We, Developers, always try to find ways to build smarter, faster, and with less friction.
APIs let us use powerful features without writing everything from scratch. Whether you’re working on a chat app, an e-commerce platform, or even a weather-tracking tool, these APIs can help you take your project to the next level.
In this article, I’ll share 8 practical APIs that can help you save time, cut down on repetitive tasks, and make your app smarter & more efficient.
So, Without delaying Further
Let’s Start!
IPstack API - Personalize your app with geolocation data
Suppose you’re building an application for a global audience.
In that case, you need to understand the nuances of your users, their location, timezone, currency, and even the risks associated with their IP address.
These details can help you make your application more accessible and user-friendly.
But tracking user locations in real-time?
That’s not an easy task. But, IPstack API makes it easy to get detailed geolocation data from any IP address.
This API doesn’t just give you the basics like country or city, it also provides currency, timezone, and even security insights, such as whether the IP is from a proxy or risky source. It’s perfect for tailoring user experiences, improving security, or even just understanding your audience better.
If you want to use IPStack on Postman, You can follow this shout Guide:
You can integrate IPstack with a single API key. Just append your access key to the base URL, and you’re good to go:
curl 'https://api.ipstack.com/134.201.250.155?access_key=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY'
The API responds with rich geolocation data in JSON format by default. Here's an example response:
{
"ip": "134.201.250.155",
"continent_name": "North America",
"country_name": "United States",
"region_name": "California",
"city": "Los Angeles",
"latitude": 34.0655,
"longitude": -118.2405,
"time_zone": {
"id": "America/Los_Angeles",
"current_time": "2024-06-14T01:45:35-07:00",
"gmt_offset": -25200
},
"currency": {
"code": "USD",
"name": "US Dollar",
"symbol": "$"
},
"security": {
"is_proxy": false,
"threat_level": "low"
}
}
Thinking of why you should use it? Check out these:
Personalization: Serve localized content, currencies, or timezone-specific features.
Security: Detect risky IPs or proxy usage to prevent fraud.
Speed: Get all this data in milliseconds, so your app stays fast.
Flexibility: Choose JSON or XML responses based on your needs.
If you’re building apps that depend on user location, enhancing security, or simply aiming for a smarter user experience, IPstack is an invaluable addition to your toolkit.
Simple to integrate, and the data it delivers is as powerful as it is detailed.
Number Verification API- Ensure valid phone numbers effortlessly
If your app relies on phone numbers, whether for user signups, OTP authentication, or customer communication, you’ve probably dealt with fake numbers, typos, or undelivered messages.
It’s frustrating and costly.
Validating phone numbers across different countries and formats can feel like a nightmare. That’s where the Number Verification API steps in.
It’s a simple yet powerful tool that validates both national and international phone numbers across 232 countries. In real-time, it checks the number’s validity, carrier, geographical location, and even the line type (mobile or landline).
To get started, all you need is the phone number you want to validate. Here's how you can make a request:
curl --request GET 'https://api.apilayer.com/number_verification/validate?number=14158586273' \
--header 'apikey: YOUR API KEY'
Here’s a sample response:
{
"valid": true,
"number": "14158586273",
"local_format": "4158586273",
"international_format": "+14158586273",
"country_prefix": "+1",
"country_code": "US",
"country_name": "United States of America",
"location": "Novato",
"carrier": "AT&T Mobility LLC",
"line_type": "mobile"
}
Some Cool Features, that caught my eye:
Instantly confirm whether a phone number is valid, reducing errors and improving user experience during signups or lead capture.
Catch invalid or fake numbers before they can be misused on your platform, saving you money and ensuring better-quality data.
Identify the line type (mobile vs. landline) to ensure SMS or calls are sent to the correct device, reducing undelivered messages.
Use carrier and location data to tailor your communication—like recommending the best plan for a user’s region or offering regional promotions.
Validate numbers from 232 countries, whether they’re local or international, without worrying about complex dialing rules or formats.
If you’re building an app with any kind of phone number integration, the Number Verification API is a must-have.
Bad Words API-Keep your content Safe
As the usage of LLMs and Agents is increasing day by day it has become a big problem to keep the response Safe for all users.
AI is bound to make mistakes (Yes, Just like Humans)
But it’s important for us to keep the response safe for our user, In this scenario, Bad Words APi can really help you.
This API uses advanced English phonetics to detect and censor profanity, even when users try to get creative with acronyms or special characters (think “f*ck” or “sh!t”).
It can identify swear words in your text, report their location, and replace them with your chosen censor character.
Here’s a simple example of the API in action:
curl --request POST \
--url 'https://api.apilayer.com/bad_words?censor_character=*' \
--header 'apikey: YOUR_API_KEY' \
--data-raw '{
"body": "This is a shitty sentence"
}'
The response will show the detected bad word, where it appears, and the censored version of the content:
{
"bad_words_total": 1,
"bad_words_list": [
{
"word": "shitty",
"start": 10,
"end": 16
}
],
"censored_content": "This is a ****** sentence"
}
Some Cool Features of this API are:
Smart Detection: Identifies swear words, including acronyms and words with special characters.
