Sports data API · France
API-Sports / API-Football
Family of per-sport REST APIs (football first) with fixtures, live scores, standings, player stats and pre-match odds, sold self-serve with a daily-request free plan.
Facts verified against the provider's site on
Tone of public discussions, liked vs criticised points, reliability complaints; based on 25+ public discussions.
Computed from public data only; uptime and latency are not measured yet. Enterprise feeds that sell by contract score lower on transparency by design. How the score works
- Starting price
- $19/mo
- Free access
- Free tier
- Sports
- 5 (Football (soccer), Basketball…)
- Live data
- Not disclosed
- Delivery
- Polling only (REST)
- Discussions
- 60 threads
- GitHub adoption
- 1.6k repos
Best for
Football-first apps that want self-serve REST access with fixtures, live scores, lineups, stats and pre-match odds, starting from a free daily-request plan.
Not ideal for
Teams needing a fully verified, contract-backed feed; the official pricing page could not be read, and paid prices come from a third-party guide.
Limitations to check
- − Free plan is capped at 100 requests per day and 10 per minute
- − Paid plan prices were not confirmed on the official pricing page
- − Each sport is a separate API
Written from the provider's own pages (source).
Last checked 2026-11-03
API-Sports / API-Football at a glance
- What is API-Sports / API-Football best for?
- Football-first apps that want self-serve REST access with fixtures, live scores, lineups, stats and pre-match odds, starting from a free daily-request plan. Not ideal for: Teams needing a fully verified, contract-backed feed; the official pricing page could not be read, and paid prices come from a third-party guide.
- How much does API-Sports / API-Football cost?
- The cheapest public paid plan of API-Sports / API-Football is $19/mo. Listed plans: Pro $19/mo; Ultra $29/mo; Mega $39/mo.
- Does API-Sports / API-Football have a free tier?
- Yes. API-Sports / API-Football lists a free plan called "Free" (100 requests per day).
- What does API-Sports / API-Football cover?
- API-Sports / API-Football is a sports data api. Its sports: Football (soccer), Basketball, Baseball, American football, Ice hockey; data: Fixtures, Injuries, Lineups, Odds, Player stats, Predictions, Live scores, Standings and 1 more.
- Does API-Sports / API-Football have a WebSocket or streaming API?
- No streaming is listed. API-Sports / API-Football delivers data by REST, so you poll for updates.
- What do developers say about API-Sports / API-Football?
- Very widely used for football side projects, prediction models and live-score apps, praised for broad league coverage, decent docs and low price (about $19/month). Complaints: free plan limited to past seasons and 100 requests/day, inconsistent or missing stats, closing odds gaps, a reported quality drop, and thin non-football depth.
- What are the alternatives to API-Sports / API-Football?
- Close alternatives in the SportDex catalog: Highlightly, SportsDataIO, StatPal, iSports API, Sportmonks.
Commercial decision
Pricing & plan limits
| Plan | Price | Requests | What's included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | 100 / day | Full API, 10 requests per minutesource |
| Pro | $19/mo | 7,500 / day | All endpoints; price from third-party guide, official page returned 403source |
| Ultra | $29/mo | 75,000 / day | All endpoints; price from third-party guidesource |
| Mega | $39/mo | 150,000 / day | All endpoints; price from third-party guidesource |
api-sports.io blocked crawler (403) and the official pricing page returned 403 on fetch; limits come from search snippets of the official site, paid prices from a guide on api-football.com seen via search. Country and sport list from general knowledge, unverified. Also sold via RapidAPI.
Before choosing a paid plan, confirm
• What counts as one request (per call, per market, per region?)
• What happens when you exceed the quota: blocked or billed
• Whether live and historical data are on your plan
• Whether your use (public app, betting, resale) is licensed
The critical question
Data coverage
- Sports
- Football (soccer)BasketballBaseballAmerican footballIce hockey
- Data types
- FixturesInjuriesLineupsOddsPlayer statsPredictionsLive scoresStandingsTeam stats
- Key competitions
- Not disclosed
- Competitions
- Not disclosed
- Live / in-play
- Not disclosed
- Women's competitions
- Not disclosed
- Betting markets
- Not disclosed
- Bookmaker regions
- Not disclosed
- Bookmakers
- Not disclosed
- History depth
- Not disclosed
- Update frequency
- Not disclosed
- Name languages
- Not disclosed
- ID mapping
- Not disclosed
Coverage often depends on the plan; confirm the exact league and season on your plan.
