15 Fun and Interesting APIs to use for your next coding project in 2022
Make sure you try them all
We all would have coded up or come across some pretty unique projects as developers. From hackathons to side undertakings, we love building things outside of work. But sometimes, we might be short of ideas or just have an idea but don’t wish to code everything up from scratch. This is where public APIs could come to our aid.
In this particular blog, I have made a curated list of awesome APIs, which you can take a look at and use in your next project. Who knows, you might make something delightful and fantastic!
What is an API?
If you aren’t aware of APIs, API stands for application programming interface. It is a way for two or more pieces of software to communicate.
For example, Google has an API that allows you to get information about maps, and Twitter has an API that lets you send tweets programmatically. Usually, APIs are well documented to help people use them seamlessly.
You can also read more about REST APIs, in particular, in this blog here!
Fun APIs
Here let’s list all APIs that are mostly just for fun and can be used to add humor or geeky stuff to your existing websites and applications.
1. Pokemon API
This is an API that makes accessible all the Pokemon data in one place. It serves over 250,000,000 API calls each month! You can send a request with a Pokemon name, and it’ll send back a JSON response with all their information.
Since this one does not require an API key, you can directly try this out in your browser. Let’s look for the Pokemon Ditto —
https://pokeapi.co/api/v2/pokemon/dittoOne simple and fun side project that I can immediately think of is a Pokédex!
2. Agify API
How do you tell the age of someone from their name? Well, here is a fun little API that you can use. Agify is used for predicting the age of a person given their name. It is free to use for up to 1000 requests/day. You can try out the following in your browser —
https://api.agify.io?name=michael3. Bored API
This is something you could add to your personal website, for instance. The Bored API ensures that a user is never bored. When requested, it responds with a random activity for the user to do. You can even customize the type and the number of participants!
4. Chuck Norris API
This is a free JSON API for hand-curated Chuck Norris facts. It also has Slack and Facebook messenger integration! For example, you can retrieve a random chuck joke in JSON format —
https://api.chucknorris.io/jokes/random5. Numbers API
An API for interesting facts about numbers. It provides trivia, math, date, and year facts about numbers. For example, if I look for date facts on February 29th, I get the following result.
6. Dog API
This is the internet’s most extensive collection of open-source dog pictures. You fetch random dog images, get a list of all breeds, fetch random photos of a particular species, see all sub-breeds of a species, and even submit pictures of your own dog! For instance, try this in your browser —
https://dog.ceo/api/breeds/image/random7. Marvel API
The Marvel Comics API allows developers everywhere to access information about Marvel’s vast library of comics — from what’s coming up to 70 years ago. For this API, however, you will need to generate a key. You can look for anything here, such as characters, stories, creators of specific series, etc.
Interesting APIs
These APIs provide a more helpful set of data or functionality that you can integrate into meaningful projects.
8. NASA Open APIs
Now, these are a bunch of super amazing APIs with tons of use cases. The objective is to make NASA data, including imagery, eminently accessible to application developers. There is an API called Astronomy Picture of the Day that returns a new picture from space each day, an API to get the weather on Mars, and an API just for Mars Rover photos.
9. SpaceX API
The contribution of SpaceX and Elon Musk to space exploration simply can’t be ignored. SpaceX API is a REST API for launch, rocket, core, capsule, Starlink, launchpad, and landing pad data. This one, however, is unofficial.
10. REST Countries
Thinking about building an application where you will need data about different countries of the world? Here is the API you will need. Supported by donations, this free API provides information about the country’s currency, capital, region, language, etc. Try this in your browser to know all about India.
https://restcountries.com/v3.1/name/India?fullText=true11. Open Weather API
You must have come across this one before. This API provides the weather data for over 200,000 cities. You can also use the API to access historical weather data for your application — for example, performing some analysis or prediction.
12. Polygon.io API
You can get all kinds of financial data from the Polygon.io API, like stock quotes, historical data, and more. They also have an API to get information about cryptocurrencies.
13. News API
If you wish to include news data in your project, this should be the API to use. Used by over 500k developers worldwide, this API helps locate articles and breaking news headlines from news sources and blogs across the web.
14. COVID19 API
Supported by Digital Ocean, among others, this API has served over 750 million requests. It provides access to data on COVID19 through an easy API for free. One can build dashboards and mobile apps or integrate into other applications using this. The data is sourced from Johns Hopkins CSSE.
15. MapBox APIs
Serving as an alternative to Google Maps — MapBox provides APIs for four distinct services: Maps, Navigation, Search, and Accounts.
I have written multiple blogs about these APIs, and also made videos on YouTube.
Honourable Mention
Public APIs on GitHub provides a collective list of free APIs for use in software and web development. The repository has nearly 198k stars! ⭐
Make sure to check it out from the link below —
