Real-Time Public Datasets: 100+ Free APIs for Live Data Projects

When trying to build something that uses real-time data, like a cryptocurrency dashboard, earthquake tracker, F1 timing or ISS location, I often spend the first hour looking for where I can get the data. Sign up, wait for confirmation email, oh wait this is historical data only, start again. This is frustrating and takes away valuable time from actually building your project.

This is a collection of publicly available real-time data sources compiled by bytewax team. Over a hundred sources in financial markets and cryptocurrencies, transportation, weather, sports, healthcare, IoT and cyber security. Many of them are entirely free, and don’t even require registration or an API key — just point your browser to the URL and you get the data immediately.

The list is separated into free and paid options. Within the free part you will find plenty of options for most vibe projects: live crypto prices on CoinPaprika (no key, no signup), earthquakes on USGS, live location of airplanes on OpenSky, Formula 1 timing and telemetry on OpenF1, current location of the International Space Station, Wikimedia editing events stream, Bluesky stream. There are also ten crypto and stock market APIs in financial section alone, some of them don’t even need registration!

1How to use this with your agent

This is not an application that you can install, but rather a reference guide that you can give to your agent. Choose a data source that makes sense for your project, provide your agent with the URL and tell him what you want to visualize. Your agent will take care of fetching the data, displaying it, and updating it periodically. This is where most people struggle, because they don’t know where they can get the data.

2API endpoints you can try right now

These two examples don’t even need registration or API key — just copy and paste the URL to get the data instantly:

curl -s "https://earthquake.usgs.gov/fdsnws/event/1/query?format=geojson&limit=5&orderby=time"

curl -s "https://api.coinpaprika.com/v1/tickers?limit=5"

OpenF1 at openf1.org is another website that you may want to save for motorsports enthusiasts — messages from race control, driver radio communications, lap times, all for free. SpaceX API also provides information about their rocket launches, rockets and landing pads, updated automatically after every mission.