GratisAPI 🆓

A completely free, 100% static, open-data API.

Gratis means free — and GratisAPI is free in every sense. No API keys, no rate limits, no sign-up, no tracking, no cost. Ever. Every endpoint is a plain JSON file served at a clean URL straight from a global CDN.

10,000+ APIs · 1,000,000+ records · 100+ articles · $0 forever.

🌐 Live: https://gratisapi.com/ 📖 Docs (Swagger UI): https://gratisapi.com/docs/ 📝 Articles: https://gratisapi.com/articles/ 🆓 Philosophy: https://gratisapi.com/philosophy/ 🛠️ How it works (tech spec): https://gratisapi.com/about/ 📄 OpenAPI spec: https://gratisapi.com/openapi.json

Clean, key-free URLs · light & dark mode · served from gratisapi.com via a custom-domain CNAME.

---

How it works

There is no server. Every endpoint is a static file served at a clean, extension-less URL. You GET it with curl, fetch, or anything that speaks HTTP:

# List every available API
curl https://gratisapi.com/api/index

# Get one record
curl https://gratisapi.com/api/animals/lion

# Get a whole dataset
curl https://gratisapi.com/api/elements/index

// Random quote in the browser (CORS is enabled)
const { results } = await fetch(
  "https://gratisapi.com/api/quotes/index"
).then((r) => r.json());
const q = results[Math.floor(Math.random() * results.length)];
console.log(`"${q.quote}" — ${q.author}`);

Endpoint shape

Endpoint	Returns
/api/index	Directory of every dataset
/api/<name>/index	Metadata + all records for one dataset
/api/<name>/<id>	A single record

Each dataset index looks like:

{
  "api": "animals",
  "title": "Animals",
  "count": 20,
  "endpoints": { "list": ".../index", "item": ".../{id}" },
  "fields": ["class", "common_name", "..."],
  "results": [ { "id": "lion", "...": "..." } ]
}

Available APIs

There are 10,000+ APIs in total — from amino-acids to volcanoes. The live, always-current directory of every one is at /api/index. A selection is listed below.

API	Records	What's in it
🌍 countries	197	Capital, ISO codes, continent, currency, population, flag
🇺🇸 us-states	51	Capital, largest city, population, area, region
🗺️ continents	7	Area, population, country counts
🌊 oceans	5	Area, average/max depth, deepest point
⛰️ mountains	31	Elevation, range, first-ascent year
🏞️ rivers	31	Length, continent, outflow
🏞️ lakes	25	Area, depth, type
🏜️ deserts	21	Area, continent, type
💦 waterfalls	16	Height, river, location
💱 currencies	101	ISO 4217 code, symbol, minor unit
🗣️ languages	81	ISO 639-1 code, native name, direction
🦊 animals	71	Full taxonomy kingdom → species
🦖 dinosaurs	40	Period, diet, size, region
🐕 dog-breeds	51	Group, origin, size, temperament
🐈 cat-breeds	31	Origin, coat, temperament
🐦 birds	41	Family, habitat, diet, wingspan
🦈 sharks	25	Size, habitat, danger rating
🌳 trees	32	Leaf type, height, native region
🌷 flowers	30	Color, bloom season, meaning
🍎 fruits	40	Botanical type, origin, calories
🥕 vegetables	36	Type, color, calories
🌶️ spices	36	Plant part, origin, heat level
🧪 elements	118	All 118 chemical elements
🔬 physical-constants	25	Symbol, value, unit
➗ math-constants	20	Symbol, value, description
🔢 si-prefixes	24	Symbol, power of ten
💊 vitamins	13	Function, solubility, sources
🩸 blood-types	8	Donor/recipient compatibility
💨 beaufort-scale	13	Wind force 0–12
🪐 planets	9	Planets & dwarf planets
🌙 moons	30	Parent planet, discovery
✨ constellations	88	All 88 IAU constellations
⭐ stars	30	Magnitude, distance, spectral type
♌ zodiac	12	Western zodiac signs
📡 http-status	63	Status codes & reason phrases
🔗 http-methods	9	Safety, idempotency, caching
📄 mime-types	61	Category & file extensions
🔌 tcp-ports	62	Well-known ports & services
💻 programming-languages	50	Year, paradigm, typing
🔤 ascii	95	Printable ASCII table
🇬🇷 greek-alphabet	24	Transliteration, numeric value
📶 nato-alphabet	26	Code words & pronunciation
·−· morse-code	54	Letters, digits, punctuation
Ⅼ roman-numerals	33	Arabic ↔ Roman
💬 quotes	122	Famous quotes with authors & tags
🏛️ us-presidents	46	Party, term, vice president
⚡ greek-gods	34	Domain, Roman equivalent
⚔️ norse-gods	22	Domain, type, symbol
𓂀 egyptian-gods	21	Domain, symbol, depiction
🗿 seven-wonders	14	Ancient + New wonders
🐉 chinese-zodiac	12	Element, yin-yang, traits
💎 birthstones	12	Monthly stones & meanings
🔮 tarot-major-arcana	22	Keywords, element
💠 gemstones	31	Color, Mohs hardness
🎨 colors	141	Hex, RGB, HSL
🎸 musical-instruments	42	Family, classification
🍸 cocktails	41	Base spirit, glass, IBA status
♟️ chess-pieces	6	Symbols, value, movement
🃏 playing-cards	52	A standard 52-card deck
📅 calendar	19	Months & days of the week

Articles & Philosophy

GratisAPI is more than data. The Articles section has 100+ articles across five categories — Tutorials, Philosophy, Science, Culture and Reference — covering how to use the APIs from any language, deep-dives into the datasets, and essays on free data. Even the articles are an API: they're served from /api/articles/index.

The Philosophy page explains the two meanings of "free" — gratis (free of charge) and libre (free as in freedom) — the free software movement, Richard Stallman and the FSF, and why GratisAPI is deliberately both.

Building locally

The JSON files under api/, plus openapi.json and sitemap.xml, are all generated from the dataset modules in scripts/data/.

python3 -m scripts.generate      # regenerates /api, openapi.json and sitemap.xml

To add a new API, drop a module in scripts/data/ that exposes a META dict and an ITEMS list (each item needs a unique id), then re-run the generator. The new dataset is auto-discovered — no other file needs editing.

# scripts/data/example.py
META = {"name": "example", "title": "Example", "description": "...", "emoji": "📦"}
ITEMS = [{"id": "one", "value": 1}, {"id": "two", "value": 2}]

Deployment & CI

Two GitHub Actions workflows keep the site honest and live:

• .github/workflows/ci.yml — on every push/PR, regenerates the API and fails if the committed output is stale or any JSON is invalid.
• .github/workflows/deploy.yml — on push to gh-pages, rebuilds and publishes to GitHub Pages. Requires Settings → Pages → Source = "GitHub Actions". (If you instead serve directly from the gh-pages branch, the committed files already work as-is and this workflow is optional.)

Contributing

Pull requests welcome — new datasets, corrections, more records. Keep data accurate and sourced from public/open information.

License

GratisAPI is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.0 or later (GPL-2.0-or-later). See LICENSE.