Best Free News APIs (June 2026)

Ranked by uptime + speed + free-tier quality. Updated every hour.

Looking for a free news API that works today? The list below is ranked by our composite score — weighted 60% uptime, 30% response speed, and 10% free-tier accessibility, recalculated every hour from live checks. See our methodology for how the score is computed.

Quick answer:

We track 14 free news APIs with live hourly checks. The current top pick is Hacker News API (100% 30-day uptime) — and it needs no API key. 6 of the 14 require no API key at all, and 4 hold 99%+ uptime.

#1 Hacker News API — 🟢 Online
Official Firebase-based Hacker News API providing real-time access to stories, comments, jobs, and user data.

Unlimited, no key, no credit card
#2 DEV Community API — 🟢 Online
Official API for DEV.to providing access to articles, tags, and user profiles from the developer community platform.

30 calls/30s unauthenticated, no key for reads
#3 Wikipedia REST API — 🟢 Online
Official Wikipedia API for retrieving article summaries, full text, featured content, and on-this-day events.

Unlimited, no key, must set User-Agent
#4 Spaceflight News API — 🟢 Online
Free API aggregating space and astronomy news from major outlets like NASA, ESA, SpaceX, and others.

Unlimited, no key, no credit card
#5 Lobste.rs API — 🟢 Online
Simple JSON API for the Lobste.rs technology-focused news aggregator, providing stories, comments, and user data.

Unlimited, no key, no credit card
#6 The Guardian Open Platform — 🟢 Online
Official Guardian API providing access to over 2 million articles with full text, tags, and section filtering.

500 calls/day, free key, no credit card (test key available)
#7 Reddit JSON API — 🔴 Offline
Unofficial read-only access to Reddit posts and comments by appending .json to any Reddit URL. No key required.

60 requests/min, no key, must set User-Agent
#8 NewsAPI.org — 🔴 Offline
Aggregates headlines and articles from 80,000+ news sources worldwide with keyword and source filtering.

100 calls/day, free key, developer-only (no production)
#9 GNews — 🔴 Offline
Real-time news search API covering 60,000+ sources in 70+ languages with full-text search and topic filtering.

100 calls/day, free key, no credit card
#10 NewsCatcher API — 🔴 Offline
Machine-learning-powered news search API covering 70,000+ sources with NLP-based topic classification.

100 calls/day, free key, no credit card (trial)
#11 NewsData.io — 🔴 Offline
Global news API aggregating 50,000+ sources across 150+ countries.

200 calls/day, free key, email signup
#12 New York Times APIs — 🔴 Offline
Official NYT APIs providing access to article search, top stories, book reviews, and movie reviews content.

500 calls/day, 10 calls/min, free key, email signup
#13 Mediastack — 🔴 Offline
Real-time news API aggregating 7,500+ global sources with filtering by country, language, category, and keyword.

500 calls/month, free key, no credit card
#14 Currents API — 🔴 Offline
Latest news articles across 4,000+ sources in 30+ languages with topic and region filtering.

600 calls/day, free key, no credit card

Compare News APIs

Side-by-side comparisons of the top News APIs — free tier, uptime, and response time:

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best free news API in 2026?

NewsData.io offers 200 calls/day on a free plan with coverage across 150+ countries and 50,000+ sources. GNews and The Guardian also provide solid free tiers. The best choice depends on whether you need real-time headlines or archived articles.

Do free news APIs require a credit card to sign up?

No. NewsData.io, GNews, and The Guardian API all require only an email to register. None of them ask for payment information on their free tier. You get an API key immediately after verifying your email.

What are the rate limits on free news APIs?

Limits vary: NewsData.io gives 200 calls/day, GNews gives 100 calls/day, and The Guardian gives 5,000 calls/day (with some query restrictions). For hobby projects the free tiers are usually sufficient; production use often needs a paid plan.

Can I use free news APIs in a commercial application?

Generally yes, but read each provider's terms. Most free tiers permit commercial use but prohibit reselling the raw data or displaying articles without attribution. The Guardian API, for example, requires you to display their branding alongside content.

How current is the data from free news APIs?

Real-time lag varies. NewsData.io indexes articles within minutes of publication. Some providers on free tiers add a delay (15 minutes to a few hours) compared to paid subscribers. Check the provider's documentation for SLA details.