Show HN: We (IPinfo) built a free IP data API that supports unlimited requests
by reincoder | 2025-05-08 17:43:03+00:00
I am Abdullah from IPinfo. We have finally launched our API service that supports an unlimited amount of requests to fetch IP to Country and ASN database. It is free to use.

https://ipinfo.io/lite

Try out this token for the next several to check out the API service: a6c2e5328296f5

https://api.ipinfo.io/lite/8.8.8.8?token=a6c2e5328296f5 https://api.ipinfo.io/lite/me?token=a6c2e5328296f5

- The API system is built using Node.js from the ground up but we are currently moving our backend to Rust. We processed over 2 trillion requests last year alone and we have taken the lessons to build a new API system from scratch.

- The API service is based on our IPinfo Lite database, which provides IP to Country ASN information with full accuracy [1], daily updates [2], and active measurement-based [3] licensed under CC BY SA 4.0 [4].

- The IPinfo Lite database is network/CIDR-based, making it suitable for firewall applications and basic access control stuff.

- Enterprise-ready and mission-critical data available for free [5].

- Why the unlimited requests API? Downloading, updating, and using special integrations/libraries (MMDB reader library) posed a challenge for the universal adoption of our IPinfo Lite (formerly IP to Country ASN) database. So, we had to launch an API service that can support unlimited requests. We want our data to be used everywhere, so we are happy to build the support for it.

- The data can be accessed through the API, data downloads, and is being delivered to Snowflake and Google BigQuery. We are looking to find more integrations and platforms where people are interested in using our data.

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[1] In the IP geolocation world, there are free databases that cluster/aggregate/generalize IP meta information to a larger subnet mask usually `/24` for IPv4 addresses. This means the majority representing value is chosen across all 256 IP addresses.

[2] IPv4 addresses change about 0.03% each day, which may not seem like a lot, but in terms of web traffic, it does matter. The database is designed to be distributable and integratable so that IP addresses looked up against the database are expected in the billions per day, hopefully tens of billions. Other free databases in the industry are updated weekly or even monthly. https://ipinfo.io/blog/how-many-ips-change-geolocation-over-...

[3] We host a unique infrastructure of 920+ distributed servers worldwide through which we run network diagnostics (mainly pings and traceroutes) to generate measurements (evidence-based geolocation of IPs). As far as I know, this type of network, or at least at this scale, is unique to us. https://ipinfo.io/blog/probe-network-how-we-make-sure-our-da...

[4] CC BY SA 4.0 is a standard open-source license that allows redistribution and even commercial usage with public attribution. It is used by Wikipedia. We do not have an EULA that other databases may have.

[5] This service is designed for enterprise, global organizations, and open-source projects on the scale of operating systems.

The free data is being used by F500 companies, OSS operating systems, firewall software, and many other services. I do not know about every one of them. So, if you are using our data, please let me know. We actively listen. Sure, IP geolocation is not going to be absolutely accurate, and I welcome people telling us what is wrong with our data because every time you do, we open a ticket, we drill down, and our data gets a little bit better.

The data is best in class, the licensing terms are unmatched, and what you receive is also the service (unlimited requests, data downloads, integrations). We are doing all of this for free without compromising the quality of the data and the service but there is no gotcha. We really appreciate people trying and telling us they use our data.

If you want to use or are already using our data, let me know your thoughts.