JSONPlaceholder is a free, online, fake REST API designed for frontend development, testing, prototyping, and learning RESTful concepts without needing a backend server. It provides realistic mock JSON data for common resources like users, posts, todos, comments, albums, and photos, with simulated CRUD operations (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE). All write operations are non-persistent—changes are not saved, making it ideal for safe experimentation.

Key Features:

  • No registration or setup required.

  • Cross-origin (CORS) support and compatible with React, Angular, Vue, and other frameworks.

  • Pagination via query parameters like ?_page=1&_limit=10.

  • Relationships between resources (e.g., posts have many comments).

  • Powered by JSON Server + LowDB, serving billions of requests monthly.

Common Use Cases:

  • Testing API calls in tutorials, demos, or GitHub READMEs.

  • Building UIs with placeholder data.

  • Learning how REST APIs work without backend implementation.

Limitations:

  • Not for production use—data is fixed and not persisted.

  • No authentication, user sessions, or data persistence.

  • Not suitable for CI/CD or QA automation requiring real data state.

Alternatives for Advanced Needs:

  • DummyJSON: More data types, sorting, and filtering.

  • ReqRes: Supports authentication, persistent data, and request logging.

  • Beeceptor: Custom mock servers with dynamic responses.

  • Fake Store API: E-commerce-specific data.

👉 Official URL: https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com
👉 GitHub Repo: https://github.com/typicode/jsonplaceholder

🌐
Postman
postman.com › lunar-eclipse-220985 › jsonplaceholder › overview
Postman
Accelerate API development with Postman's all-in-one platform. Streamline collaboration and simplify the API lifecycle for faster, better results. Learn more.
Discussions

Placeholders in JSON - is there a better method?
What you're doing is a mix of Json but also rudimentary templating. There's libraries out there that can do the heavy lifting for you but your approach is basically the type of thing being done by those implementations - replace "$something" with "something else". More advanced/mature ones can do conditionals, loops and other sorts of things a little fancier than a basic string replacement. So, the way you're going now is fine and reasonable but if you find you need more control, smarter replacements or a giant mess of spaghetti code rolling your own solution you could look up some Python templating libraries to use for the heavy lifting instead. One thing to be careful of however is the format for your "variables" getting replaced, they should not overlap with values you might expect to show up in your data already so they they can be uniquely targeted without catching any unintended cases accidentally. Commonly the dollar sign is a popular candidate used across multiple languages/data. Also can be combined/wrapped with braces for even less chance of unintended matching. eg "Replace {$my-variable} in this sentence". More on reddit.com
🌐 r/learnprogramming
4
2
March 21, 2020
Anyone have a favorite free service that has dummy JSON that can be queried over HTTP?
https://www.reddit.com/.json More on reddit.com
🌐 r/javascript
19
48
January 28, 2017
Best JSON Placeholder/Server?
https://github.com/typicode/json-server More on reddit.com
🌐 r/reactnative
2
2
June 26, 2019
Need help with fetching TODOs from API in TypeScript + React

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April 14, 2020
People also ask