Before you build
Usage rights & access
- Commercial use
- Not disclosed
- Betting products
- Not disclosed
- Redistribution
- Not disclosed
- Storing data
- Not disclosed
- Attribution
- Not disclosed
- Logos & photos
- Not disclosed
- Who can buy
- Not disclosed
- Verification (KYC)
- Not disclosed
- Not available in
- Not disclosed
- Only available in
- Not disclosed
Developer-ready evaluation
Integration & documentation
- Protocols
- REST
- Formats
- JSON
- Authentication
- api key
- SDKs
- Not disclosed
- OpenAPI spec
- Not disclosed
- Claimed latency
- Not disclosed
- Status page
- Not disclosed
- Sandbox / test keys
- Not disclosed
- Support
- Not disclosed
- SLA uptime
- Not disclosed
Preview brief
# Integration brief: API-Sports / API-Football Goal: build a feature on API-Sports / API-Football data. Use only the official documentation below as the source of truth. ## Known facts (from SportDex, verify before relying on them) - Website: https://api-sports.io - Docs: https://www.api-football.com/documentation-v3 - Sports: Football (soccer), Basketball, Baseball, American football, Ice hockey - Data: Fixtures, Injuries, Lineups, Odds, Player stats, Predictions, Live scores, Standings, Team stats - Protocols: REST; formats: json - Auth: api_key - Free plan: Free, 100 requests per day - Cheapest paid plan: $19/mo - Note: api-sports.io blocked crawler (403) and the official pricing page returned 403 on fetch; limits come from search snippets of the official site, paid prices from a guide on api-football.com seen via search. Country and sport list from general knowledge, unverified. Also sold via RapidAPI. ## Verify before writing code - live update frequency - whether commercial use is allowed on the plan you pick - exact endpoint paths, parameters and response fields (read the official docs, do not guess) ## Implementation rules - Keep the API key on the server (environment variable, backend route or edge function); never ship it to the browser. - Cache responses and respect rate limits; count how many requests each screen triggers. - Handle errors explicitly: invalid key, quota exceeded (429), missing fields, empty fixtures, timeouts. - Start with one demo request and log the raw response before building UI on assumed field names.
Data quality signals
Data source & company
- Official partners
- Not disclosed
- How data is collected
- Not disclosed
- Certifications
- Not disclosed
- Payment methods
- Not disclosed
- Minimum contract
- Not disclosed
- Country
- France
- Founded
- Not disclosed
Reddit · Hacker News · Stack Overflow · GitHub · YouTube
What developers say
Very widely used for football side projects, prediction models and live-score apps, praised for broad league coverage, decent docs and low price (about $19/month). Complaints: free plan limited to past seasons and 100 requests/day, inconsistent or missing stats, closing odds gaps, a reported quality drop, and thin non-football depth.
Praised for
- Broad league coverage
- Cheap paid plans
- Well-documented API
- Huge hobby-project adoption
Complaints
- Free plan lacks current season
- Inconsistent or missing stats
- Reliability drop reported by one app dev
- Limited NCAA and non-football depth
Our summary of public discussions, not a rating. Vendor posts are not counted as user opinion.
Discussions
- Another data project, this time with Python, Go, (some SQL), Docker, Google Cloud Services, Streamlit, and GitHub Actionsr/dataengineering · 2023-01
- Experiences with the different nba.com APIs? Which one would you recommend for play-by-play data to calculate player-specific ORtg or DRtg in a game?r/nba · 2023-05
- I built a daily sports report generator for my kids because I was tired of them needing a screen to check scoresr/SideProject · 2026-02
- Which clubs actually supply international football? Real Madrid first, PSG second, and an Egyptian club ahead of Dortmund.r/soccer · 2026-07
- Best free/cheap football API for 250+ leagues?r/sportsanalytics · 2026-10
- Preferred stack for live game analysis?r/algobetting · 2024-12
- Let's compile a list of API vendorsr/algobetting · 2020-05
- I built an MCP server with 19 World Cup 2026 tools — standings, squad xG, fixtures + ML predictions, qualification scenariosr/sportsanalytics · 2026-06
- Football api for analytic dashboardr/sportsanalytics · 2026-05
- I'm building a live soccer stats site for in-play betting - it's live now!r/sportsbetting · 2025-10
- Pinnacle closing lines data providerr/algobetting · 2025-09
- Looking for a football API with reliable stadium + geo datar/sportsanalytics · 2026-04
Open-source projects using it
Shortlist next steps
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Evidence & transparency
Official sources
- https://api-sports.io
- https://www.api-football.com/documentation-v3
- https://www.api-football.com/pricing
Facts were extracted from the provider's own pages on 2026-11-03. Empty fields mean the provider does not say, not that the feature is missing. How we know