Best Free Public APIs for Developers in 2026
A short, honest list. No SEO-stuffed top-50 with five working entries — just the public APIs developers actually use, with the warts.
How this list was picked
Three rules: (1) free with no signup, (2) actually online when this post was written, (3) good for at least one specific job. No "API directories", no API marketplaces.
1. JSONPlaceholder
Best for: read-only fake data for UI prototypes.
Watch out: POST returns a fake id but never persists. Don't build write tests around it. Compare to TotalShiftLeft →
2. ReqRes
Best for: a five-minute Postman screenshot of "login + list users".
Watch out: the JWT it returns is a static string, not a real signed token — useless for token-refresh testing. Compare →
3. DummyJSON
Best for: generous read endpoints across products / users / posts / carts.
Watch out: writes are simulated. Compare →
4. Postman Echo
Best for: inspecting exactly what your HTTP client serialised onto the wire — headers, cookies, body.
Watch out: no resources to CRUD against. Compare →
5. Beeceptor
Best for: defining custom mock responses by rule on your own subdomain.
Watch out: setup time. If you just want a ready API, see #6. Compare →
6. TotalShiftLeft API Sandbox
Best for: the cases the others can't cover — real persistence, real OAuth2/JWT, GraphQL and SOAP on the same data, OpenAPI 3.0 spec, controllable error simulation.
Watch out: data is session-scoped (auto-expires after 30 minutes idle). Open the sandbox →
7. PokeAPI
Best for: learning how to navigate large nested resources. Read-only.
8. Open-Meteo
Best for: weather without an API key. Real data, generous free tier.
9. REST Countries
Best for: a small, well-shaped data set when you just need to demo dropdowns and search.
10. The Star Wars / Rick & Morty / etc. fan APIs
Best for: classroom demos. Watch out: some come and go — check before relying on them.
Quick chooser
| Job | Pick |
|---|---|
| Read-only fakes for a UI mockup | JSONPlaceholder |
| Real CRUD + auth practice | TotalShiftLeft REST |
| GraphQL practice | TotalShiftLeft GraphQL |
| SOAP practice | TotalShiftLeft SOAP |
| OAuth2 / JWT practice | TotalShiftLeft Auth |
| Custom mock rules | Beeceptor |
| Inspecting wire-level requests | Postman Echo |
Frequently asked questions
Why is TotalShiftLeft on its own list?
Author bias declared upfront — it is the sandbox this site runs. Every claim is verifiable against the live endpoints.
Why are weather and country APIs included?
They handle real-world job-to-be-done categories the mock APIs do not — real data sources for portfolio projects.
Other free public APIs in this sandbox
Open the live sandbox — REST, GraphQL, SOAP and auth in one place. No signup, no API key.
Open the API Sandbox →Topics: best free public APIs 2026 · free APIs for developers · public APIs list · public APIs no auth · sample APIs for practice