Cheapest vendor as monthly lookup volume grows
Same settings as above, applied across a range of monthly lookup volumes. Watch IPinfo hold at $0 while country-only, ipapi.com and ipgeolocation.io's free tiers cover early growth, IPstack's Security Module floor kick in the moment VPN detection is checked, and MaxMind's flat per-query rate win at very low volume before the free tiers overtake it.
| Lookups/mo | IPstack | IPinfo | ipapi.com | ipgeolocation.io | MaxMind | Cheapest |
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Why country-unlimited-free, feature-gated-floor, volume-tiered and flat-per-query IP geolocation APIs price so differently
IPinfo bets on giving away its Lite plan — unlimited country-level lookups (country, ASN name and domain), no request cap, no credit card — for free forever. The moment you need city-level accuracy or VPN/proxy/connection-type detection, though, you need the Core plan at $26/month for up to 150,000 requests, or Max at $163/month for up to 250,000 requests with richer places data and residential-proxy service names; beyond 250,000/month with those features it's custom Enterprise pricing. IPstack takes a different approach: its Basic ($12.99/mo, 50,000 requests), Professional ($59.99/mo, 500,000) and Professional+ ($99.99/mo, 2,000,000, plus $0.0002/call overage beyond that) tiers all include city-level location, timezone, connection and currency data — but VPN/proxy/threat detection is gated entirely behind Professional+, so an app doing 10,000 lookups/month that needs that Security Module pays the same $99.99/month floor as one doing 2,000,000.
ipapi.com (the rebrand of ipapi.co) and ipgeolocation.io both use a more conventional volume-tiered subscription with a genuinely free entry tier: roughly 1,000 requests/day (~30,000/month) at $0, then ipapi.com moves to $25/month for 150,000 and $49/month for 500,000 (with an estimated ~$0.0001/call overage beyond that), while ipgeolocation.io moves to $19/month for 150,000 and a flat $129/month Business tier once you cross that ceiling — though its exact Business and $249/month Premium request caps aren't published, so confirm directly with the vendor at high volume. At low-to-mid volume with city-level needs, ipapi.com and ipgeolocation.io's free tiers and $19-25/month entry points usually undercut both IPstack's $12.99/month Basic plan below 50,000 lookups and IPinfo's $26/month Core plan — but IPinfo still wins outright at any volume if country-level accuracy is all you need.
MaxMind GeoIP2 skips the subscription model entirely: it charges a flat rate per query — $0.0001 for country-only, $0.0003 for city-level (City Plus), $0.002 if VPN/proxy/anonymizer detection is needed (Insights) — funded by prepaid service credit (minimum $20, no expiry) rather than a monthly plan. That makes it a genuinely different billing shape from all four subscription vendors above: no free tier, no volume discount, no monthly minimum, just usage × rate. It tends to win at very low or spiky volume where a $12.99-$26/month subscription floor doesn't make sense, but loses to the free tiers of IPinfo, ipapi.com and ipgeolocation.io once volume climbs, and to their flat monthly ceilings at high sustained volume.
How this calculator works
The IP Geolocation API Cost Calculator compares five vendor pricing shapes at your monthly lookup volume. IPstack: $0 up to 100 requests (free test tier), $12.99/mo up to 50,000, $59.99/mo up to 500,000, $99.99/mo up to 2,000,000 (required minimum if VPN/proxy detection is needed, at any volume), then $99.99 + $0.0002 × (lookups − 2,000,000). IPinfo: $0 unlimited if country-level is enough; if city-level/VPN detection is needed, $26/mo up to 150,000, $163/mo up to 250,000, custom Enterprise pricing beyond that. ipapi.com: $0 up to 30,000, $25/mo up to 150,000, $49/mo up to 500,000, then $49 + $0.0001 × (lookups − 500,000) (estimated overage rate). ipgeolocation.io: $0 up to 30,000, $19/mo up to 150,000, then a flat $129/mo Business plan beyond that (exact cap unpublished). MaxMind GeoIP2: no tiers at all — a flat lookups × rate, where rate is $0.0001/lookup for country-only, $0.0003/lookup for city-level (City Plus), or $0.002/lookup if VPN/proxy detection is needed (Insights endpoint).
