Covid Tracking Project Pricing: Free Data Access (2026)

Pricing overview

The Covid Tracking Project provides all its data and API access completely free of charge. This includes historical COVID-19 state-level data, data visualizations, and exports. The project was founded in 2020 by volunteers and journalists to address the lack of consistent, public data on the pandemic in the United States. Its operational model relied on volunteer efforts and philanthropic support, allowing it to offer its resources without any cost to users. This commitment to free access aligns with its mission to support public health understanding and inform the public during a critical health crisis. Users, including academic researchers, public health analysts, and journalists, can access the full dataset via its API or direct downloads without registration or payment.

The project officially ceased collecting new data on March 7, 2021, but the extensive historical dataset remains available for ongoing research and analysis. The decision to conclude data collection was made due to improvements in official data reporting from government agencies, making the volunteer effort less critical. Despite the cessation of active collection, the project maintains its infrastructure to ensure continued free access to the valuable historical information it compiled, which includes daily updates on cases, deaths, tests, hospitalizations, and outcomes across U.S. states and territories. This ensures that the data remains a resource for understanding the early phases of the pandemic and its impact.

Plans and tiers

The Covid Tracking Project does not operate with a tiered pricing structure, nor does it offer different plans. All users, regardless of their affiliation or intended use, receive the same level of access to the project's data and API. There is no distinction between individual users, academic institutions, non-profit organizations, or commercial entities; everyone utilizes the single, free access model. This uniform approach simplifies data access and removes any potential barriers to entry for those seeking to analyze COVID-19 data.

The absence of tiers means there are no premium features, higher rate limits, or dedicated support channels that come with a paid plan. The project's resources, including its API documentation and data definitions, are universally available. The API provides endpoints for current and historical state data, daily summaries, and specific metric breakdowns. Data is available in JSON and CSV formats, accommodating various programming and analytical tools. This consistent availability ensures that all data consumers can integrate the information into their applications, research, or reporting without considering cost or feature limitations.

The "All Access" plan, effectively the only plan, provides comprehensive access to all available datasets. While there are no explicit, hard-coded rate limits published, users are expected to adhere to a fair use policy to ensure equitable access for all. Excessive or abusive querying could theoretically lead to temporary IP blocking, though this is not a common occurrence given the project's focus on public service and the nature of historical data access. The project's infrastructure is designed to handle routine data requests from a broad user base without requiring complex authentication or authorization mechanisms, further simplifying its use.

Free tier and limits

The entire Covid Tracking Project service functions as a permanent free tier. There are no paid options or upgrades available. This means that users have complete, unrestricted access to all data, including:

• Daily state-level data on cases, deaths, tests, hospitalizations, and outcomes.
• Historical data archives from the beginning of the pandemic up to March 7, 2021.
• Access to the API for programmatic data retrieval.
• Downloadable CSV files for bulk data analysis.
• Data definitions and methodology documentation.

Since the project is entirely free, there are no specific "limits" in the traditional sense associated with a free tier that would differentiate it from a paid offering. Instead, the project operates under a general expectation of respectful use. The primary "limit" is the scope of the data itself, which covers U.S. state-level COVID-19 data up to March 7, 2021, and does not include international data or ongoing real-time updates beyond that date. Users seeking more current or granular data may need to consult other sources, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or state health departments.

While there are no contractual service level agreements (SLAs) for uptime or performance, the project has historically maintained high availability for its data. The volunteer nature of the project means that support is community-driven, often through GitHub issues or archived communications, rather than formal help desks. Developers leveraging the API should implement error handling and caching mechanisms to ensure application resilience, as is standard practice when consuming any external API. The project's API documentation provides clear instructions on how to access various data endpoints, facilitating integration for developers and researchers seeking to build applications or conduct analytical studies using the historical data.

Real-world cost examples

Since the Covid Tracking Project is entirely free, all real-world cost examples demonstrate a cost of $0 for data access. This applies across various use cases:

• Academic Research Project: A university research team analyzing the initial spread of COVID-19 across U.S. states in 2020 requires daily hospitalization and testing data. Using the Covid Tracking Project API, they retrieve millions of data points over several months. The total cost for data access is $0. Their only expenses would be for their own computing resources, personnel, and any other external tools.

