifyvs Bright Datavs SerpApi

Public data API questions

What is a public data API?+

A public data API returns openly available data (weather, currencies, geography, holidays, publications and more) in a structured format, so you don't have to integrate each source separately.

Are these free data APIs?+

Every API.SH account gets 1,000 free credits each month, no card needed, which covers a lot of public data calls. Paid calls start at $1 per 1,000.

Why not call the open data sources directly?+

You can. API.SH saves you separate keys, rate limits, formats and outages for each source, and gives one JSON shape and one bill.

Can I use it for testing and student projects?+

Yes. The free monthly credits are enough for most prototypes and coursework.

Can I use it from Python or JavaScript?+

Yes. Every endpoint is a GET request returning JSON.

More API categories

Social media APIs34E-commerce APIs110Real estate APIs40Search & SEO APIs25Travel & events APIs27Jobs & company data APIs72Music, movie & game APIs35Ad library APIs4Influencer data APIs3AI answers APIs3Developer & reference APIs15Financial & crypto APIs25Car APIs7Community & content APIs8Education APIs3Sports APIs12Government & registry APIs18News APIs5Local business APIs9Food delivery & restaurant APIs9Website data APIs1Container tracking APIs1
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Every month, on every account. One key for every public data platform above.
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