Best Football Data APIs 2026
Every football API compared — free tiers, pricing, coverage, and data depth
Contents
Get weekly football app insights
One in-depth article on football apps and tools, every week.
What this guide covers
There are dozens of football data APIs and sources out there, but finding one with a genuinely usable free tier is harder than it looks. Marketing pages promise "free access" while burying the limitations in small print.
This guide compares every football API and data source with a usable free tier — from fully open datasets to freemium APIs and scraping-based sources. For each one, we cover the actual rate limits, data coverage, authentication requirements, and what you can realistically build with it.
Whether you are a developer prototyping your first football app, a data analyst building a research pipeline, or just exploring what is available, this is the reference we wish we had when we started.
What "free" actually means
"Free" does not always mean no strings attached. Football data APIs fall on a spectrum, and it is worth understanding where each one sits before you build anything on top of it.
Truly free — no payment required, no trial period. May require an API key for rate limiting, but there is no paid tier you are being funnelled towards. Includes open datasets you can download outright.
Free tier with limits — a genuine free tier exists, but it is heavily restricted (low request limits, fewer endpoints, limited competitions). Designed to get you hooked before upgrading. Some are free trials only.
Scraping — no official API exists. Data is accessed by scraping websites or using undocumented endpoints. Free in cost, but may violate Terms of Service, can break without warning, and puts the platform in a difficult position. We list these for completeness — we do not recommend them.
API comparison
Every free football data API and source, compared side by side
| API | Tier | Free quota | Auth | xG | Real-time | Docs | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| football-data.org | Free | 12 competitions (Big 5 + CL + more), 10 req/min | api-key | Excellent | Beginners learning API development with football data | ||
| TheSportsDB | Free | Scores, events, team/player metadata, images. 100 req/100s | api-key | Good | Apps needing team logos, badges, and visual metadata | ||
| OpenLigaDB | Free | Unlimited (community-maintained) | none | Fair | German football projects or learning with zero setup friction | ||
| openfootball | Free | Full dataset download (GitHub-hosted flat files) | none | Poor | Learning data analysis with small, manageable datasets | ||
| football-data.co.uk | Free | Full CSV downloads, 30+ years of historical data | none | Fair | Betting research, historical analysis, and statistical modelling | ||
| StatsBomb Open Data | Free | Full event-level data for selected historical competitions | none | Excellent | Learning analytics with real event-level data | ||
| API-Football | Freemium | 100 requests/day, limited endpoints | api-key | Excellent | Prototyping before committing to a paid plan | ||
| Sportmonks | Freemium | 14-day free trial only (no permanent free tier) | api-key | Good | Evaluating before buying — especially if you need xG via API | ||
| RapidAPI Football collection | Freemium | Varies — each API on the marketplace has its own free tier | api-key | Good | Comparing multiple football APIs quickly with one account | ||
| Understat | Scraping | All data accessible via scraping (6 leagues) | scraping | Fair | Free xG data for the Big 5 leagues | ||
| FotMob unofficial API | Scraping | All data accessible via undocumented API endpoints | none | None | Wide-coverage xG lookups for personal projects | ||
| Transfermarkt unofficial | Scraping | All data accessible via scraping | scraping | Fair | Transfer data, player valuations, and squad information |
Beginners learning API development with football data
Apps needing team logos, badges, and visual metadata
German football projects or learning with zero setup friction
Learning data analysis with small, manageable datasets
Betting research, historical analysis, and statistical modelling
Learning analytics with real event-level data
Prototyping before committing to a paid plan
Evaluating before buying — especially if you need xG via API
Comparing multiple football APIs quickly with one account
Free xG data for the Big 5 leagues
Wide-coverage xG lookups for personal projects
Transfer data, player valuations, and squad information
Truly free APIs
These sources are genuinely free — no credit card required, no trial period, no paid tier you are being pushed towards. Some require an API key for rate limiting, but the data itself costs nothing.
