Free football API tiers and where each one stops
Every football API has a free tier. One caps you at 12 competitions, one at 2 leagues, one hides live scores. Here is exactly where each one ends.
GOAL API· Engineering
Every football API offers a free tier. Each one stops somewhere different. One caps your leagues, one caps your requests per minute, one hides live scores behind payment.
Here is where each free tier ends, using figures from each vendor's own pricing page in July 2026.
The free tiers side by side
| Vendor | Cost | Limit | Coverage | Live data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GOAL API | 0 dollars | 1,000 requests/day | 1,019 leagues | yes |
| football-data.org | 0 euro | 10 requests/min | 12 competitions | no |
| Sportmonks | 0 euro | not stated | 2 leagues | yes |
| TheSportsDB | 0 dollars | 30 requests/min | multi-sport | no |
| API-Football | 0 dollars | volume capped | all competitions | yes |
The limits look similar. They are not. Each one blocks a different kind of app.
Where each free tier stops
football-data.org stops at 12 competitions
You get the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, the Championship, Eredivisie, Primeira Liga, Brasileirão, the Champions League, the European Championship and the World Cup.
Miss anything outside those 12 and you upgrade. A Scottish Premiership fixture list needs a paid plan. So does MLS.
Live scores sit behind a 12 euro plan. The free tier serves fixtures and results, not in-play data.
Ten requests per minute works out to 600 per hour. A single page loading fixtures, standings and top scorers burns 3 requests. You serve roughly 200 page loads per hour before throttling starts.
Sportmonks stops at 2 leagues
The free plan covers the Danish Superliga and the Scottish Premiership. Nothing else.
Sportmonks designed this tier for evaluation, not production. You test your integration against real data, then buy Starter at 29 euro for any 5 leagues.
Their 14 day trial on paid plans matters more than the free tier. Use the trial to test the leagues you plan to buy.
TheSportsDB stops at live scores
Thirty requests per minute is the most generous rate limit among the free tiers here. Coverage spans football, NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL.
Livescore data requires the 9 dollar plan. The free tier serves player searches and event data with limited query options.
Pick this one for a stats page or a team profile. Skip for anything live.
GOAL API stops at odds, predictions and webhooks
You get 1,000 requests per day across all 1,019 leagues, with live data included. One API key.
Three capabilities need a paid plan:
- Odds, including Asian handicap and over/under lines
- Match predictions
- Webhook endpoints
A thousand requests per day supports a working app. Cache your league and country lists for a day, your standings for an hour, and 1,000 requests covers a few thousand page views.
Live matches drain the quota fast. Polling one match every 30 seconds for 90 minutes costs 180 requests. Five simultaneous matches costs 900, and your day is gone.
API-Football stops at volume
Every endpoint stays open on the free tier, including odds and predictions. The daily request cap is the only ceiling, and paid tiers raise both the cap and the historical range.
Their site blocks automated checks, so read their pricing page for current figures.
Match the free tier to your project
Building a fixtures page for the big 5 leagues? football-data.org free covers you, and 12 competitions includes every league you name.
Building a global fixtures app? GOAL API free gives you 1,019 leagues at 1,000 requests per day. No other free tier here comes close on coverage.
Building a stats or history page with no live element? TheSportsDB free gives you 30 requests per minute across 5 sports.
Testing an integration before you buy? Sportmonks free plus their 14 day trial lets you validate against the leagues you plan to pay for.
Building anything with odds? Only API-Football exposes odds on a free tier. Everyone else charges, whether as an add-on at football-data.org and Sportmonks, or as a plan upgrade at GOAL API.
Make a free tier last longer
Free tiers die from wasted requests. Four habits stretch them:
- Cache reference data hard. Countries and leagues change a few times a year. Cache for 24 hours.
- Cache standings for an hour. Tables move after matches finish, not between page loads.
- Cache finished results forever. A result from last Saturday never changes.
- Stop polling live matches. Polling burns a free tier faster than anything else.
The last one carries the most weight. One live match polled every 30 seconds costs 180 requests across 90 minutes. The same match delivered over a WebSocket costs one connection.
We covered the transport choice in webhooks, WebSockets or polling, and the connection code in live scores over WebSocket.
Start here
Free tiers exist to prove the data fits your app. Test three things before you pay:
- Does the vendor cover every competition on your roadmap?
- Does the response shape match your UI without heavy transformation?
- Does live data arrive fast enough for your users?
Answer those on a free key. Then buy the plan sized to your traffic.
Get a free GOAL API key for 1,000 requests per day across 1,019 leagues.
Sources: GOAL API pricing, football-data.org pricing, Sportmonks pricing, TheSportsDB pricing, API-Football pricing.
