Best Free Job APIs in 2026: Limits, Terms and Gotchas
TL;DR
Most free job APIs are free to call but not free to use however you like. Adzuna's key is a 14-day trial for commercial use, Remotive and RemoteOK require a link back, USAJobs forbids reselling its data, and Jobicy only serves the last 7 days. Keyless options include Remotive, Arbeitnow, RemoteOK and Himalayas (remote-focused or Europe-focused), and the public Greenhouse, Lever and Ashby boards (one employer at a time). For a general-purpose free tier with structured filters, CleanJobData's Trial gives 300 requests a day with no card. Everything here was checked against official pages in October 2026; anything we couldn't confirm is marked.
"Free" means three different things in job APIs: free to call, free to store, and free to build a business on. Most sources below are only the first. This list was checked against each provider's official pages in October 2026, and it states the limits and terms so you can rule options out early.
Quick Comparison
| API | Key needed? | Published free limit | Coverage | Main restriction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CleanJobData Trial | Yes, free signup, no card | 300 requests/day, 20 jobs per response | Global, ATS and career-site jobs | Apply links redirect through cleanjobdata.com |
| Adzuna | Yes (app_id and app_key) | 25/min, 250/day, 1,000/week, 2,500/month | Multiple countries | 14-day trial for commercial use, attribution, snippet descriptions |
| Remotive | No | Blocked above 2 requests/min; 4 requests a day advised | Remote jobs, worldwide | Link back and credit; 24h delay; cannot republish to other job sites |
| Arbeitnow | No | A response header showed a limit of 50, with no stated window | Europe and Germany focus (separate UK endpoint) | Link back required; site terms restrict commercial use and public display, unclear if they cover the API |
| RemoteOK | No | Not verified | Remote jobs | Must link back with a followed link |
| Himalayas | No | 20 jobs per request; 429s on abuse; cached for 24h | Remote jobs | Visible link back required |
| Jobicy | No | 200 jobs per request | Remote jobs | Only the last 7 days; attribution required |
| The Muse | Optional for testing | 500/hour unregistered, 3,600/hour registered | Filterable by company, category, level and location | Registration required beyond testing |
| USAJobs | Yes, via request form | 500 rows per page, 10,000 per query | US federal only | Cannot be resold or redistributed as a standalone feed |
| Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby | No (public boards) | Not verified | One employer per request | You need each employer's board token or slug |
CleanJobData Trial
The Trial is built so you can run a real prototype or even a small live board on it, not just read the docs. You get 300 requests per day (it resets daily, it isn't a monthly pool), up to 20 jobs per response, all job fields, structured locations and salary filters, and no credit card. Jobs come from ATS platforms and company career sites in one normalized schema. See the Jobs API reference or the quickstart.
The catch: on the Trial, application_url is a cleanjobdata.com redirect rather than the direct employer URL. The link works, but you only get the direct URL on a paid plan. You can sync data into your own database while you build, but at 300 requests a day and 20 jobs per response a full-catalogue sync isn't realistic, so scope it to the slice you need. Larger syncs are what the paid plans are sized for. See pricing.
Adzuna
Adzuna's search API is free to register for, and the default limits are published in its terms: 25 hits per minute, 250 per day, 1,000 per week and 2,500 per month (higher limits can be requested for commercial applications). It returns salary ranges with a salary_is_predicted flag, hierarchical location, coordinates, category and contract type.
Read the terms before you build on it. For commercial users, Adzuna describes the free access as a 14-day trial for validating data quality, after which a licence agreement may be required. It requires an "Adzuna" label linked to adzuna.co.uk, and requires you to remove acquired data if the agreement ends. Descriptions are snippets rather than full text. Full walkthrough: How to Integrate Adzuna's Free Job API.
Remotive
Remotive has a keyless public API for remote jobs worldwide, returning title, company, category, tags, job type, a free-text location and salary, and the full HTML description. The rules are strict:
- Excessive requests (more than 2 per minute) are blocked, and Remotive recommends at most 4 requests a day.
- Jobs are delayed by 24 hours.
- You must link back to the Remotive URL and mention Remotive as the source.
- You must not submit Remotive jobs to third-party sites, and Remotive lists Jooble, Neuvoo, Google Jobs and LinkedIn Jobs as examples.
- Showing the jobs to collect signups or email addresses is listed as a breach.
A private paid API exists for larger needs. See CleanJobData vs Remotive.
