Comprehensive List of Useful Free APIs

In today's fast-paced digital era, the speed at which applications and online services are created and iterated is increasing rapidly. Developers and businesses are continuously seeking innovative methods to enhance user experience, improve service efficiency, and explore new market opportunities. APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) play a crucial role in this process by allowing different software systems to interact, enabling seamless data and functionality integration.

In this innovation-driven internet age, the emergence of free APIs has brought a breath of fresh air to the developer community. They not only serve as an effective way to reduce project costs but also accelerate development processes and inspire creative thinking.

This article will explore a series of high-quality free API resources that can add instant value to projects without sacrificing quality, helping developers and businesses achieve more efficient and economical development workflows. Through these APIs, whether for personal projects or commercial products, developers can explore broader development spaces at lower costs and with greater flexibility.

List of Free APIs

1. Azure Text-to-Speech Service - AI Voice
2. Streaming Service - Shazam
3. Real-time Translation API - Xiarou
4. API Testing Service - RapidAPI
5. Instagram Scraping Service - RocketAPI
6. Taobao Autocomplete API - Xiarou

Azure Text-to-Speech Service - AI Voice

Azure Text-to-Speech is an AI voice feature that converts text content into natural-sounding speech output. This service allows users to create unique brand voices through customizable AI voice generators and select appropriate speech styles and emotional tones for different application scenarios.

API Core Features:

• Realistic Synthesized Speech: Generates fluent, natural pronunciation, providing users with a human-like speech experience.
• Customizable Text Narrator Voice: Allows users to customize AI voices based on their brand characteristics and specific needs.
• Fine Audio Control: Optimize speech output by adjusting parameters such as speed, pitch, pronunciation, and pauses.
• Flexible Deployment: Supports running text-to-speech in the cloud, locally, or on container edges to meet different application needs.
• Custom Voice Output: Define lexicons and control voice parameters using Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) and audio content creation tools.

API Pricing:

• Free Tier: Azure offers a free tier service for new users, providing 500,000 characters free per month.
• Standard Tier: The standard tier service is billed based on the number of characters used. Each Chinese character counts as two billing characters, including Japanese Kanji, Korean Hanja, or Chinese characters used in other languages.
• Custom Neural Voice: Creating and fine-tuning unique neural network custom voices for products or brands may incur additional fees. Custom neural voice training and hosting are billed hourly and per second.
• Real-time Speech Synthesis: Convert text to speech using pre-generated neural voices or custom neural voices via the Speech SDK or REST API.
• Asynchronous Synthesis for Long Audio: Use the batch synthesis API (preview) to asynchronously synthesize text-to-speech files over 10 minutes long, such as books or lectures.
• SSML: Adjust pitch, add pauses, improve pronunciation, change speed, adjust volume, etc., using SSML, but SSML tags also count as billing characters.
• Visemes: Generate facial animation data, currently only supported for American English neural voices.
• Pricing Page: For detailed pricing information, refer to Azure's pricing page, which includes the detailed costs for different service tiers.

API Protocol:

Streaming Service - Shazam

Shazam offers services beyond music recognition, integrating with music streaming services to allow users to listen to or add songs to playlists directly within the application. Additionally, Shazam provides a community platform where users can share their discoveries and interact with other music enthusiasts. Shazam offers API interfaces that enable developers to integrate similar music recognition functionalities into their applications. Through Shazam's API, developers can access rich music data and recognition services to provide a more enriching music experience for users.

API Core Features:

• Music Recognition: Shazam's main function is to identify music playing around the user, who simply needs to open the app and let it listen to the playing music.
• Integration with Streaming Services: Shazam can connect with Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, YouTube Music, and more, allowing users to play identified music on these platforms.
• Music Playback: After identifying a song, users can preview the song and listen to the full track if they subscribe to a streaming service.
• Music Discovery: Shazam helps users discover new music and provides detailed information about songs, such as artists and albums.
• Lyrics Synchronization: Users can sing along with the synchronized lyrics displayed in the Shazam app.
• Music Video Watching: Watch favorite music videos using Apple Music or YouTube.
• Personalized Playlists: Shazam allows users to add identified songs to playlists on Apple Music or Spotify, offering a personalized music experience.
• Cross-Platform Support: Shazam offers iOS and Android versions, allowing users to use Shazam's features on different devices.

API Pricing:

• Basic functions are generally free.

API Protocol:

• Detailed information can be found in the API documentation.

Real-time Translation API

The General Translation Free API is a powerful online language service platform that supports translations in over 200 languages, covering more than 40,000 language combinations. This API can respond to a large number of translation requests in real time, providing world-class translation quality for both simple and complex texts.

API Core Features:

• Multilingual Support: The API supports over 200 languages, allowing users to translate and convert almost all major languages, greatly expanding potential user bases and application scenarios.
• Real-time Translation: The API is capable of handling real-time translation requests, ensuring users receive instant language conversion services to meet fast-paced communication needs.
• High-Quality Translations: Through advanced algorithms and technology, the API guarantees the accuracy and naturalness of translation results, making translated content highly readable and true to the original text.
• Easy Integration: The API's interface is simple and straightforward, with support for Array and JSON return formats, enabling developers to quickly integrate it into various applications, whether websites, mobile apps, or other services.
• Flexible Request Parameters: Users can make simple GET requests and adjust request parameters to suit different translation needs, such as specifying target languages and input texts.

