specification: API Commons Plans
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/Plans
provider: Lichess
providerId: lichess
created: '2026-05-25'
modified: '2026-05-25'
reconciled: true
tags:
  - Chess
  - Open Source
  - Nonprofit
  - Donation
description: |
  Lichess is a free, ad-free, open-source online chess server operated by the French nonprofit Lichess. There is no
  commercial plan and no metered API pricing. All access to lichess.org and the Lichess API is free of charge.
  Sustainability is funded by patron donations through the Lichess Patron program, which provides recognition (a
  visible patron badge) but no functional gating. Both the public dataset exports and the public API are available
  to anyone at no cost, subject only to rate limits and fair use.
sources:
  - https://lichess.org/patron
  - https://lichess.org/about
  - https://lichess.org/api
  - https://github.com/lichess-org/api
plans:
  - id: lichess-free
    name: Free
    type: free
    description: |
      Full, unrestricted access to lichess.org and the Lichess API for play, analysis, puzzles, studies, tournaments,
      broadcasts, board and bot play, the opening explorer, the tablebase, the external engine, and bulk dataset
      downloads. No payment ever required and no feature gating.
    entries:
      - label: Account
        name: account
        type: included
        metric: account
        limit: -1
        timeFrame: month
        geo: global
        unit: 1
        price: '0.00'
        userMultiplied: false
      - label: API requests
        name: api-requests
        type: included
        metric: requests
        limit: -1
        timeFrame: month
        geo: global
        unit: 1
        price: '0.00'
        userMultiplied: false
        description: Rate-limited per endpoint. See rate-limits/lichess-rate-limits.yml.
    elements:
      - Unlimited play in real time and correspondence across all variants
      - Full access to all 185 API operations and ND-JSON streams
      - All tournaments, studies, broadcasts, puzzles, and analysis features
      - Bulk dataset downloads from database.lichess.org
      - Mobile, web, and third-party clients (Board API, Bot API)
  - id: lichess-patron
    name: Lichess Patron
    type: donation
    description: |
      Voluntary monthly or lifetime donation supporting Lichess operations. Patron status is purely a recognition
      tier with a visible badge; it does not unlock any feature or change any rate limit.
    entries:
      - label: Patron donation (suggested)
        name: patron-monthly
        type: optional
        metric: donation
        limit: -1
        timeFrame: month
        geo: global
        unit: 1
        price: '5.00'
        userMultiplied: false
        description: Suggested monthly donation. Any amount accepted.
      - label: Patron lifetime donation
        name: patron-lifetime
        type: optional
        metric: donation
        limit: 1
        timeFrame: lifetime
        geo: global
        unit: 1
        price: '250.00'
        userMultiplied: false
        description: One-time donation amount for the Lifetime Patron tier.
    elements:
      - Visible patron badge on the user profile
      - Supports server operations, infrastructure, and development
      - No functional benefit or rate-limit change versus the Free plan