Google Flights API: The Flight APIs You Can Call Instead

November 12, 2026

Quick answer: Google Flights has no public API. Google retired QPX Express, its flight-search API, in 2018, and the old docs URL returned a 404 when we called it on 5 November 2026. For fares, use a keyed API such as Duffel or Kiwi Tequila; both returned errors, not data, to our anonymous calls. For live aircraft positions, OpenSky answered without a key.

On 5 November 2026 we sent one anonymous GET request to each of seven URLs: Google's own Flights page, the retired QPX Express documentation, and five flight APIs. We also read the GitHub state of the two unofficial Google Flights libraries that rank for this search. Here is what came back.

| What we called | Job | Status | What came back | |---|---|---|---| | Google Flights (google.com/travel/flights) | Consumer search page | 200 | 1,969,042 bytes of HTML, heading "Find and book cheap flights worldwide and track prices" | | QPX Express docs (developers.google.com/qpx-express) | Retired flight-search API | 404 | An error page | | Duffel (/air/airlines) | Fares | 400 | A 325-byte JSON error | | Kiwi Tequila (/v2/search) | Fares | 403 | A 58-byte JSON error | | Aviationstack (/v1/flights) | Flight status | 401 | A 159-byte JSON error, with Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * | | OpenSky (/api/states/all) | Live positions | 200 | 14,907 bytes of JSON | | Amadeus Self-Service (test environment) | Fares | No result | The host did not resolve from our machine |

The split that matters: fare APIs tell you what a seat costs, tracking APIs tell you where a plane is. No API in this sample does both, and only the tracking one answered without credentials.

Is there an official Google Flights API?

No. Google Flights is a consumer product, and the page itself says so. Our request to google.com/travel/flights returned a 200 with almost 2 MB of HTML and the heading "Find and book cheap flights worldwide and track prices". Nothing on it points to a developer endpoint.

The last flight-search API Google offered was QPX Express, retired in 2018. Its documentation URL, developers.google.com/qpx-express, now answers with a 404 and an error page that carries no heading. That 404 is the plainest evidence there is: the product page is live, the API page is gone.

Which flight-search APIs can you use instead?

For prices you need a fare API, and every one we probed wants credentials before it returns anything useful.

Duffel returned a 400 with a 325-byte JSON error from a Cloudflare edge. We called /air/airlines, a reference list rather than a fare search, and still got no data without credentials.
Kiwi Tequila returned a 403 with a 58-byte JSON body to a JFK to London search. That is a direct refusal of an anonymous caller.
Amadeus Self-Service gave us no result at all: our machine could not resolve test.api.amadeus.com on 5 November 2026, so we report no status for it rather than guess one.

What the probe cannot tell you is the price of a key, the free-tier limits or who qualifies. Those terms are not in our records for any of the three, and each vendor's own documentation is the better source. If "needs a key" is new to you, our breakdown of API authentication methods explains what each kind of credential asks of your code.

In the directory, fare APIs sit in the transportation category, alongside listings such as Flight Fare Search. Public APIs, a collaborative directory of public APIs, notes on each listing which credential the API wants and whether a browser may call it, so you can see what a key costs you in setup before you sign up anywhere.

Is flight tracking a different API?

Yes, and it is the easier one to start with. Tracking APIs return flights and positions, not fares, and one of the two we called needs no key at all.

OpenSky answered our request for aircraft states inside a box over the Alps (latitude 45 to 47, longitude 5 to 10) with a 200 and 14,907 bytes of JSON. No key, no sign-up. One catch: its Access-Control-Allow-Origin header named only https://opensky-network.org, which means a browser page on your own domain cannot call it directly. Call it from a server or a script.

Aviationstack returned a 401 and a 159-byte JSON error without a key. Its wildcard origin header (*) lets browsers call it, but a key embedded in front-end code is a key anyone can copy. Keep keyed calls on your backend.

Open aviation data like OpenSky's also fits the open data category, where you will find other keyless government and research datasets.

Can you scrape Google Flights?

People do, and the libraries for it are alive, but you are building on a page Google can change without notice.

| Repository | Stars | Last commit | Latest release | Open issues | Archived | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | AWeirdDev/flights | 2,124 | 19 October 2026 | v3.1.0 (18 August 2026) | 20 | No | | krisukox/google-flights-api | 70 | 22 February 2025 | None | 9 | No |

Read on GitHub on 5 November 2026. AWeirdDev/flights is actively maintained: a commit three weeks before our read and a release in August. The krisukox library ranks fourth for google flights api, yet its last commit is over a year and a half old and it has never published a release. A scraper that has not moved since February 2025 is a gamble against a page that serves 2 MB of HTML.

The other route is a paid search-results vendor. On 16 October 2026 SerpApi's pricing page listed 250 free searches a month and a Starter plan at $25 a month for 1,000 searches, plus a U.S. Legal Shield of up to $2 million in coverage. HasData, whose scraping guide also ranks for this query, listed 1,000 free credits a month and a Startup plan at $49 a month for 200,000 credits, with 5 or 10 credits per call on its named APIs. Confirm that a vendor covers Google Flights before you pay, and compare the field in our SerpApi alternatives ranking.

Scraping a site you have no agreement with also carries terms-of-service risk. That is the reason a vendor's legal coverage is a line on its pricing page.

Which flight API should you pick for a side project?

You want prices. Sign up for one fare API and keep the key on a server. None of the three answered anonymously, so budget time for credentials before the first request. If the project only needs Google's own fares, a search-results vendor is the honest route, and its free plan covers a demo.

You want tracking. Start with OpenSky. It answered without a key on 5 November 2026, which makes it the fastest way to put live aircraft on a map; pair it with a tile provider from our Google Maps API alternatives if you also need the map. Move to a keyed tracker such as Aviationstack when you need flight numbers and schedules rather than raw positions.

You want booking. This is the hardest of the three, and an anonymous probe tells you nothing about it. Read the fare APIs' own terms before you write code, because booking is where the vendor decides whether you qualify.

The pattern matches what we found for jobs data: Google runs the consumer product but sells no search API for it, as our Google Jobs API probe showed in October.

How we ran the probe

On 5 November 2026 at 10:11 UTC, from one machine, we sent one GET request per URL with curl, following redirects, with a desktop browser user agent and an English Accept-Language header. We recorded the status code, the decompressed body size, the Server, Content-Type and Access-Control-Allow-Origin headers and the first <h1>. No request carried credentials.

One call per API is a small sample. It shows how each endpoint treats an anonymous caller on one day, not its uptime, latency or pricing. The Amadeus host failed DNS resolution, so it has no row of data. GitHub figures come from the GitHub API on the same day: open issues exclude pull requests.

FAQ

Is there a free flight price API?

Not one that answered us without a key. Duffel and Kiwi Tequila both returned errors to anonymous requests on 5 November 2026. Some vendors offer free tiers behind a sign-up, but their limits are not in our records, so check each vendor's pricing page.

What is the best flight search API?

It depends on the job, and our probe cannot rank fare APIs it could not call. For live positions without a key, OpenSky is the clear starting point. For fares, pick the vendor whose terms fit your project and test it with a real key.

Did Google ever have a flight API?

Yes. QPX Express was Google's flight-search API until Google retired it in 2018. Its documentation URL returned a 404 on 5 November 2026.

Can I call the OpenSky API from a browser?

Not from your own domain. On 5 November 2026 the only origin OpenSky allowed was its own, https://opensky-network.org, so browsers block cross-origin calls from other sites. Fetch it from a server, a serverless function or a script.