specification: API Commons Plans
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/Plans
provider: REST Countries
providerId: rest-countries
created: '2026-05-29'
modified: '2026-05-29'
tags:
  - Countries
  - Geography
  - Geocoding
  - Open Source
  - Reference Data
description: >-
  Plans for REST Countries (restcountries.com). The hosted instance is a fully
  free, community-run, open-source service distributed under MPL-2.0. There is
  no commercial pricing surface — only soft fair-use limits and an implicit
  best-effort SLA. Self-hosting the open-source distribution is an option for
  organizations that need stronger guarantees.
plans:
  - id: rest-countries-free
    name: Free (Hosted)
    type: free
    description: >-
      Free, public, unauthenticated access to the hosted REST Countries v3.1
      API. No sign-up, no API key, no per-account quota. Subject only to soft
      fair-use rate limiting at the edge.
    entries:
      - label: API Requests
        description: Unmetered request volume against the hosted endpoint, subject to fair use.
        name: api_requests
        type: quota
        metric: requests
        limit: -1
        timeFrame: month
        geo: global
        domains:
          - https://restcountries.com/v3.1
        unit: 1
        price: '0.00'
        userMultiplied: false
      - label: Rate Limit
        description: Soft fair-use rate limit enforced at the edge.
        name: rate_limit
        type: rate
        metric: requests_per_minute
        limit: -1
        timeFrame: minute
        geo: global
        domains:
          - https://restcountries.com/v3.1
        unit: 1
        price: '0.00'
        userMultiplied: false
    elements:
      - name: Public Documentation
      - name: Community Support (GitHub / GitLab Issues)
      - name: All v3.1 Endpoints
      - name: No Authentication Required
      - name: REST Countries v3.1
  - id: rest-countries-self-hosted
    name: Self-Hosted (Open Source)
    type: open-source
    description: >-
      Run REST Countries inside your own infrastructure from the upstream
      Java/Maven build (github.com/apilayer/restcountries mirror or the
      gitlab.com/restcountries/restcountries canonical source). Provides full
      control over uptime, latency, version pinning, and capacity at zero
      licence cost under MPL-2.0.
    entries:
      - label: Licence Cost
        description: Mozilla Public License 2.0 — no licence fee.
        name: licence
        type: quota
        metric: licence
        limit: -1
        timeFrame: perpetual
        geo: global
        unit: 1
        price: '0.00'
        userMultiplied: false
      - label: API Requests
        description: Bounded only by self-provisioned infrastructure capacity.
        name: api_requests
        type: quota
        metric: requests
        limit: -1
        timeFrame: month
        geo: self-hosted
        unit: 1
        price: '0.00'
        userMultiplied: false
    elements:
      - name: MPL-2.0 Source Code
      - name: Maven Build
      - name: Full Endpoint Parity
      - name: Self-Managed Capacity
      - name: Self-Managed SLA
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com