ipapi.co beginner's guide — what it is, how it works, when to use it
With any new API, the hardest part is figuring out what it actually does and where it's useful. Let's start there.
What is ipapi.co?
IP-based geolocation — country, city, ISP, currency, timezone. 1,000 free calls/day.
ipapi.co identifies a user's approximate location from their IP — content personalization (country/currency/language), fraud detection, analytics. 1,000 free calls/day, no signup required.
Who it's for
- Automatic currency/language matching
- Fraud protection
- Analytics
A first example
Here is the shortest path to seeing something work:
curl "https://ipapi.co/json/"When to use it, when not to
ipapi.co is a great fit for most of what it covers, but not every case. If you only need small, static data once or twice, it may be simpler to download and cache locally. For real products that need fresh data, the API is the way.