Fixtures, standings, scorers, teams for 12 competitions
- Generous free tier covering the Big 5 leagues and Champions League
- Clean, well-documented REST API
- Reliable uptime and consistent data structure
- Great for learning API development concepts
- No xG or advanced analytics
- Basic match-level data only (no event-level)
- Free tier limited to 12 competitions
- 10 req/min can be restrictive for larger projects
Multi-sport: scores, events, team and player metadata, logos and images
- Excellent source of team logos, badges, and player images
- Multi-sport coverage (not just football)
- Free API key via Patreon at $0 tier
- Good metadata for building app UIs
- No advanced statistics or analytics
- Rate limits can be tight for heavy usage
- Data depth is shallow compared to dedicated football APIs
- Some data may lag behind real-time
German leagues (Bundesliga primary), fixtures, results, standings
- No authentication required whatsoever
- Totally open and community-maintained
- Solid Bundesliga coverage
- Simple REST endpoints, easy to get started
- Primarily German leagues only
- Documentation is largely in German
- No advanced statistics
- Community-maintained means updates can lag
Historical results across multiple leagues, flat file format
- No API calls needed — just download the files
- Tiny footprint, easy to work with locally
- Good for learning data parsing and analysis
- Open source and community-contributed
- No live or current-season data
- Very basic data (results and fixtures only)
- Poor documentation and inconsistent formatting
- Small and sometimes incomplete datasets
Historical results, odds data from dozens of bookmakers, 25+ leagues
- 30+ years of historical football results
- Odds data from dozens of bookmakers per match
- 25+ leagues covered
- Ideal for statistical modelling and backtesting
- No API — CSV file downloads only
- No advanced metrics (no xG, no event data)
- Data formatting can be inconsistent across seasons
- No live or real-time data
Gold-standard event data: xG, freeze frames, 3,400+ events/match for selected competitions
- Gold-standard event-level data (3,400+ events per match)
- Full xG, freeze frames, and some 360 data
- Includes FA WSL and 2023 Women's World Cup
- Excellent Python (statsbombpy) and R (StatsBombR) packages
- Historical only — no current-season data
- Limited competition selection
- Cannot build live tools from this data
- Large dataset can be overwhelming for beginners
Freemium APIs
These APIs offer a free tier or trial, but the free access is limited. They are useful for prototyping and evaluation, but you will likely need to upgrade for anything production-grade.
1,200+ competitions, live scores, lineups, events, basic statistics
- Huge coverage with 1,200+ competitions
- Well-documented REST API with clear examples
- Live scores, lineups, and match events
- Affordable paid plans starting at $19/mo
- Free tier is very limited (100 req/day)
- No xG or advanced analytics on any plan
- Basic match data only at free tier
- Accessed via RapidAPI (extra layer of authentication)
27-2,200+ leagues (by plan), xG as paid add-on from EUR39/mo extra
- Developer-friendly REST API with good docs
- xG data available as add-on
- 14-day free trial to evaluate
- Wide league coverage on higher plans
- No permanent free tier — trial only
- xG is a costly separate add-on (EUR39/mo minimum on top of base)
- Minimum EUR78/mo for base plan + xG
- Advanced xG (live, all metrics) costs EUR269/mo extra
Multiple football APIs aggregated on one marketplace with single authentication
- Single API key works across multiple football data providers
- Easy to compare and switch between providers
- Convenient billing and usage tracking
- Many providers offer free tiers
- Extra layer of abstraction adds latency
- Free tiers are often very limited
- Quality and reliability varies by provider
- RapidAPI takes a cut, so pricing may be higher
Scraping sources
These sources have no official API. Data is accessed by scraping websites or using undocumented endpoints. They can be incredibly useful for personal projects and research, but come with significant caveats — and real consequences for the wider community.
We list these sources. We do not recommend scraping.
We know people scrape football data. It would be dishonest to pretend otherwise, so we include these sources for completeness. But we want to be clear: scraping puts these platforms in a difficult position, and we have already seen what happens when it goes too far.
In January 2026, Stats Perform terminated FBRef's access to Opta data. FBRef had become the free proxy for Opta stats — thousands of scrapers were pulling advanced data through it rather than licensing it directly. When scraping at that scale undermines the commercial value of the underlying data, the provider pulls the plug. The result: everyone lost access, including casual users who never scraped a thing. The entire football analytics community lost its commons. Our FBRef Alternatives guide covers just how devastating this has been — especially for women's football.
Some platforms tolerate light, respectful use of their data. But "tolerate" is not the same as "permit" — and there is no magic email you can send to get official blessing. If a site does not offer a public API, that is usually a deliberate choice. Scraping it anyway puts the burden on them to either enforce their terms or accept the cost of serving your requests for free.
