IP geolocation is used for all sorts of things in modern web and app development. From geofencing to targeted advertising, to improving security and user authentication, to protecting online consumers from fraud and identity theft, IP geolocation is a powerful component of the modern web app.
There are hundreds of APIs out there that facilitate IP lookup. So how do you choose? And which one is right for your project?
In this article, we’ll take a look at the 5 best IP geo APIs and talk about why IPstack consistently remains a top choice for developers in 2025.
Try IPstack free for up to 100 requests/month — Sign up here to follow along with this guide.
Table of Contents
Key Takeaways
- An IP API (also called IP API, IP lookup API, or IP address API) provides location data based on a user’s IP address. It has many applications across security, e-commerce, advertising, and powering location-based apps.
- IP stack (one of the top IP geolocation APIs) gives developers access to fast, secure, reliable IP lookup that can be easily integrated into any web or mobile app.
IPstack: Quick & Easy, Best for Rapid Prototyping and Security Data
IPstack is trusted by thousands of developers worldwide to provide accurate and reliable location data for any IP address, in JSON format, via secure HTTPS network calls. It’s a very simple IP lookup API to get up and running with, with clear documentation and a generous free plan allowing up to 100 requests per month.
IPstack is perfect for developers looking to stand up an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) as quickly as possible, but it’s also powerful enough to scale to a production-level application. The accuracy of location data returned is high (especially in Europe), the latency is low, and they boast a 99.9% uptime rate.
IPstack’s Professional Plus plan also includes security data, which discloses whether the IP address is masked by a VPN or proxy, a Tor network, etc.. They also offer a bulk lookup option, which can be easily leveraged by simply appending more IP addresses to the query URL, and a nifty ChatGPT integration that lets you quickly validate IP addresses right in ChatGPT’s interface.
Let’s quickly walk through how easy it is to get onboarded with this geolocation API.
Sign Up for a Plan
There are a few different membership tiers, including a free tier allowing up to 100 requests per month. To access the advanced security features, you need a Professional Plus Plan. Sign up for an IPstack account to get your API key.
Once you sign up, you’ll land on your IPstack dashboard, where you can access your API key. This is what authenticates you to make requests against the API.
Send a Test API Request
IPstack provides a handy link on the documentation page for testing the API. Head to the documentation and find the “Run API Request” button to test:
This sends an example request to the API, appending your access key. The output loads into a new browser tab, which opens automatically. Click “pretty print” to view the results in a readable format. If you enabled the security module, scroll to the bottom to see the additional security data object:
Send a Request from Your App
IPstack provides code snippets that can be easily copied and pasted directly into your application. Check the documentation for a full overview, and see below for an example of how to implement this IP lookup API – Javascript is shown below, but there are code snippets for all popular languages.
const url = "https://api.ipstack.com/134.201.250.155?access_key={PASTE_YOUR_API_KEY_HERE}";
const options = {
method: "GET",
};
try {
const response = await fetch(url, options);
const result = await response.text();
console.log(result);
} catch (error) {
console.error(error);
}
IPInfo: Generous Free Tier, Pricey After That
IPInfo.io is a trusted global leader in IP address data and intelligence. They offer security data and ASN details, and are trusted by top companies for their fast and scalable infrastructure.
Their free tier is the most generous of the geocoding APIs on this list – they offer unlimited free requests per month on their Lite plan. However, this plan only gives access to basic IP lookup data at the country level, and doesn’t include things like carrier information, support, geo metadata like country code, or city-level accuracy.
To get the additional features, you’ll need to upgrade to a Basic plan, which starts at $49/month (the priciest Basic option on this list.)
Getting Started
Signing up for IPInfo is a similar process to signing up with IPstack. Provide an email address and password (alternatively, you can sign in with Google or Github) and you’ll be asked to verify your data, then taken to a dashboard where you’ll find your API key and documentation.
There’s no button to test the API like with IPstack, but a test URL is provided, along with instructions to test via cURL.
IPData: Highly Accurate, SDKs Provided
Ipdata.co is trusted by thousands of companies for their accurate location data and high uptime. Their free tier (which is restricted to non-commercial use) allows up to 1500 requests daily, and their cheapest plan starts at $10/month, which boosts your daily limit up to 2500 requests.
Like IPstack and IPinfo, IPdata offers threat and security data, as well as a basic ASN API and also advanced ASN API (which provides more detailed ASN data.) IPdata also offers the option to publish Geofeeds, which are how organizations share geographical data, and can allow you to update or correct your own company’s geodata with the IPdata API.
Like IPstack, IPdata also offers the option to do bulk IP lookup, but limits the bulk request to 100 IP addresses at a time.
Finally, IPdata provides SDKs for geolocation: Javascript, Python, Go, PHP, Java and Dotnet are included in the documentation and available to download via Github and standard package managers.
Getting Started
To get started with IPdata, provide an email address and password, verify your email, and you’ll be taken to your dashboard.
Once you’ve located your API key, which will authenticate your requests against the API, simply copy and paste the key into the request URL in your application. IPdata provides code snippets in multiple languages that you can use to quickly set up the boilerplate.
