Best Free Public APIs for API Testing (2026)

Whether you're building an application, learning API automation, or simply experimenting with REST APIs, having a good collection of public APIs can save you a lot of time instead of creating your own backend from scratch.

To help you get started, I've put together a list of free public APIs that I've found useful over the past few years that are perfect for practicing API automation, learning REST concepts, validating requests and responses, or even building your next application.

Free APIs for API Testing & Automation

These APIs are excellent for learning API testing and creating automation frameworks because they expose realistic endpoints and common REST operations.

1. JSONPlaceholder

One of the most popular fake REST APIs available. It provides users, posts, comments, albums, photos, and todos, making it perfect for learning CRUD operations and testing API automation.

Link: https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/

API key required: No

2. Dummy REST API Example

A simple REST API that provides employee records and CRUD endpoints. Great for beginners learning API requests and response validation.

Link: https://dummy.restapiexample.com/

API key required: No

3. Restful Booker

Probably one of the best public APIs for practicing API automation. It includes authentication and CRUD operations.

Link: https://restful-booker.herokuapp.com/apidoc/index.html

API key required: No

4. Swagger Petstore

The classic Swagger/OpenAPI example project. It allows you to experiment with endpoints while learning API documentation standards and OpenAPI specifications.

Link: https://petstore.swagger.io/

API key required: No

5. QA Cloud Hotel API

A hotel booking API designed specifically for API testing practice and it even contains an API for testing failure scenarios.

Link: https://www.qacloud.dev/hotel/docs

API key required: No

6. Automation Exercise API

A public e-commerce API with products, users, authentication, and shopping-related endpoints.

Link: https://www.automationexercise.com/api_list

API key required: No

Free APIs for Building Applications

These APIs provide real datasets that can be integrated into websites, mobile apps, dashboards, or portfolio projects.

7. GitHub API

The GitHub REST API gives access to repositories, users, organizations, commits, pull requests, issues, and much more. It's an excellent choice for building developer dashboards or portfolio applications.

Link: https://docs.github.com/rest

API key required: Optional (recommended for higher rate limits)

8. REST Countries

REST Countries provides detailed information about countries, including flags, currencies, languages, capitals, regions, and population.

Link: https://restcountries.com/

API key required: No

9. The Movie Database (TMDB)

TMDB offers a massive database of movies, TV shows, actors, genres, images, and trending content. One of the most commonly used APIs for entertainment applications.

Link: https://developer.themoviedb.org/

API key required: Yes (Free)

10. Spoonacular

An API focused on recipes, ingredients, nutrition information, food products, and meal planning. Ideal for food, cooking, and health-related applications.

Link: https://spoonacular.com/food-api

API key required: Yes (Free tier available)

11. The Dog API

A fun API that provides dog breeds, images, and related information.

Link: https://thedogapi.com/

API key required: Yes (Free)

Why Practice with Public APIs?

Using public APIs allows you to gain hands-on experience without setting up your own backend or database. You can practice sending requests, validating responses, handling authentication, creating automated test suites, and learning how real REST APIs behave.

For developers, they're a fast way to prototype applications using real-world data.

For QA engineers, these APIs are excellent resources for learning API testing with tools like Karate DSL, Postman, Rest Assured, or Cypress.

Thank you for reading!