• Journalistic Reporting: A local newspaper reporter is writing an investigative piece on the impact of early pandemic policies in their state. They need historical data on cases and deaths to compare trends. They download CSV files directly from the Covid Tracking Project website. The cost for obtaining this high-quality, aggregated data is $0, enabling them to focus their budget on reporting and editorial processes rather than data acquisition fees.

• Public Health Dashboard: A non-profit organization develops a public-facing dashboard to visualize historical COVID-19 trends for their community. They integrate the Covid Tracking Project API to populate their charts and graphs with daily updates from 2020 and early 2021. The operational cost for their data feed from the Covid Tracking Project is $0, allowing them to allocate resources to dashboard development and maintenance.

• Data Science Learning Project: An aspiring data scientist wants to practice time-series analysis using real-world public health data. They use Python to fetch daily state data via the Covid Tracking Project API for a personal project. The cost for accessing the extensive dataset for their learning endeavor is $0, making it an accessible resource for skill development without financial commitment.

• Government Agency Analysis: A local government agency conducts a retrospective analysis of its pandemic response. They utilize the Covid Tracking Project's historical data to benchmark their state's performance against national trends during the period of active data collection. The data acquisition cost for this critical public service analysis is $0, supporting evidence-based policy review without budget strain.

In each scenario, the absence of any pricing structure for the Covid Tracking Project's data means that organizations and individuals can freely access and utilize the information without incurring any direct costs for the data itself. This model significantly reduces barriers to entry for data-driven projects related to public health. The official documentation for the API outlines the available endpoints and data schema, making it straightforward for developers to integrate this cost-free data source into their applications and analyses, as detailed in the Covid Tracking Project API documentation.

How the pricing compares

The Covid Tracking Project's entirely free pricing model stands in contrast to some data providers who may charge for access, or for enhanced features, though most public health data sources tend to be free for general access. When comparing its pricing to alternatives, several key points emerge:

• Our World in Data: This initiative also provides COVID-19 data free of charge, often with a global scope. Our World in Data's COVID-19 data includes confirmed cases, deaths, vaccinations, and testing, often aggregated from various official sources. Like the Covid Tracking Project, it is a non-profit effort focused on public good, making its data freely available for research and public understanding. The key difference in scope is that Our World in Data focuses globally, while the Covid Tracking Project was specifically focused on U.S. states and territories.

• Johns Hopkins University CSSE COVID-19 Data: The Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) provides a widely used dataset on COVID-19 cases and deaths globally, also free to access. This data is available through a GitHub repository and various dashboards. The Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 Map is an example of their data visualization. Its model is similar to the Covid Tracking Project in being a public-service, university-led initiative that offers data without cost. The Johns Hopkins dataset is continuously updated and has a global scope, whereas the Covid Tracking Project's data is U.S.-specific and historical.

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): The CDC provides official U.S. government data on COVID-19, including cases, deaths, hospitalizations, and vaccinations. This data is also free and publicly accessible through their website and various data portals. The CDC's COVID-19 Cases, Data, and Surveillance page serves as a primary source for ongoing official statistics. The CDC's data is current and authoritative, serving as the official record, while the Covid Tracking Project filled a crucial gap in consistent state-level reporting during the early phase of the pandemic before the CDC's reporting mechanisms were fully established and standardized across states.

The Covid Tracking Project's unique value proposition was its volunteer-driven, daily aggregation of U.S. state-level data during a period when official reporting was fragmented. Its historical dataset remains a valuable, cost-free resource for researchers examining that specific timeframe. Compared to other free alternatives, its dataset offers a consistent methodology for U.S. state data up to March 2021, which can be particularly useful for longitudinal studies within that period. Many commercial API providers, such as those offering financial market data or specialized industry insights, operate on subscription or usage-based pricing models, making the Covid Tracking Project's free model a distinct advantage for public health research where budget constraints are common. The availability of multiple free sources for COVID-19 data reflects a broader commitment within the scientific and public health communities to open data access during a global health crisis.