MaxMind GeoIP: Best for IP Intelligence & Fraud Detection
MaxMind.com runs one of the largest fraud detection networks in the world, protecting billions of transactions annually. Their service is split into three offerings: basic IP geolocation, fraud prevention, and proxy detection.
Their GeoLite (free) service allows up to 1000 requests per day, but requires attribution, and doesn’t include customer service or complete data like connection type. It does provide basic country-level location data. It also allows you 30 free downloads per day from their country and city databases.
MaxMind is powerful, but the UI can feel a bit overkill for anyone but an enterprise company. Developers looking to simply get something on its feet and testable quickly might want to consider one of the other options on this list.
IP-API: Long-Running, Good for Quick Testing
Ip-api.com is a real-time geolocation and reverse IP lookup API trusted by developers since 2012. They offer responses in JSON, XML, CSV, PHP and Newline, and offer a free tier that allows up to 45 requests per minute. Be aware that although the API overall boasts 99.9% uptime, the free tier does not.
Unlike the other IP lookup APIs on this list, Ip-Api doesn’t offer in-depth security data – however they do provide information on whether a user is using a VPN or proxy. Their Pro plan is about $15/month, billed annually.
You can test the API before you even sign up at their plans page to get an idea of the type of data the API returns. You can also submit a request to correct your own company’s data – this must be done one at a time and verified manually by ip-api.
Signing up for an account requires just an email and password, and gives you access to documentation and code snippets.
Side By Side Comparison
Feature / Provider | ipinfo.io | ipdata.co | MaxMind GeoIP2 | IP-API | |
Free Tier | 100 requests/mo | 50,000 req/mo | 1,500 req/day | 25 req/day (GeoLite2) | 1,000 requests/mo |
IPv4 & IPv6 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Accuracy | High (esp. Europe) | High (esp. US) | Very High | Industry-standard | Moderate–High |
Data Included | Location, timezone, currency, connection, security | ASN, carrier, company, privacy, location | Carrier, threat, currency, languages | Extensive (ISP, domain, connection type, etc.) | Basic location & timezone |
Security Data | Proxy/VPN/tor info | Privacy detection | Threat intelligence | Detailed (via paid plans) | Basic risk data |
Ease of Use | Simple REST API | REST & libraries | REST, JSON only | Complex, SDK-based | Very beginner-friendly |
Latency | Low | Very Low | Low | Medium (self-hosted) | Low |
Global Coverage | 200k+ cities | 250k+ cities | 240+ countries | Global | 200k+ cities |
Rate Limits | Strict on free tier | Generous on free tier | Fairly flexible | Depends on license | Strict on free tier |
Paid Plans | From $9.99/mo | From $49/mo | From $10/mo | $24/mo+ (or license) | From $10/mo |
Batch Lookup | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Hosting Option | Cloud-only | Cloud-only | Cloud-only | Cloud or On-prem | Cloud-only |
GDPR Compliance | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
API Response Format | JSON | JSON | JSON | JSON, CSV, MMDB | JSON |
Why Devs Continue to Choose IPstack
When it comes to quick and easy IP address lookup using a free IP API, IPstack is the top choice for many developers. Although it doesn’t offer the extensive fraud prevention and threat intelligence of MaxMind, it remains one of the most straightforward geo APIs to get up and running in a production application.
IPstack also offers easily accessible support, and has a large community of developers already using it, meaning answers to your questions are never far away.
Start building with IPstack — Claim your free API key and test it in minutes.
FAQs
What is an IP Geolocation API?
An IP location API (or IP address API or just IP API) is a web-based service that allows you to look up information about IP addresses. “API” stands for Application Programming Interface, and in this context, it means a tool that developers can use to request data about an IP address from a remote server.
Which is the most accurate IP geolocation API?
These days, nearly all IP APIs have high levels of accuracy. Some of the top-rated IP APIs include IPstack, MaxMind, IPdata, IP2Location and Ipify. All these services are able to pinpoint an IP address to within a few miles inside a city or zip code. Be aware that no matter how accurate an IP location API is, you’ll never get specific information about a user’s address, phone number, etc.
What’s the difference between IPstack and IPinfo?
The primary difference between IPstack and IPinfo is the cost of their basic tier. Both companies offer generous free tiers that allow developers free monthly requests, and both offer security features like proxy and VPN detection. IPstack’s basic tier is $9.99/month, while IPinfo’s is $49/month. The reason for this difference in cost is likely because IPinfo includes security information in their basic tier, while IPstack offers this in a different tier.
Can I use IP geolocation APIs to personalize my website?
Yes! In fact, IP geolocation is one of the most effective ways to do this. Knowing your user’s approximate location allows you to localize content, meaning you can serve targeted ads, pages in your user’s language, special deals only available in their area, etc. You can also prevent users from accessing certain things (for example, streaming services frequently do this to geofence users and prevent access of certain shows in certain countries.)
Is there a free IP geolocation API with good accuracy?
Yes, there are a few free IP APIs with high accuracy, including IPstack, IPinfo, MaxMind, and IP-API. IPstack, for example, offers a free tier that allows up to 100 free requests per month, and boasts high accuracy globally, particularly in the EU.