If you value a free data source, do not be the reason it disappears. And if the data is valuable enough to build a business on, it is valuable enough to pay for.
xG, xA, xGChain, xGBuildup per shot for 6 leagues (Big 5 + Russian Premier League)
- Free xG, xA, xGChain, and xGBuildup for every shot
- Python libraries available (understat, understatapi)
- Data available from 2014/15 onwards
- Own xG model with per-shot granularity
- Only 6 leagues covered
- Own xG model (not Opta or StatsBomb)
- Scraping-based — no official API
- No progressive passes, pressing, or defensive actions
xG data, match stats, lineups, 500+ leagues worldwide
- Wide coverage with 500+ leagues including women's football
- xG data available for many competitions
- Python library available (fotmob-api on PyPI)
- No authentication needed
- Completely undocumented — endpoints may change without notice
- May break at any time with no warning
- Not intended for third-party use
- Relying on this for production is risky
Market values, transfers, contract details, squad data, injury histories
- Unmatched transfer and market value data
- Contract details, injury histories, squad composition
- Python tools available (transfermarkt-scraper, worldfootballR)
- Extremely comprehensive coverage across leagues
- Scraping is a Terms of Service grey area
- Rate-limited and may block aggressive scrapers
- Market values are crowd-sourced estimates, not official
- No performance metrics (no xG, no event data)
Building with free APIs
Free football APIs are powerful, but they require some discipline to use well. Here is practical advice from building with these APIs ourselves.
Cache everything
Most football data does not change minute to minute. Standings update once a day. Historical results never change. Cache API responses locally or in a database, and only fetch fresh data when you actually need it. This is the single most important thing you can do to stay within rate limits.
Respect rate limits
Implement exponential backoff and add delays between requests. If an API says 10 requests per minute, aim for 8. Getting banned from a free API is embarrassing and entirely avoidable. Use a queue system for batch requests.
Combine multiple sources
No single free API covers everything. Use football-data.org for fixtures and standings, TheSportsDB for team logos and images, and StatsBomb Open Data for event-level analysis. Treat each API as a specialist and combine their strengths.
Know when to upgrade
Free tiers are for prototyping and learning. If you are building something people actually use, budget for a paid API. API-Football at $19/mo or football-data.org at EUR12/mo are affordable and dramatically more reliable than cobbling together free sources.
Common pitfalls
We see the same mistakes repeatedly when developers start working with free football APIs. Avoid these and you will save yourself hours of debugging and frustration.
Recommendations
What to use, based on your situation
Complete beginner
You are learning to code and want to build something with football data. You have never used an API before.
Start with the football-data.org free tier. Build a standings page or fixture list to learn API concepts (fetching, parsing JSON, displaying data). Graduate to StatsBomb Open Data when you are ready for event-level analysis.
Building a side project
You want to build a football app or website as a hobby project. You need live-ish data and decent coverage without spending money upfront.
Use API-Football's free tier (100 req/day) for prototyping. Pull team logos and metadata from TheSportsDB. Fall back to football-data.org for reliable standings data. Upgrade to a paid API-Football plan when you are ready to launch.
Data analyst or researcher
You want to analyse football data for research, content creation, or portfolio projects. You care about data depth more than real-time access.
Use StatsBomb Open Data for gold-standard event-level analysis with Python or R. Combine with football-data.co.uk for 30+ years of historical results and odds data. Add Understat for current-season xG across the Big 5 leagues.
Building a live scores app
You want real-time match data for a live scores application. Free tiers will only get you so far — budget for a paid plan.
Prototype with football-data.org's free tier for basic fixtures and results. Move to API-Football's paid plan ($19/mo) for live scores, lineups, and events across 1,200+ competitions. Consider Sportmonks if you specifically need live xG data (EUR78/mo minimum).
Key takeaway
There is no single free API that does everything. The best approach is combining multiple sources: football-data.org for reliable fixtures and standings, TheSportsDB for visual assets, and StatsBomb Open Data for deep event-level analysis.
If you need xG data without paying, Understat and FotMob's undocumented endpoints are your best options — but both come with limitations. Understat only covers 6 leagues, and FotMob's endpoints are undocumented and may break.
For anything production-grade, plan to spend at least $19/mo on API-Football or EUR12/mo on football-data.org. The jump from “free but fragile” to “paid but reliable” is worth it — and it is cheaper than the time you will spend working around free tier limitations.
Subscribe to the footyapps weekly
A weekly deep-dive into football apps, tools, and data — from new product launches to analytics tutorials.
No spam. Unsubscribe any time.
Know a football API we have missed? We want this guide to be comprehensive.
Submit a suggestion