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Advantages

Why ipfast.dev is the simplest way to look up IP addresses. Free API key required -- register in seconds. No monthly quotas -- just data from the edge.

How We Compare

Featureipfast.devTypical IP API
Signup RequiredFree (magic link)Yes (email + verification)
API Key RequiredFree API keyYes
Free Tier Limit120 req/min, 10K/month1,000-50,000/month
External API CallsZero1-3 per request
Latency Overhead<5ms50-200ms
CORS SupportAll originsVaries (often restricted)
Output FormatsJSON, XML, YAML, CSV, textJSON only
Individual Field EndpointsYes (/country, /city, etc.)Rarely
Connection Security DataTLS, cipher, HTTP versionNo
User Agent ParsingBuilt-inNo
JSONP SupportYesVaries
AI/LLM Integrationllms.txt, OpenAPI, ai-pluginNo

Key Advantages

Zero External API Calls

Most IP lookup APIs receive your request, then make their own HTTP call to a geolocation database or third-party service. That adds 50-200ms of latency and creates a dependency on another service's uptime.

We skip that entirely. The edge network already knows your geolocation before our code runs. We just read it and return it. Zero external calls means zero dependency on external services, zero added latency, and zero chance of a third-party outage affecting your requests.

Free API Key in Seconds

Other APIs make you verify your email, fill out forms, and wait for approval. Some require credit card on file even for free tiers.

Register at ipfast.dev/login with a magic link (no password needed), get your free API key instantly, and start making requests. Free plan: 120 req/min, 10K requests/month.

Per-Minute Rate Limits, Not Monthly Quotas

Most free IP APIs give you 1,000-50,000 requests per month. That means a burst of traffic on day one could eat your entire month's quota. You're constantly watching a counter.

We rate limit at 120 requests per minute per IP. After a minute, your quota resets. There's no monthly cap to worry about. Burst as much as you need, just not more than 2 per second sustained.

Plain Text Field Endpoints

When you need just your country code in a shell script, you don't want to parse JSON. Our field endpoints (/country, /city, /timezone, etc.) return a single value as plain text.

This means you can write COUNTRY=$(curl -s ipfast.dev/country) without installing jq, python, or any JSON parser. One value, one line.

Connection Security Data

No other IP lookup API tells you your TLS version, cipher suite, HTTP protocol, and TCP round-trip time. We do, because our edge infrastructure exposes this data natively.

This is useful for security auditing: verify that your client supports TLS 1.3, check which cipher suite was negotiated, confirm you're using HTTP/2 or HTTP/3.

Built-in User Agent Parsing

The /useragent endpoint parses your User-Agent header and returns structured data: browser name and version, OS and version, device type, and bot detection. No need to add a UA parsing library to your project.

This is especially useful for debugging: quickly check what browser, OS, and device type a client is being detected as, without looking up the raw UA string manually.

When to Use a Different Service

Be Honest About What We Don't Do

ipfast.dev returns data about the requester's IP -- the IP that made the request. If you need to look up arbitrary third-party IPs (e.g., enrich a list of 10,000 IPs from your access logs), you need a service like ipinfo.io or ip-api.com that accepts an IP parameter.

Our geolocation accuracy depends entirely on our IP intelligence database. For most commercial and residential IPs, it's highly accurate. For VPNs, proxies, and cloud hosting IPs, accuracy may be lower. If you need ISP-level or proxy-detection accuracy, dedicated services with richer databases may be more appropriate.