mediastack (apilayer)
- Free allowance
- Free plan, USD 0: 100 calls a month, live news 30 minutes late, all sources and 13 languages, HTTPS included; no historical news.
- Verdict
- caveatusable, with a named limit or an unprobed read path
- Cost
- free tier
- Identity
- emailno card, no phone
- Binding limit
- request-rate100 calls a month on the free plan; unverified: a per-second or per-minute rate limit answers rate_limit_reached (HTTP 429 in the vendor's suite error table); its size is not published and needs a free key to measure (behind a sign-up)
- Evidence
- documented33 sources; a first-party page was read and the sentence quoted
- Freshness
- stale on 2026-12-04checked 2026-11-03 (live); stale on 2026-12-04
| Free tier | Free plan, USD 0: 100 calls a month, live news 30 minutes late, all sources and 13 languages, HTTPS included; no historical news. unit requests; metered on request-count; A call counts at least 1 request and some options count more. Historical news (the date parameter) needs the Standard plan or higher. The next plan up is Standard at USD 24.99 a month (USD 22.99 billed yearly) for 10,000 calls a month. One API access key per account. |
|---|---|
| Price | none stated |
| Limits |
unverified: whether a free key past its 100 calls answers usage_limit_reached or is billed an overage (behind a sign-up); the pricing page lists a per-call overage price for Standard, Professional and Business and none for the free plan |
| Binding | request-rate 100 calls a month is met first; the size of the shorter rate limit is not published. |
| Identity | email The free sign-up form asks for a first and last name, an email and a password, and billing details: an address, a postal code, a country and a city (state optional). The free form shows no card field. |
| Egress | not applicable |
| Per-object cap | up to 100 results a call (limit maximum 100, default 25) |
| Retention | live news only, 30 minutes late on the free plan; no historical news |
| Interface | rest REST over HTTP or HTTPS at api.mediastack.com/v1 (news and sources endpoints); the key goes in the access_key parameter endpoint: https://api.mediastack.com/v1/news |
| Tooling | any HTTP client |
| Composes with | 100 calls a month at up to 100 articles a call is a sampling budget, not a feed. |
| Reliability | An account over its monthly volume answers usage_limit_reached and one over the rate limit answers rate_limit_reached; a keyless call answered HTTP 401 missing_access_key. |
| Notes | Bulk path: none. |
| Evidence note | documented Quota, delay, page size and sign-up fields are read from first-party pages; a keyless call answered HTTP 401, so the free key was not exercised. The rate limit size and the free-plan answer at 100 calls are unverified: behind a sign-up. |
| Parsed numbers |
|
Evidence 33
| date | source | what it proved |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-31 | mediastack.com/pricing | the free plan allows 100 calls a month |
| 2026-10-31 | mediastack.com/pricing | the free plan has delayed news data |
| 2026-10-31 | mediastack.com/pricing | not published |
| 2026-10-31 | mediastack.com/pricing | the free plan covers all 13 languages |
| 2026-10-31 | mediastack.com/pricing | the free plan includes HTTPS |
| 2026-10-31 | mediastack.com/pricing | Standard costs USD 24.99 a month, or USD 22.99 billed yearly |
| 2026-10-31 | mediastack.com/pricing | Standard gives 10,000 calls a month |
| 2026-10-31 | mediastack.com/faq | a call counts at least 1 request |
| 2026-10-31 | mediastack.com/faq | the free plan is sized at 100 requests a month |
| 2026-10-31 | docs.apilayer.com/mediastack/docs/api-features | free plan live news arrives 30 minutes late |
| 2026-10-31 | docs.apilayer.com/mediastack/docs/api-features | historical news needs the Standard plan or higher |
| 2026-10-31 | docs.apilayer.com/mediastack/docs/api-features | a call returns up to 100 results, 25 by default |
| 2026-10-31 | docs.apilayer.com/mediastack/docs/getting-started | one API access key per account |
| 2026-10-31 | docs.apilayer.com/mediastack/docs/getting-started | a rate limit exists, answered by rate_limit_reached; its size is not given |
| 2026-10-31 | docs.apilayer.com/mediastack/docs/getting-started | part of the text of Reliability, above |
| 2026-10-31 | mediastack.com/signup/free | the free sign-up form has a billing details section |
| 2026-10-31 | mediastack.com/signup/free | the free sign-up form requires a postal code |
| 2026-10-31 | mediastack.com/terms | not published |
| 2026-10-31 | mediastack.com/terms | not published |
| 2026-10-31 | probe: https://api.mediastack.com/v1/news?keywords=test | a keyless call answers HTTP 401 |
| 2026-10-31 | probe: https://api.mediastack.com/v1/news | the keyless answer is missing_access_key |
| 2026-11-02 | www.postman.com/apilayer/apilayer/collection/2uo8qbu/apilaye | the vendor's suite error table gives HTTP 429 for rate_limit_reached and describes it as a per-second or per-minute rate limit, with no size |
| 2026-11-02 | mediastack.com/pricing | the Standard plan lists a per-call overage price of 0.009996 on the pricing page, linked to the overage documentation |
| 2026-11-02 | mediastack.com/pricing | the free plan's feature list on the pricing page has seven items, 100 calls a month among them, and none is a per-call overage price |
| 2026-11-02 | app.apilayer.com/compare-plans/mediastack | the unified APILayer plan page lists USD 24.99 a month then USD 0.009996 per extra request for the 10,000-request plan, named Starter there |
| 2026-11-02 | mediastack.com/faq | the plan FAQ says overage fees apply after 100% of the monthly allowance and names no plan |
| 2026-11-02 | mediastack.com/billing-overages-documentation | overage fees are charged to the account's credit card after the billing period |
| 2026-11-02 | apilayer.com/faqs/ | a free plan of an APILayer product needs no credit card at sign-up |
| 2026-11-02 | mediastack.com/terms | past its monthly limit an account gets an error stating the limit was reached, and no further calls are answered that month |
| 2026-11-02 | docs.apilayer.com/apilayer/docs/api-layer-hub | the APILayer documentation hub states that usage_limit_reached and rate_limit_reached are standardized across every API of its catalog, Mediastack included |
| 2026-11-02 | mediastack.com/faq | the free plan is sized at 100 requests a month |
| 2026-11-02 | mediastack.com/signup/free | on the sign-up plan selector the free plan's Overage entry carries a cross icon (close_small.svg), where the paid plans' entries carry a check icon (check_small.svg) |
| 2026-11-02 | mediastack.com/signup/free | the sign-up plan selector lists an additional usage fee per API call of USD 0.009996 under the Standard plan |
Unknown values 1
- egress terms: the field does not apply to this kind of offer