Customizable Censoring: Replace bad words with a character of your choice (e.g., "*", "#").
Bypass-Resistant: Flags creative attempts like “sh!t” or “fck” without false positives like “shot.”
If you’re moderating user content, building chatbots, or integrating AI tools, this API will help ensure your platform remains safe and respectful for all users.
MarketStack - Power Your App with Real-Time Market Data
If you're building financial apps, stock trackers, or analytics dashboards, having access to accurate and up-to-date market data is non-negotiable.
This is where the MarketStack API shines. It’s a RESTful API that provides real-time, intraday, and historical stock market data from 70+ global exchanges, covering over 170,000 stock tickers across 50+ countries.
From retrieving end-of-day prices for your favorite stock symbol to fetching data on market indices, currencies, and timezones, MarketStack makes it easy to access and integrate financial data into your applications.
MarketStack is built on a simple and secure request-response structure. Just add your API access key to the base URL, add any parameters you need (like stock symbols or dates), and you’re good to go!
curl 'https://api.marketstack.com/v1/eod?access_key=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY&symbols=AAPL'
The API provides detailed stock data in JSON format:
{
"pagination": {
"limit": 100,
"offset": 0,
"count": 100,
"total": 9944
},
"data": [
{
"open": 129.8,
"high": 133.04,
"low": 129.47,
"close": 132.995,
"volume": 106686703.0,
"symbol": "AAPL",
"exchange": "XNAS",
"date": "2021-04-09T00:00:00+0000"
},
[...]
]
}
Some cool use cases of this API will be:
Investment Apps: Display real-time stock prices and historical performance for investors.
Market Research: Analyze trends and historical data to support financial decision-making.
Portfolio Management Tools: Keep users updated on the daily performance of their investments.
News and Media Platforms: Integrate real-time stock information alongside financial news.
And More…
Overall, this is a very useful API if you’re building an app for retail investors, creating analytics dashboards for professionals, or simply exploring market trends.
User Agent API- Optimize experiences for every device
When you’re building for the web, you can’t generalize everything.
Your users are accessing your app from phones, tablets, desktops, and even bots. Different devices mean different screen sizes, capabilities, and browsing behaviors, so if you’re not optimizing for these variations, you’re probably losing users.
That’s where the User Agent API comes in. This API allows you to reliably detect what type of device your users are on, mobile, tablet, desktop, or bot, and provides key details about their browser, operating system, and even whether they have touch capabilities.
It’s a simple but essential tool for delivering a seamless experience, no matter what device your users prefer.
To use the User Agent API, simply parse the User Agent string from your users’ HTTP headers. Here’s an example request for detecting devices:
curl --request GET \
--url 'https://api.apilayer.com/user_agent/detect?ua=Mozilla/5.0%20(Windows%20NT%2010.0;%20Win64;%20x64)' \
--header 'apikey: YOUR_API_KEY'
The API will break down the user agent string into actionable details like this:
{
"type": {
"mobile": false,
"tablet": false,
"touch_capable": false,
"pc": true,
"bot": false
},
"browser": {
"name": "Chrome",
"version_major": 85,
"version": "85.0.4183"
},
"os": {
"name": "Windows",
"version_major": 10,
"version": "10"
},
"device": {
"name": "Other",
"brand": null,
"model": null
}
}
You can also generate random user-agent strings, useful for web scraping or testing.
Why Use It?
Device-Based Personalization: Serve tailored experiences to your users based on their device type.
Dynamic Content Delivery: Detect browser types and versions to ensure compatibility or suggest browser upgrades for a better experience.
Improve Marketing Strategies: Use device data to segment your audience.
Future-Proof Your Product: Plan and configure your services based on the majority of devices accessing your app.
Whether you’re creating a responsive design, optimizing performance, or targeting specific user segments, the User Agent API gives you the insights you need to build better, smarter, and more user-friendly applications.
It’s simple to use and delivers valuable data that can make all the difference.
Violence Detection API - Keep Your Platform Safe and Responsible
If you’re working on a platform where users upload images / Generate Images with AI, moderating that content is a big challenge.
Ensuring that violent or inappropriate content doesn’t slip through is critical, but manually reviewing images isn’t scalable.
I recently built an AI Powered Logo Generator,And while building that I ran into an unexpected issue: AI sometimes generates results that are… less than ideal.
Removing inappropriate or violent imagery turned out to be trickier than I expected.
After Finding solutions here and there, I came across this “Violence Detection API” and that really helped me.
This API’s ability to distinguish between harmless imagery (like someone holding a kitchen knife while laughing) and genuinely concerning content (like threatening gestures with weapons) makes it an invaluable tool for developers working on user-generated content platforms.
