A free fantasy football API
Quick answer: GridIron Data has a free plan: 50 requests a month, 10 a minute, and no credit card. It covers player lookups (name, position, team, injury status and jersey number) and PPR projections for the current NFL week. Actuals, other weeks, deviations, snap share, matchups and news come with Basic at $5 a month. Sign up, confirm your email, and copy the key from your dashboard.
- Price
- $0
- Requests per month
- 50
- Per minute
- 10
- Credit card
- Not needed
How do I get a free key?
- Open the signup page and leave the plan on Free.
- Enter your name, email and a password.
- Type the code we email you.
- Your key appears on the dashboard. We also email it to you.
That's it. There is no card, no trial end date and no sales call.
What is included for free?
| Feature | Free | Basic ($5) | Pro ($29) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Player profiles (team, position, injury status) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Projections for the current NFL week | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Other weeks, past seasons, actuals, deviations | No | Yes | Yes |
| Snap share, matchups, news | No | Yes | Yes |
| Requests | 50 per month | 5,000 per month | 50,000 per month |
| Rate limit | 10 per minute | 30 per minute | 100 per minute |
| Rest-of-season projections, schedule and byes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Prop probabilities and defense vs position | No | No | Yes |
| Betting lines and per-stat projections | No | No | Yes |
| Injury changes feed and webhooks | No | No | Yes |
Is 50 requests a month enough?
It is enough to look up players and pull this week's projections while you wire the API into your code. A projections check for a full roster takes about 4 to 6 requests, one projections call per position, and a few player lookups add a handful more. Save the responses while you build and 50 goes a long way. Stats, snaps, news and other weeks are not on the free plan at any volume.
It is not enough to run a league every week. A Tuesday board plus a Sunday re-check after inactives is 8 to 16 requests a week, roughly 35 to 70 a month, before any player lookups. A draft board that loads every player at once is about 18 requests on its own. Once you run something on a schedule, a bot for a league or a public site, that is what Basic is for: 5,000 requests a month for $5.
What happens at the monthly cap?
Request 51 in a month gets an HTTP 429 response with reason free_monthly_quota. The body explains the limit and links to pricing. The count resets on the 1st of each month at 00:00 UTC, and there is no daily limit, so you can use all 50 in one sitting. Your dashboard shows how many requests you have used this month.
HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
{
"error": "Free plan limit reached: you've used all 50 requests for this month (resets on the 1st, 00:00 UTC). Basic is $5/month for 5,000 requests/month, and Pro is $29/month for 50,000 plus prop probabilities, betting lines and injury changes. Your key stays the same when you upgrade: https://www.gridirondata.com/pages/pricing.html",
"reason": "free_monthly_quota",
"upgrade_url": "https://www.gridirondata.com/pages/pricing.html"
}A call outside the free plan, such as /stats, /news/latest or last week's projections, gets HTTP 403 with reason basic_required and the same upgrade_url. The key keeps working after you upgrade.
What other free options are there?
Other free sources are good at different jobs. nflverse publishes open play-by-play and roster data for R and Python. The Sleeper API returns league, roster and player data for Sleeper leagues. GridIron's free plan adds player profiles and this week's PPR projections; Basic adds actuals, deviations, snap share and impact-tagged news under the same key. Many developers use more than one.
Frequently asked questions
Is the GridIron Data API really free?
Yes. The free plan costs $0 and needs no credit card. It allows 50 requests a month at 10 a minute.
Do I need a credit card to sign up?
No. The free plan asks for a name, an email and a password. You only enter a card if you choose Basic or Pro.
Can I upgrade later without changing my code?
Yes. Upgrading to Basic or Pro keeps your key and raises its limits.
Which endpoints are not on the free plan?
Everything except player lookups and the current week's projections. Other weeks' projections, past seasons, /stats, /snaps, /deviations, /matchups and all /news endpoints need Basic ($5 a month); a free key gets HTTP 403 with reason basic_required. The betting data (/props, /defense, odds on /schedule, per-stat projections) and the injury changes feed, GET /api/v1/injuries/changes, need Pro ($29 a month) and answer reason pro_required.