What is JSONPlaceholder?
JSONPlaceholder is a free fake REST API that provides realistic JSON data for frontend development, testing, and learning RESTful concepts without setting up a backend server.
🌐
onlinejsonformat.org
onlinejsonformat.org › json-placeholder
JSONPlaceholder API – Free Fake REST API for Testing & Prototyping ...
What can I use instead of JSONPlaceholder?
Alternatives to JSONPlaceholder include ReqRes (adds auth, persistent data, and logs), DummyJSON (more data types), Beeceptor (custom mock servers), and Fake Store API (e-commerce data). ReqRes is the best option if you need authentication flows or data that persists between requests.
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reqres.in
reqres.in › home › blog › jsonplaceholder alternatives: when you need auth, persistence & logs
JSONPlaceholder Alternatives: When You Need Auth, Persistence & ...
Is JSONPlaceholder good for production testing?
JSONPlaceholder is excellent for learning and quick prototyping, but it lacks features needed for production-grade testing: no auth, no persistent storage, no logs, and no per-user data isolation. For CI/CD and QA automation, a more complete API like ReqRes is better suited.
🌐
reqres.in
reqres.in › home › blog › jsonplaceholder alternatives: when you need auth, persistence & logs
JSONPlaceholder Alternatives: When You Need Auth, Persistence & ...
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JSONPlaceholder
jsonplaceholder.typicode.com
JSONPlaceholder - Free Fake REST API
JSONPlaceholder is a free online REST API that you can use whenever you need some fake data.
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Scrimba
scrimba.com › fullstack-path-c0fullstack › ~0mt
URL Parameters - JSON Placeholder API
June 9, 2025 - Learn the entire stack from backend to frontend. Focused on hireable skills from the JavaScript ecosystem, like React, Node, Express, Next, and e
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Online JSON Format
onlinejsonformat.org › json-placeholder
JSONPlaceholder API – Free Fake REST API for Testing & Prototyping | Online JSON Formatter
JSONPlaceholder is a free fake REST API for testing and prototyping. Get users, posts, todos, comments, and more with JSONPlaceholder API.
🌐
GitHub
github.com › typicode › jsonplaceholder
GitHub - typicode/jsonplaceholder: A simple online fake REST API server · GitHub
JSONPlaceholder is a simple fake REST API for testing and prototyping. It's like an image placeholder but for web developers.
Starred by 5.2K users
Forked by 593 users
Languages   HTML 68.1% | JavaScript 31.9%
Find elsewhere
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DummyJSON
dummyjson.com
DummyJSON - Free Fake REST API for Placeholder JSON Data
DummyJSON provides a free fake REST API with placeholder JSON data for development, testing, and prototyping. Access realistic data quickly for your projects.
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ReqRes
reqres.in › home › blog › jsonplaceholder alternatives: when you need auth, persistence & logs
JSONPlaceholder Alternatives: When You Need Auth, Persistence & Logs | ReqRes Blog
January 22, 2026 - JSONPlaceholder is great for learning, but what about auth, persistent data, and logs? Compare the best alternatives for real API testing.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › placeholders in json - is there a better method?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: Placeholders in JSON - is there a better method?
March 21, 2020 -

I'm working on a Python script to generate all of the directories and base files I typically create when making a new project. I have a JSON file which stores the directories, the files in each, and the contents of those files.

Right now I have a placeholder value of "<app_name>" in the JSON object that needs to be replaced with the app name provider via user input, but I feel like this is not the right approach for JSON. Is there a standard way to have a placeholder value in JSON objects, or is there a more appropriate way of storing this information?

🌐
Lib.rs
lib.rs › crates › json-placeholder-data
json-placeholder-data — Rust network library // Lib.rs
September 28, 2023 - Copy of the data on https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/ used in testing
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JSONPlaceholder
jsonplaceholder.org › home
JSONPlaceholder | JSON Placeholder - jsonplaceholder.org
April 9, 2023 - JSONPlaceholder is an invaluable, free online REST API service, specifically designed to cater to developers seeking sample JSON data.
🌐
Cypress
jsonplaceholder.cypress.io
JSONPlaceholder - Fake online REST API for developers
Fake Online REST API for Testing and Prototyping Powered by JSON Server + LowDB
🌐
GitHub
github.com › topics › jsonplaceholder
Build software better, together
JSON Placeholder for PHP, A Free fake API for testing and prototyping.
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JSON Placeholder
arnu515.github.io › jsonplaceholder-api-docs
JSON Placeholder
JSON Placeholder · https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts · Payload · Content type · application/json · Copy Expand all Collapse all · { "id": 0, "title": "string", "body": "string", "userId": 0} 200 · Content type · application/json · Copy Expand all Collapse all ·
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Beeceptor
app.beeceptor.com › mock-server › json-placeholder
JSONPlaceholder APIs - Mock API
{ "status": "Awesome! You have reached dummy JSON APIs. Go to https://beeceptor.com/mock-server/json-placeholder and find the request paths you want to use.
🌐
Medium
medium.com › @saishaddai › fake-json-api-server-with-jsonplaceholder-1d4edb2ab7a4
Fake JSON API Server with JSONPlaceHolder | by Saidel López | Medium
April 29, 2019 - JSONPlaceHolder is a free online API Server you can use to integrate regular API responses to your application. It also has feature I’ve been using for while. You can read JSON responses that you already have in a server at Github through this API.
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DummyJSON
dummyjson.com › docs › products
Products - DummyJSON - Free Fake REST API for Placeholder JSON Data
REST Endpoints filled with Products JSON data, DummyJSON provides a free fake REST API with placeholder JSON data for development, testing, and prototyping. Access realistic data quickly for your projects.
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LinkedIn
linkedin.com › posts › masoud-rad65_do-you-know-about-json-placeholder-activity-7148020602988138497-Ecm6
What is JSON Placeholder? | Masoud Rad posted on the topic | LinkedIn
January 2, 2024 - Do you Know about JSON Placeholder? 😵 JSONPlaceholder is an Open Source Online Mock REST API Service, designed for developers who need fake JSON data, offering simple and easy-to-understand access.