Country API

Overview

The Country API offers programmatic access to a dataset containing information about countries worldwide, alongside basic geocoding capabilities. Launched in 2011, this API is designed for developers who need to integrate country-level data into their applications without managing extensive geographic datasets. It supports a range of use cases, from populating country dropdowns in forms to displaying detailed statistics or geographic boundaries within mapping applications.

The core functionality revolves around two primary product offerings: a dedicated country information API and a geocoding API. The country information API allows retrieval of attributes such as ISO codes, official names, capitals, regions, currencies, and languages. This can be beneficial for internationalization efforts, data validation, or enriching user interfaces with relevant national details. For example, an e-commerce platform might use it to auto-populate shipping address fields based on country selection or to display country-specific tax information.

The geocoding API component provides basic forward and reverse geocoding. Forward geocoding translates human-readable addresses or place names into geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude), while reverse geocoding converts coordinates back into a human-readable location. While the Country API's geocoding is optimized for country-level granularity and less complex requests, it serves as a straightforward solution for applications where high-precision street-level geocoding is not the primary requirement. This could include applications needing to identify the country associated with a given set of coordinates or to find the coordinates of a specific country's capital city.

Developers targeting applications that require displaying country data, performing simple geographic lookups, or integrating country-specific information will find the Country API suitable. Its documentation is direct, focusing on API endpoints and parameters. While it provides a free tier for initial exploration and low-volume usage, paid plans are available for increased request volumes, scaling up to custom enterprise pricing for large-scale deployments. Solutions that require more granular address verification or advanced routing capabilities often consider specialized geocoding providers such as Google Maps Platform Geocoding API or OpenCage Geocoding API for global coverage, which offer different feature sets and pricing models.

Key features

• Country Information Retrieval: Access comprehensive data for individual countries, including official names, ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 and alpha-3 codes, numeric codes, capitals, calling codes, currencies, languages, and geographic regions.
• Forward Geocoding: Convert country names or codes into corresponding latitude and longitude coordinates. This is useful for placing countries on a map or identifying their central geographic points.
• Reverse Geocoding (Country Level): Determine the country associated with a given latitude and longitude pair. This functionality can assist in geographically categorizing user activity or data points.
• Region and Sub-region Data: Obtain information about the continent and sub-region a country belongs to, aiding in regional filtering or categorization of data.
• Currency Information: Retrieve details about a country's official currency, including its name, symbol, and ISO 4217 code.
• Language Data: Access a list of official languages spoken within a country, including their ISO 639-1 codes and native names.

Pricing

The Country API offers a free tier for developers to begin, with scalable paid plans based on request volume. As of May 2026, the pricing structure is as follows:

For the most current pricing details and any potential changes to plan features, refer to the official Country API pricing page.

Common integrations

The Country API is designed to be integrated into various applications that require country-specific data or basic geocoding. Common integration scenarios include:

• E-commerce Platforms: Populate country dropdowns in checkout forms, validate international shipping addresses, or display country-specific tax information.
• Travel Applications: Provide destination details, display national flags, or offer language and currency converters based on selected countries.
• Data Visualization Tools: Enhance dashboards and reports by adding country names, codes, and geographic data to visualize global trends or statistics.
• CRM Systems: Enrich customer profiles with country-specific information, aiding international sales and marketing efforts.
• Content Management Systems: Tailor content delivery based on a user's detected country or enable filtering of content by nationality.
• User Interface Development: Implement auto-completion for country names or provide visual cues like flags when inputting country data.

Developers can find detailed information on how to connect to the API endpoints and retrieve data within the Country API documentation portal.

Alternatives

When considering solutions for country data and geocoding, several alternatives offer varying levels of granularity and feature sets:

• OpenCage Geocoding API: Provides global forward and reverse geocoding with extensive coverage and features like timezone data.
• Google Maps Platform Geocoding API: Offers highly accurate and comprehensive geocoding for addresses worldwide, widely used for location-based services.
• LocationIQ: A geocoding and mapping service built on OpenStreetMap data, offering both free and paid tiers with global coverage.

Getting started

To begin using the Country API, you will typically make HTTP requests to its endpoints. The following Python example demonstrates how to retrieve information for a specific country, such as Japan, using a basic GET request. Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your actual API key obtained upon registration.

import requests
import json

API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY"  # Replace with your actual API key
BASE_URL = "https://api.countryapi.com/v1"

def get_country_info(country_code):
    endpoint = f"{BASE_URL}/country/{country_code}"
    headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"}
    try:
        response = requests.get(endpoint, headers=headers)
        response.raise_for_status()  # Raise an exception for HTTP errors
        return response.json()
    except requests.exceptions.HTTPError as http_err:
        print(f"HTTP error occurred: {http_err}")
    except Exception as err:
        print(f"An error occurred: {err}")
    return None

if __name__ == "__main__":
    country_data = get_country_info("JP") # Request data for Japan (ISO Alpha-2 code)
    if country_data:
        print(json.dumps(country_data, indent=2))
        print(f"\nOfficial Name: {country_data.get('name', {}).get('official')}")
        print(f"Capital: {country_data.get('capital', ['N/A'])[0]}")
        print(f"Region: {country_data.get('region')}")
    else:
        print("Failed to retrieve country data.")

This example fetches detailed information for Japan, including its official name, capital, and region. You can adapt this code to query other countries by changing the country_code parameter or to utilize other API endpoints for geocoding or listing all countries, as described in the API documentation.