2026-09-01
45 free Australian APIs every business should know about
Most "free business API" lists are American. Weather, address lookup, currency, none of it works properly over here. This list is different. Every API below is Australian (or has solid Australian data), free to use, and built for business, not consumer, use cases.
Fair warning up front: this leans heavily on government and civic sources, because that is where most of the genuinely free, no-catch data lives. But it is not all government. There is a private-sector section below with small Australian companies and one hobby project, alongside the usual departments and registers.
A quick note on "free" itself. It means different things depending on who is publishing. Some APIs are open with no sign-up at all. Some need a free registration or key. A couple need you to apply and wait for approval. A few are free for evaluation or non-commercial use but want a paid licence once you are actually running a business on top of them. We have flagged each one so you know what you are getting into, and linked straight to the source, not a third-party wrapper, wherever one exists.
We aimed higher than this and stopped at 45. A few things that show up on other "free Australian business API" roundups did not make the cut here because they turned out to be a paid licence in disguise (Australia Post's own postcode file), a non-commercial-only licence (NSW property sales data), or not actually an API (GrantConnect is a searchable website, not a REST endpoint). Better a shorter list you can trust than a rounder number padded with fine print.
Business registration and company data
1. ABN Lookup (ABR Web Services)
Look up any Australian Business Number and pull back the entity name, status, GST registration, and trading names. Free, no cost to register. You just need to sign up for an authentication GUID.
2. ASIC Company Dataset
ASIC publishes its full company register as a free CSV download on data.gov.au, updated weekly. There is also a direct machine-to-machine API for approved Digital Service Providers, though new DSP applications are paused until 2027 while ASIC rebuilds its systems.
3. ASIC Business Names Dataset
Same deal, for registered trading names rather than ACNs. Free CSV download, updated monthly.
4. ASIC Australian Financial Services Licensee Dataset
A free weekly CSV extract of every AFS licensee on ASIC's register.
5. ABLIS (Australian Business Licence and Information Service)
Tells you which licences, permits, and registrations a business needs, based on its industry, activities, and location. Free API, no cost.
6. IP Australia Trade Mark Search API
Search Australia's registered and pending trade marks and pull back full record data. Free to connect. You only pay if you use the API to lodge an actual application.
7. IP Australia Patent Search API
Same deal, for Australian patents. Free to connect, fees only apply to filings.
8. IP Australia Australian Design Search API
Same again, for registered designs. Free to connect.
All of the above, joined (our own API)
Every source in this section is free, and every one arrives in a different shape: SOAP, weekly tab-delimited files, rotating download URLs. One call takes an ABN or ACN and returns them as a single record, with a source and date on every field.
Addresses, location and shipping
9. Geoscape G-NAF (Geocoded National Address File)
The official database of Australian addresses, with over 15 million records and coordinates for each one. The open version is free to download under a Creative Commons licence. Note: it cannot be used to generate addresses for sending mail unless you have separately verified deliverability. Real-time API access to the "live" version is a paid Geoscape product, not this free one.
10. Australia Post PAC (Postage Assessment Calculator) API
Calculate postage costs for a parcel or letter, domestic or international. Free, sign up for an API key on the Australia Post developer portal.
11. Australia Post Locations API
Find post offices, parcel lockers, and collection points near a postcode or set of coordinates. Free, sign up for a key.
Money, banking and tax
12. Reserve Bank of Australia exchange rates
The RBA does not run a REST API. What they publish instead is a free, direct-download CSV file of daily AUD exchange rates, updated each business day. You will need to fetch and parse the CSV yourself rather than call a JSON endpoint. Be wary of paid third-party services that repackage this same public data and call it an "RBA API".
13. Consumer Data Right Product Reference Data APIs
Under Open Banking, Australian banks must publish basic product data (rates, fees, features) through free public APIs, no accreditation or login needed. This only covers product-level data. Accessing an actual customer's account data is a separate, accredited-only process.
The catch in practice: each bank hosts its own API at its own base URL, and the official way to find it means first querying the CDR Register's Get Data Holder Brands Summary API. A community-maintained, MIT-licensed GitHub project does that legwork for you: a live, auto-updated list of the base API URL for 117 Australian banks and credit unions, plus working code examples in PHP, JavaScript, Python, C#, and cURL.