Arbeitnow
Arbeitnow's job board API needs no key. It aggregates jobs from ATS platforms (it names Greenhouse, SmartRecruiters, Join, Teamtailor, Recruitee and Comeet), focuses on Europe and Germany, has a remote field and a visa sponsorship filter, and has a separate UK endpoint. Its responses say it is free to use, ask you not to abuse it and ask for a link back. A response header showed a limit of 50, but the time window isn't stated, and the full documentation sits on a Postman page we couldn't read. Its site terms include a licence that prohibits commercial use, public display and mirroring the materials, and it isn't spelled out whether that covers the API, so ask Arbeitnow before building a product on it.
RemoteOK
RemoteOK's remoteok.com/api is keyless and returns the full description, a free-text location, salary_min and salary_max, tags and an apply URL. Its terms ask you to link back to the Remote OK URL with a followed link and mention Remote OK as the source, or it may suspend API access. We found no published rate limits.
Himalayas
Himalayas offers a free remote jobs API with no usage fees or paid tiers: a /jobs/api endpoint with cursor pagination and a search endpoint. It returns up to 20 jobs per request, with salary range and currency, seniority and timezone restrictions. Data is cached and refreshed every 24 hours, so polling more often than daily gains nothing. You must include a visible link back to himalayas.app and say the data comes from Himalayas. Higher limits are available by contacting them.
Jobicy
Jobicy's remote jobs endpoint needs no key and returns up to 200 jobs per request, filterable by geo, industry and tag. The gotcha is that it only serves jobs published in the last 7 days, with a 3-hour delay, so you can't backfill history. Attribution is required, and an optional bearer token unlocks direct ATS apply links for $0.01 per new job.
The Muse
The Muse's API is free to test without a key (500 requests per hour), and registration raises that to 3,600 requests per hour. Results come 20 per page and can be filtered by company, category, level and location. Registration is required for any use beyond testing. We could not confirm its attribution or storage terms.
USAJobs
USAJobs is the official source for US federal jobs, and it has rich data: salary range and pay grade, full descriptions, requirements and deadlines. You request a key through a form (name, email, phone, organization and a description of your use), and you send it in an Authorization-Key header with your registered email as the User-Agent. Queries are capped at 500 rows per page and 10,000 rows per query.
The terms say you can't "rent, lease, loan, sell, trade, or redistribute" the API data to third parties as a standalone product or feed. Storing and reformatting it internally is allowed if you credit USAJOBS and send users to USAJOBS to apply. That matches the response: both link fields (ApplyURI and PositionURI) point to usajobs.gov pages, not directly to the agency's application system.
Public ATS Job Boards (Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby)
Greenhouse (boards-api.greenhouse.io), Lever (api.lever.co) and Ashby (api.ashbyhq.com/posting-api) expose public job board endpoints for reading, with no key needed for GET requests. Lever's postings include salaryRange, and Ashby can include compensation with includeCompensation=true. The limit is structural: each request covers one employer, and you have to know that employer's board token, site slug or board name. They're great if you want one company's jobs, and impractical as a search API. The ATS scraping guides walk through each one, and CleanJobData exists to do that aggregation and normalization for you.
Others: Jooble, Careerjet and jobr.pro
- Jooble and Careerjet are free to request, but they issue keys through a form or publisher account and are meant for sites that display listings. We couldn't verify Jooble's limits or Careerjet's storage terms. See vs Jooble and vs Careerjet.
- jobr.pro has an open XML feed with no key. See our field guide.
- We also looked at Findwork.dev and Working Nomads but couldn't verify their official terms and limits, so we haven't listed them.
Which One Should You Use?
- A prototype or small live board with filters: start with the CleanJobData Trial, as it is general-purpose (global, filterable by location, salary and seniority) rather than remote-only or single-country, and it has no link-back requirement.
- Remote jobs only: Remotive, Himalayas, Jobicy or RemoteOK, and plan for the link-back requirements.
- US federal jobs: USAJobs, but don't resell the data.
- One employer's jobs: the public Greenhouse, Lever or Ashby endpoints.
- Quick market research: Adzuna, within its published limits and the terms above.
- A production board that stores data: read each provider's terms first, and compare paid options in Best Job APIs in 2026.
Whatever you pick, check the terms again before launch. Free access can change, and several of these providers state that API access can be restricted or withdrawn.