Real APIs that real apps use. Every one worked when I tested it, none needs a credit card, and none needs a key. Open any link to see the real JSON response, then build the project idea under it.
Same formula every time: send a request, get a response. In JavaScript:
const res = await fetch("https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast?latitude=31.55&longitude=74.34¤t=temperature_2m");
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data.current.temperature_2m);Change the latitude and longitude to your own city. That is a working weather app in three lines.
Current weather and forecasts for any city, by latitude and longitude. Used in real weather apps and dashboards.
https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast?latitude=31.55&longitude=74.34¤t=temperature_2m,wind_speed_10mProject idea: A weather widget for your website
Open the response ↗Public profiles, repos and stars for any GitHub user. 60 requests an hour without a key.
https://api.github.com/users/mzain-techProject idea: Show your latest repos on your portfolio
Open the response ↗Daily prayer times for any city. method=1 is the Karachi (University of Islamic Sciences) method used in Pakistan.
https://api.aladhan.com/v1/timingsByCity?city=Lahore&country=Pakistan&method=1Project idea: A prayer-times widget or app
Open the response ↗Any ayah in Arabic or in a translation, by its number.
https://api.alquran.cloud/v1/ayah/1/en.asadProject idea: An ayah-of-the-day section
Open the response ↗Daily exchange rates for major currencies, from the European Central Bank.
https://api.frankfurter.dev/v1/latest?base=USD&symbols=EUR,GBPProject idea: A currency converter
Open the response ↗A short summary, image and link for any Wikipedia article.
https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/summary/LahoreProject idea: Info cards for cities, people or topics
Open the response ↗Meanings, examples and pronunciation audio for English words.
https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/api/v2/entries/en/helloProject idea: A dictionary tool for an English-learning site
Open the response ↗Search millions of books by title or author, with cover images.
https://openlibrary.org/search.json?q=clean+code&limit=1Project idea: A book search for a library or school site
Open the response ↗Returns a QR code image for any text or link. Put the URL straight into an img tag.
https://api.qrserver.com/v1/create-qr-code/?size=200x200&data=https://zainspire.comProject idea: A QR code generator for menus or business cards
Open the response ↗Fake users, posts and to-dos, built for practising fetch, loading states and CRUD before you have a real backend.
https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos/1Project idea: Practise a full CRUD app
Open the response ↗Google's AI models through an API. Make a free key in Google AI Studio and send prompts from your own app: chatbots, summaries, captions. The free tier has rate limits, so check the current limits and model names in the docs.
Get a free key ↗.env file and add .env to .gitignore. Free APIs can change or add limits, so read each one's docs before you rely on it in a real product.Want more? The public-apis list on GitHub has hundreds, sorted by category.