14. ATO Standard Business Reporting (SBR2)
Lets accounting and payroll software lodge reports (BAS, Single Touch Payroll, and more) straight to the ATO and other agencies. Free to build against, but it is a serious integration project, not a quick API call.
Government data, statistics and compliance
15. ABS Data API
The Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes economic, population, and labour force data through a free API. No key required.
16. ABS Digital Boundary Files and geospatial web services
Free shapefiles and live geospatial web services for Australia's statistical geography (suburbs, postal areas, LGAs, states), which is what most ABS data is reported against.
17. Fair Work Commission Modern Awards Pay Database API
Pulls current and historical minimum pay rates, allowances, overtime, and penalty rates straight from the Modern Awards database. Free, but you need to register with a letter of intent.
18. Australian public holidays (Nager.Date)
The government's own machine-readable holiday dataset has been retired. The most reliable free option now is Nager.Date, a third-party API with no key required, covering all Australian states and territories.
19. api.gov.au
Not an API itself, but the central catalogue of APIs published across federal, state, and territory government. Worth bookmarking, since new ones get added regularly.
Weather, energy and environment
20. Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) weather data
BOM publishes forecast, warning, and observation data for free. Important catch: BOM's own terms say this data is for personal use, not commercial use, unless you have a specific agreement with them. If weather data matters to your product, budget time to contact BOM about a commercial licence rather than relying on the unofficial free feeds that get shared around online.
21. BOM Water Data Online
Different from the weather feeds above, and worth calling out separately: streamflow, river height, and water storage data from around 3,500 monitoring stations, collected under the Water Regulations 2008 and published under a Creative Commons Attribution licence, not the restricted personal-use terms that cover BOM's weather data.
22. AEMO NEMWeb (electricity market data)
The Australian Energy Market Operator publishes free, public data on wholesale electricity prices, demand, and generation across the National Electricity Market.
23. Clean Energy Regulator REC Registry API
Data on renewable energy certificates, used to track and trade certificates under Australia's renewable energy scheme.
24. Geoscience Australia AusPIX DGGS API
A documented, free API for Australia's Discrete Global Grid System, used to reference and aggregate spatial data across the country in a standard grid.
Transport
25. Transport for NSW Open Data Hub
Real-time and scheduled (GTFS) data for trains, buses, ferries, light rail, and live traffic across NSW. Free account, 60,000 API calls a day on the standard plan.
26. PTV Timetable API (Victoria)
Scheduled and real-time data for Victoria's trains, trams, and buses. Free, request a key by email.
27. TransLink GTFS (South East Queensland)
Free, no-key static timetable data (GTFS) for Brisbane and South East Queensland bus, train, ferry, and tram services, plus a real-time feed for registered developers.
28. Adelaide Metro GTFS
Free, Creative Commons-licensed static and real-time transit data for Adelaide's bus, train, and tram network.
Planning, property and civic data
29. NSW Planning Portal Online DA, PCC and CDC APIs
Free daily data feeds of every Development Application, Post Consent Certificate, and Complying Development Certificate lodged on the NSW Planning Portal since 2019.
30. Geoscape Administrative Boundaries (WFS API)
Free web feature service covering electoral boundaries, local government areas, suburbs, and state boundaries, built and maintained by Geoscape Australia using authoritative government data.
31. Digital Atlas of Australia
A free geospatial platform run by Geoscience Australia that brings together hundreds of national datasets, with API links (GeoServices, WMS, WFS) for most layers.
Parliament, law and open government
32. NSW Parliament Hansard API
Free public API covering NSW parliamentary sitting dates, members, bills, and full Hansard transcripts back to 1991.
33. OpenAustralia.org.au API
Not a government API, worth being clear about that: it is run by the OpenAustralia Foundation, a non-profit charity, not Parliament itself. It makes Federal Parliament's Hansard searchable and machine-readable. Free, but you need to register for a key.
Environment and science
34. Atlas of Living Australia API
Australia's national biodiversity database: over 100 million species occurrence records, free and mostly open without authentication.
Culture and research
35. Trove API
The National Library of Australia's API for searching digitised newspapers, books, images, and archives. Free with registration.