Here’s how you can use the API to classify images and ensure your platform stays safe:
curl --request POST \
--url 'https://api.apilayer.com/violence_detection' \
--header 'apikey: YOUR_API_KEY' \
--data-binary '@image.jpg'
{
"description": "Possible violence",
"value": 3
}
Note:
Value 1: Very unlikely contains violence (safe).
Value 2: Unlikely contains violence (still safe).
Value 3: Possible violence (requires review).
Value 4 or 5: Likely or highly likely contains violence (should be flagged).
Let’s see how it works with some examples,
A kitchen knife is sharp and can be dangerous, but unless you’re the onion on the table, it’s completely harmless in this context. The API is smart enough to recognize this and classify it as safe.
The response from the API is as expected.
{
"description": "Very unlikely contains violence",
"value": 1
}
Now, there is a lady holding a cleaver for a show or a similar occasion. She is laughing so we get the idea that she is joking. It shouldn't be taken that seriously.
The response from the API is as expected. Still no violence, but value = 2 means, there may be some chance of a crime.
{
"description": "Unlikely contains violence",
"value": 2
}
Lastly, things are getting serious. The model wearing a pirate suit, is pointing the knife to the shutter with a shadowy face. So, this can be a sign of violence.
The response from the API notes that this may be a possible violent picture.
{
"description": "Possible violence",
"value": 3
}
If you’re building a messaging app, an image-sharing platform, or even an AI-powered content generator, the Violence Detection API helps you keep your platform safe and compliant.
Sentiment Analysis API - Understand user emotions in real-time.
If you’re building a B2C Application, reviews, social media, and customer feedback, understanding user sentiment becomes really important.
Are users happy, frustrated, or somewhere in between? This is where Sentiment Analysis API becomes your secret weapon.
Sentiment analysis, a concept in Natural Language Processing, helps classify text into categories like positive, negative, or neutral. And while even humans can struggle with sarcasm or ambiguous statements, this API comes pre-trained with thousands of real-life examples to analyze sentiment on par with humans.
The best part?
You don’t need to train any models, just call the API and let it do the heavy lifting.
From analyzing customer reviews to gauging public sentiment on social media, this tool helps you turn raw text into actionable insights.
To use the Sentiment Analysis API, simply send the text you want to analyze in the request body. It even works with HTML, so no need to clean up your input first.
curl --request POST \
--url 'https://api.apilayer.com/sentiment/analysis' \
--header 'apikey: YOUR_API_KEY' \
--data-raw '{
"body": "This restaurant has a lovely atmosphere and the staff is great!"
}'
The API analyzes the text and returns a response like this:
{
"content_type": "text",
"language": "en",
"sentiment": "positive"
}
Here are some example use cases, where you can use this API:
E-commerce: Understand customer feedback on product pages or reviews.
Social Media Monitoring: Gauge public sentiment around a campaign or brand.
Customer Support: Automatically route angry feedback to a human rep.
Market Research: Analyze large-scale survey data to measure brand perception.
And More…
If you’re working with user-generated content or text-heavy data, the Sentiment Analysis API is an effortless way to gain meaningful insights.
From customer feedback to public sentiment, this API transforms words into clear, actionable insights that you can act on right away.
MediaStack API - Real-Time News, Delivered to Your App
If you’re building an application that needs real-time or historical news data, whether it's for tracking global events or powering a news aggregator, Mediastack can be your go-to solution.
This RESTful API gives you access to global news in a simple, scalable, and developer-friendly format.
With just a single HTTP GET endpoint, you can filter news by date, timeframe, country, language, source, or even specific keywords. It’s fast, flexible, and perfect for projects that need a constant stream of up-to-date information.
Using the MediaStack API is straightforward. Just append your unique access key to the base URL, apply the filters you need, and start fetching news.
curl 'https://api.mediastack.com/v1/news?access_key=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY&keywords=technology&countries=us&languages=en'
In the response we’ll get neatly structured JSON data, like this:
{
"pagination": {
"limit": 10,
"offset": 0,
"count": 10,
"total": 150
},
"data": [
{
"author": "John Doe",
"title": "Tech Breakthrough in AI",
"description": "A groundbreaking development in artificial intelligence...",
"url": "https://example.com/tech-news",
"source": "TechTimes",
"category": "technology",
"language": "en",
"country": "us",
"published_at": "2025-01-23T14:30:00+00:00"
},
[...]
]
}
Here’s how Mediastack can be used in different scenarios:
News Aggregators: Combine multiple news sources in real-time to provide up-to-the-minute news updates from across the globe.
Social Media Monitoring: Keep track of trending news topics and public reactions to events or campaigns.
Data Analysis: Conduct research or analysis on news patterns across different regions, languages, and timeframes.
Market Insights: Monitor global or local news relevant to specific industries or companies.
And More…
Overall, The MediaStack API helps you to get fast, reliable, and customizable news data. It’s simple to integrate and opens up countless possibilities for building smarter, more engaging apps.
That’s a wrap! These are the 8 Useful APIs you should definitely use in your next project.
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