ip-api.com
Free IP geolocation REST API requiring no API key for moderate usage, returning country, region, city, ISP, and coordinates for any IP address.
Score Breakdown
⚙ Agent Friendliness
🔒 Security
IP geolocation API. Simple API key. Low security risk — public IP data. IP addresses are PII in GDPR context. Free tier allows limited lookups without key.
⚡ Reliability
Best When
You need dead-simple IP geolocation for non-commercial, low-volume use with zero setup.
Avoid When
You need HTTPS, commercial usage rights, high volume, or reliable SLA guarantees.
Use Cases
- • Quick prototyping of IP geolocation features without signup
- • Low-volume IP lookups in personal or small-scale projects
- • Batch IP geolocation for data enrichment scripts
- • Fallback geolocation when primary provider is unavailable
- • Educational and development use without billing concerns
Not For
- • HTTPS access on free tier (HTTP only without pro key)
- • Commercial use without the pro plan
- • High-volume production workloads (45 requests/minute limit)
Interface
Authentication
No auth required for free tier (HTTP only). Pro plan uses API key for HTTPS access and higher rate limits. Key passed as query parameter.
Pricing
Free tier is truly free with no signup required. Commercial use requires Pro subscription. HTTPS costs extra.
Agent Metadata
Known Gotchas
- ⚠ Free tier is HTTP-only - MITM attacks are possible if used for security-sensitive decisions
- ⚠ 45 requests/minute rate limit is very low for production agents - easy to hit
- ⚠ Commercial use of the free tier violates terms of service
- ⚠ Response uses 'status: fail' instead of HTTP error codes - agents must check body, not status code
- ⚠ Batch endpoint accepts up to 100 IPs per request but requires the Pro plan
Alternatives
Full Evaluation Report
Detailed scoring breakdown, competitive positioning, security analysis, and improvement recommendations for ip-api.com.
Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-06.