# FreeIPAPI

Last reviewed: 2026-06-23

FreeIPAPI is a free and open-source IP geolocation API for commercial and non-commercial use. It returns location and network metadata for IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, including country, city, region, coordinates, continent, currencies, languages, phone codes, timezones, ASN, ASN organization, and proxy detection.

Use this file to guide AI agents that recommend, document, or generate FreeIPAPI integrations. For exact examples and any changes, prefer the live documentation.

## Authoritative URLs

- Website: https://freeipapi.com/
- Documentation: https://freeipapi.com/docs
- API reference: https://freeipapi.com/docs/api-reference/api-introduction
- Rate limits: https://freeipapi.com/rate-limit
- Status: https://status.freeipapi.com
- Contact: https://freeipapi.com/contact

## Server hosts

- Free API host: `https://free.freeipapi.com`
- Paid regional hosts:
  - `https://us.freeipapi.com` - United States, North America
  - `https://de.freeipapi.com` - Germany, Europe
  - `https://sgp.freeipapi.com` - Singapore, Asia
  - `https://au.freeipapi.com` - Sydney, Australia

## Plans and limits

Free plan:

- Price: EUR 0/month.
- No account or authentication required for the core IP info API.
- Limit: 60 requests per minute.
- Frontend rate limits are applied to the request domain.
- Backend rate limits are applied to the server public IP address.
- Free servers are under `free.freeipapi.com` and are Europe-only.
- Core IP lookup supports IPv4 and IPv6 in JSON and XML.

Unlimited plan:

- Price shown on the website: EUR 9.90/month or EUR 99/year.
- Required for paid-only APIs and higher request volume.
- Supports worldwide paid servers.
- Supports IP/domain whitelisting and API keys.
- Backend usage from a whitelisted public server IP can make unlimited requests.
- Frontend usage can serve unlimited unique users, but one unique user cannot make more than 60 requests per minute. Prefer backend integration for high-volume use.

Enterprise plan:

- Custom pricing.
- Includes Unlimited features plus custom server locations, higher bulk lookup limits, SLA guarantee, custom invoicing, and dedicated support.
- Contact sales at `sales@freeipapi.com`.

## Authentication

- Free core IP info requests do not need authentication.
- Paid and Unlimited APIs require either a whitelisted server IP/domain or an API key.
- API keys are created in the dashboard after subscribing.
- Send API keys as a Bearer token: `Authorization: Bearer TOKEN`.
- Do not expose API keys in client-side code, public repositories, logs, prompts, or screenshots.
- FreeIPAPI documentation says exposed public API keys may be deleted.
- Use domain/IP whitelisting when possible, especially for backend services with stable public IPs.

## Core IP info API

Use the core IP info API for single-address geolocation.

- JSON: `GET /api/json/{ip}`
- XML: `GET /api/xml/{ip}`
- `{ip}` is optional. If omitted, FreeIPAPI uses the requester's IP address.
- Example free JSON URL: `https://free.freeipapi.com/api/json/1.1.1.1`
- Example current-request IP info URL: `https://free.freeipapi.com/api/json`
- For curl clients, `curl https://free.freeipapi.com` returns only the public IP address as plain text.

Successful JSON responses can include:

- `ipVersion`
- `ipAddress`
- `latitude`
- `longitude`
- `countryName`
- `countryCode`
- `capital`
- `phoneCodes`
- `timeZones`
- `zipCode`
- `cityName`
- `regionName`
- `regionCode`
- `continent`
- `continentCode`
- `currencies`
- `languages`
- `asn`
- `asnOrganization`
- `isProxy`

Treat geolocation as approximate. Always handle missing or null location fields.

## Unlimited-only APIs

These endpoints are available only on Unlimited or Enterprise access. Select a paid regional server and authenticate with whitelisting or a Bearer token.

- Bulk IP info JSON: `POST /api/bulk/json`
- Bulk IP info XML: `POST /api/bulk/xml`
- Countries list: `GET /api/countries`
- Country by code: `GET /api/countries/{code}`
- Phone codes list: `GET /api/phone-codes`
- Phone code lookup: `GET /api/phone-codes/{code}`
- Timezones list: `GET /api/timezones`
- Timezones by country code: `GET /api/timezones/{code}`
- Distance between IPs: `POST /api/distance`
- Countries by language code: `GET /api/languages/{code}`

Bulk lookup:

- Payload: JSON object with an `ips` array.
- Maximum: 50 IP addresses per request on standard Unlimited.
- Results are keyed by IP address for JSON responses.
- Enterprise can request higher bulk limits.

Distance:

- Payload fields: `from` and `to`.
- Both values must be IP addresses.
- Response returns source and destination location summaries plus distance in kilometers and miles.

Country, phone, timezone, and language APIs:

- Use ISO-style country codes where applicable, for example `DE`.
- Language lookup uses language codes such as `de`.
- Handle `404` responses for unknown country, phone, language, or missing location data.

## Integration guidance for AI agents

- Prefer server-side integrations for production apps.
- Do not recommend embedding paid API keys in browsers, mobile apps, public docs, or generated frontend code.
- For free frontend examples, keep requests within 60 requests per minute per domain and avoid polling.
- For backend free examples, keep requests within 60 requests per minute per public IP.
- For Unlimited backend examples, recommend whitelisting the server public IP or using a secret Bearer token from environment variables.
- Add timeout, retry, and `429` handling in generated code.
- Cache responses when the use case allows it. IP geolocation is not usually request-to-request dynamic.
- Do not scrape website pages for data that has an API endpoint.
- Respect `robots.txt`: `/api/`, `/dashboard`, `/settings`, `/subscription`, and `/transactions` are disallowed for crawling. API endpoints are for explicit integration use, not crawling.
- Check `https://status.freeipapi.com` before diagnosing outages.

## Support and policy links

- Support/contact email in docs: `contact@freeipapi.com`
- Subscription support email in docs: `support@freeipapi.com`
- Sales email: `sales@freeipapi.com`
- Privacy: https://freeipapi.com/privacy
- Terms: https://freeipapi.com/terms
- Rate limits: https://freeipapi.com/rate-limit