Health and human services software
36. Services Australia developer APIs (Medicare Online, ECLIPSE, AIR)
Lets accredited practice management and health software submit Medicare claims, bulk billing, and immunisation register updates directly. Free to build against once accredited through PRODA, but it is a serious integration, not a quick API call, similar in scope to SBR2 above.
General-purpose
37. data.gov.au CKAN API
The general-purpose API sitting behind the entire data.gov.au catalogue, over 30,000 datasets from federal, state, and local government. Free, no key needed for read access.
State and territory open data
38. State government API catalogues
NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia all run their own open data portals with free APIs on top, covering everything from planning applications to local council data.
39. City of Melbourne Open Data API
Council-level data for the City of Melbourne, over 200 datasets, free, with a proper Socrata-based API console.
Private sector and civic tech
These are not government APIs. Read the fine print on each one before you build on it. "Free" from a private operator usually comes with more conditions than a government dataset does.
40. Squiggle API
AFL fixtures, scores, ladder, and computer-model predictions, run as a hobby project by novelist Max Barry, not a company. It is free, requires no key (just a descriptive User-Agent header with a contact address), and its terms explicitly allow commercial use. The catch: it is a one-person hobby project with no warranty, so treat it as free-but-not-guaranteed rather than an enterprise-grade dependency.
41. PlateAPI
An Australian-built vehicle registration lookup API (run by a Melbourne company, WolfStack Solutions): send a plate and state, get back make, model, year range, body type, and engine. Free tier is 20 lookups a month, no credit card required. Paid plans start at $29 a month if you need more.
42. Adzuna API
A UK company (Adzuna Ltd), but with a genuine Australian job market feed alongside around 20 other countries: live job ads, salary histograms, and regional vacancy data. Free tier gives roughly 1,000 calls a month. Worth reading their terms closely though: sustained commercial, government, or academic use beyond an initial 14-day trial technically requires a paid licence agreement, unless what you are building actually displays Adzuna's job ads (which is what the free tier is designed for).
43. Xero API
Xero overhauled its developer pricing in December 2025. The free "Starter" tier gives unlimited data access for up to 5 connected Xero organisations, which is enough for an internal tool or a small integration. Go past 5 connections and you are into paid tiers, which now range up to $895 a month plus negotiated Enterprise pricing.
44. PlanningAlerts API
Run by the OpenAustralia Foundation (the same charity behind number 33 above), aggregating development applications from local councils across Australia, not just NSW. Important catch, and the opposite of what you would hope: the free "Community Plan" is for strictly non-commercial use only. For a business, you get a 14-day trial (10 requests a day), after which the Standard Plan is $3,850 AUD plus GST a month. Real estate, construction, and property-tech companies (Domain Group is a listed customer) pay for this one.
Bonus, use with caution
45. NBN address and connection checker
There is no official public API for checking NBN connection type at an address. The tool NBN's own website uses has been reverse-engineered by developers and documented on GitHub. It is unofficial and undocumented by NBN itself, so it can change or break without warning. Treat it as a "use if you understand the risk" option, not a stable foundation for a product.
A word of warning before you build anything
Government APIs change terms, get paused for rebuilds (see ASIC above), or turn out to have commercial-use restrictions you did not expect (see BOM above). Before you rely on any of these in a product, check the current terms of use on the provider's own site. Do not build off a blog post, including this one.
That warning is also why we built what we built; AUO.com.au. Several of the business-identity sources on this list, the ABR, the ASIC company and business name registers, the ASIC banned and licensee registers, ACNC, ORIC, and the DFAT sanctions list, are free but arrive as SOAP envelopes, weekly tab-delimited files mislabelled as CSV, and spreadsheets with rotating download URLs. Joining them into one record, and keeping that record fresh, is the part that is not free. The Australian business data API does that join for you and returns one resolved entity with a source and date on every field.
curl https://api.auo.com.au/v1/resolve \
-H "Authorization: Bearer auo_sk_test_your_key" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"abn": "51824753556"}'If you would rather not maintain eight ingestion pipelines yourself, see what building it yourself actually costs, or read more about ABN and ACN lookup.