These are representative pricing shapes based on each vendor's published self-serve pricing pages as of September 2026, not live quotes — actual IPstack, IPinfo, ipapi.com, ipgeolocation.io and MaxMind pricing varies by account history, negotiated volume discounts and enterprise contract terms, and several higher-tier figures (ipgeolocation.io Business/Premium caps, IPstack overage beyond 2M, MaxMind's contact-sales threshold above roughly $2,500/month) are estimated or approximate where exact figures aren't published. Always confirm current pricing directly with the vendor before budgeting.
Frequently asked questions
Which IP geolocation API is cheapest for my volume?
It depends on volume and which features you need. Under 30,000 lookups/month with city-level detail, ipapi.com and ipgeolocation.io are both free (their free tiers cover roughly 1,000 requests/day), while IPstack's free tier caps at just 100 requests/month total. Between 30,000 and 150,000/month, IPstack's $12.99/month Basic plan is usually cheapest up to 50,000 lookups, after which ipgeolocation.io's $19/month Starter plan wins up to 150,000. Beyond 150,000/month, ipapi.com's $49/month tier (covering up to 500,000 lookups) tends to be the cheapest paid option. If country-level accuracy is enough — no city, no VPN/proxy detection — IPinfo's Lite plan is unlimited and free at any volume, beating every paid vendor outright. MaxMind GeoIP2's flat per-query rate ($0.0001–$0.002 depending on accuracy) tends to win only at very low volume, where its lack of a monthly minimum beats every subscription tier — the free tiers of IPinfo, ipapi.com and ipgeolocation.io catch up fast as volume grows.
Why is IPinfo free at any volume but the others aren't?
IPinfo's Lite plan gives away unlimited country-level lookups (country, ASN name and domain) with no published request cap and no credit card required — a genuinely different bet than IPstack, ipapi.com or ipgeolocation.io, which meter every lookup by tiered monthly plan regardless of accuracy level. The catch is that IPinfo's free tier stops at country-level: the moment you need city-level accuracy, VPN/proxy detection or connection-type context, you need the Core plan at $26/month for up to 150,000 requests, or Max at $163/month for up to 250,000 with richer places and residential-proxy data. Above 250,000/month with those features, IPinfo moves to custom Enterprise pricing.
How does IPstack's Security Module change the price?
IPstack's Basic ($12.99/month, 50,000 requests) and Professional ($59.99/month, 500,000 requests) plans include location, timezone, connection and currency data, but not VPN/proxy/threat detection — that's gated behind the Security Module, which only ships on the Professional+ plan starting at $99.99/month for up to 2,000,000 requests. So an app that only needs 10,000 lookups/month but does need VPN detection still pays $99.99/month, the same as an app doing 2,000,000 lookups/month — volume stops mattering once you hit the feature floor.
Do these vendors charge overage, or do I have to upgrade to the next tier?
It varies. IPstack and ipapi.com both charge a small per-call overage rate once you exceed their top published tier (IPstack: roughly $0.0002/call beyond 2,000,000/month; ipapi.com: an estimated $0.0001/call beyond 500,000/month) rather than forcing a full tier jump. ipgeolocation.io publishes a flat $129/month Business plan once you cross 150,000/month, but doesn't publish the exact request cap for that tier or its $249/month Premium tier — contact them to confirm ceilings at high volume. IPinfo has no per-call overage at all: once you exceed a tier's cap (150,000 for Core, 250,000 for Max) you must move to a higher plan or custom Enterprise pricing.
How does MaxMind GeoIP2's per-query pricing compare to the four subscription vendors?
MaxMind GeoIP2 bills flat per-query with no monthly subscription tiers at all: $0.0001/query for Country-only data, $0.0003/query for City Plus (city, ISP, connection type), or $0.002/query for the full Insights endpoint (anonymizer/proxy detection, user-type and more) — the same rate whether you make 10 queries or 10 million. You buy service credit in advance (minimum $20, no expiry) rather than picking a monthly plan, and MaxMind asks larger accounts (roughly $2,500+/month) to contact sales for negotiated rates. That flat-rate, no-tier shape means MaxMind is essentially always the cheapest option at very low volume, but a fixed per-query cost with no free allowance means it can lose to the free tiers of IPinfo, ipapi.com or ipgeolocation.io at low-to-mid volume, and to their flat monthly ceilings at very high volume — toggle the checkboxes above to see where the crossover lands for your accuracy needs.