Best Free IP Geolocation APIs in 2026: Features, Limits, and Trade-offs

What to look for in a free IP geolocation API

Before picking a free API, check four things:

• HTTPS on free tier — HTTP-only APIs leak IP addresses in transit and are blocked in browser contexts (mixed-content policy)
• Monthly quota — how many requests per month before you need to pay
• Bundled data — does it return only country, or also city, currency, and timezone?
• No attribution requirement — some free APIs require "Powered by X" links

Quick comparison

API	Free quota	HTTPS free	City	Currency	Attribution
ApogeoAPI	1,000/mo	✅	✅	✅ + FX rates	None
ip-api.com	45/min (HTTP only)	❌ (paid)	✅	✅ code only	None
ipinfo.io	50,000/mo	✅	✅	❌	None
ipstack	100/mo (HTTP only)	❌ (paid)	✅	✅ code only	None
abstractapi	20,000/mo	✅	✅	✅ code only	None

ApogeoAPI — free tier details

ApogeoAPI's free tier includes 1,000 requests/month with full city-level accuracy, timezone, and currency data including live exchange rates. No attribution required.

# No API key needed to try it
curl "https://api.apogeoapi.com/v1/geo/8.8.8.8?apikey=YOUR_FREE_KEY"

# Response
{
  "countryCode": "US",
  "countryName": "United States",
  "regionName": "California",
  "city": "Mountain View",
  "latitude": 37.386,
  "longitude": -122.0838,
  "timezone": "America/Los_Angeles",
  "currencyCode": "USD",
  "currencySymbol": "$",
  "currencyRate": 1.0
}

Sign up: app.apogeoapi.com/register — takes 30 seconds, no credit card.

ip-api.com — free tier details

ip-api.com offers 45 requests/minute with no monthly cap — but HTTPS is a paid feature. This means:

• Cannot be called from browser JavaScript (mixed-content block)
• IP addresses are transmitted in plaintext — visible to network observers
• Violates most privacy policies if used for production EU traffic

Best used for: server-side Node.js scripts where network is trusted and you need high throughput without a monthly cap.

ipinfo.io — free tier details

ipinfo.io offers 50,000 requests/month on HTTPS — the highest free quota of any major provider. Drawback: no currency data. You get country, city, region, org (ASN), and timezone, but no currencyCode. You'd need a separate currency API.

Best used for: high-volume applications that only need location data and don't need currency.

ipstack — free tier details

ipstack's free tier allows 100 requests/month and HTTP only. That's too low for most applications and the HTTP restriction makes it browser-unsafe.

abstractapi — free tier details

Abstract API IP Geolocation offers 20,000 requests/month on HTTPS. Good quota, but no exchange rates — you'll need a separate API if you need currency conversion.

How to make 1,000 free requests go far

With subnet-level caching, 1,000 requests covers far more than 1,000 unique visitors:

// Cache by /24 subnet — all IPs in 8.8.8.0/24 share one lookup
const geoCache = new Map();

async function getCountry(ip) {
  const subnet = ip.split('.').slice(0, 3).join('.') + '.0';
  if (geoCache.has(subnet)) return geoCache.get(subnet);

  const data = await fetch(
    `https://api.apogeoapi.com/v1/geo/${ip}?apikey=${process.env.APOGEO_KEY}`
  ).then(r => r.json());

  geoCache.set(subnet, data);
  return data;
}

A typical B2B SaaS with 5,000 monthly visitors from 50 different corporate networks might only consume ~50 unique subnet lookups — well within the free tier.

Which API should you choose?

• Browser (client-side) fetch: ApogeoAPI (HTTPS) or ipinfo.io (HTTPS, high quota) — not ip-api.com or ipstack (HTTP only)
• Currency-aware app: ApogeoAPI — the only free tier that includes live exchange rates
• Very high volume, location only: ipinfo.io (50K/mo free) or ip-api.com (no monthly cap, server-side only)
• Serverless / edge functions: ApogeoAPI or ipinfo.io — both are plain HTTPS REST calls

All of these APIs are free to start. ApogeoAPI's free tier is the smallest by raw count (1,000/mo) but the richest in bundled data — country + city + timezone + currency + live FX rates in a single call.