API Pricing:

• Free, currently with no limitations.

API Protocol:

API Testing Service

A comprehensive 360° API performance testing SaaS platform, 100% serverless, offering rich technical features for simulating peak traffic scenarios up to denial-of-service scenarios. Rungutan is a complete 360° API performance testing SaaS platform, 100% serverless.

API Core Features:

• API Request Simulation: RapidAPI supports simulating various types of API requests, including GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE, to meet different testing needs.
• Authentication Support: Provides support for OAuth and other common authentication methods to ensure the security of API testing.
• Dynamic Values: Increase the flexibility of API testing by using dynamic values in requests, making it closer to real-world scenarios.
• Detailed Information: Allows users to quickly view key information such as request headers, request bodies, and response headers, facilitating debugging and analysis.
• Data Export: Supports exporting request and response data in JSON, XML, or YAML formats for easy sharing and archiving.
• Strong Integration: RapidAPI integrates seamlessly with Slack, Flowdock, and HTTP tools like Charles and Fiddler, enhancing development and testing workflows.
• Cloud-based API Testing Solution: RapidAPI Testing is a cloud-based API testing solution that supports comprehensive API testing creation and management from development to deployment.
• Comprehensive Testing: Offers a complete and customizable functional API testing process creation, supporting visual, automated, or code-based test generation through an intuitive interface.

API Pricing:

• Basic Plan: The SerpApi API has a basic plan that offers 500,000 requests per month, but there is a hard limit with 1,000 requests per hour.
• Payment Security: RapidAPI processes credit card information through PCI-compliant banking partners to ensure payment information security.
• Freemium API and Credit Card: Freemium APIs may require credit card information as RapidAPI partners directly with API providers to offer clear and transparent pricing. If a subscription plan includes overage fees, providers may require credit card information.
• Overage Fees: Users will incur overage fees or the service may be suspended if they exceed subscription plan limits.
• Billing Cycle: After subscribing to an API plan, RapidAPI will charge the user's credit card in the next fixed cycle.
• Refund Processing: If a refund is needed, users can contact RapidAPI.
• Dashboard: RapidAPI provides a dashboard for users to clearly see their used APIs and other services.

API Protocol:

Instagram Scraping Service - RocketAPI

RocketAPI is an API designed to simplify Instagram data scraping. It provides a fast and stable service to obtain various information from Instagram, including user information, media content, stories, and comments. Compared to custom solutions, RocketAPI offers a more convenient way, allowing users to focus on business development without spending a lot of time and money building scraping systems.

**API

Core Features:**

• Search Functionality: Search for users, locations, tags, and other information on Instagram.
• Get User Information: Retrieve detailed user information by username or user ID.
• Get User Media: Access all media content published by a user.
• Get User Stories: Access the stories content published by a user.
• Get User Tags: Retrieve the tags used by a user.
• Get User Followers and Following List: Access the list of accounts a user is following and their followers.
• Get User Highlights: Retrieve a user's highlights or selected content.
• Get User Live Broadcasts: Access information if a user is currently live streaming.

API Pricing:

• Free, currently with no limitations.

API Protocol:

Taobao Autocomplete API

The Taobao Autocomplete Service provides an interface for developers to implement search term suggestions on the Taobao platform. This service receives partial keywords entered by users and returns relevant search suggestions, helping users quickly find the products or information they are interested in.

API Core Features:

• Autocomplete Search: Provides Taobao autocomplete search functionality, helping users get relevant search suggestions based on entered keywords. These suggestions are typically used to optimize product titles and descriptions, improving search ranking and exposure.
• Data Source: The data source for autocomplete suggestions comes from the Taobao interface, meaning the search results are closely related to Taobao's search algorithm and user search habits.
• API Stability: While the platform strives to ensure API stability, the API may experience instability as it is provided by third-party developers. The platform continuously improves and provides technical support.
• Smart Integration Code Generation: To facilitate user integration, Xiarou API provides smart integration code generation functionality, supporting multiple programming languages to help users quickly integrate and test the API.
• Online Debugging: Xiarou API offers an online debugging tool supporting multiple request types like GET and POST, allowing users to test the API in real time and get feedback.
• Technical Assistance: Xiarou API provides technical assistance services. If users encounter issues when integrating the API, they can contact Xiarou for assistance.
• Member Line Service: For users with large call volumes, Xiarou API offers customized exclusive premium lines to meet different user needs.
• Real-time Feedback and Repair: Xiarou API promises rapid response and repair of API failures, with minor issues addressed within 5 minutes and major issues resolved within one business day.

API Pricing:

• Free, currently with no limitations.

API Protocol:

Conclusion

Free APIs are an indispensable part of the technology ecosystem, providing developers with extensive resources to build innovative solutions. When selecting and using these APIs, one should consider functionality, cost, limitations, and risks to ensure they effectively support project goals. By carefully selecting and reasonably utilizing free APIs, it is possible to achieve continuous innovation and development of products and services while maintaining cost-effectiveness. Need more free APIs? Visit Explinks - API HUB to discover more!