Best MLB APIs in 2026

The 2026 MLB season is well underway with all 30 teams playing through their 162-game schedules. Baseball continues to grow internationally, with regular season games being played in London, Mexico City, and Tokyo. Rule changes introduced in recent seasons like the pitch clock, shift ban, and larger bases have increased scoring and pace of play, making real-time data more relevant than ever for fan engagement platforms.

Fantasy baseball remains one of the largest fantasy sports markets in the United States. Sports betting expansion across US states continues to drive demand for odds and prediction APIs. College baseball and the College World Series also draw significant interest, especially during June and July when the tournament overlaps with the MLB regular season.

More platforms, more users, and more betting markets means more demand for live scores, player stats, odds, highlights, and box scores through reliable APIs. Choosing the right provider matters, because they differ in data depth, pricing, college coverage, and whether features like video highlights or betting odds are included or sold separately.

Highlightly

Highlightly bundles MLB data and video highlights into a single API. You get live scores, box scores, match statistics, player data, lineups, standings, predictions, and odds from 70+ bookmakers. Coverage includes the full MLB season with the American League, National League, Spring Training (Cactus League and Grapefruit League), MLB Playoffs, the World Series, and the All-Star Game. NCAA Division I college baseball is also included, covering the College World Series at no extra cost.

The standout feature is video content. Home runs, diving catches, strikeouts, game recaps, press conferences, and post-game interviews are all available through the same API with metadata and embed links. Clips are categorized as verified or unverified depending on the source. A geo-restriction checker lets you verify whether a clip can be shown in a given country before serving it. No other MLB API reviewed here includes video content.

Box scores include per-player batting stats (at-bats, hits, runs, RBIs, home runs, strikeouts) and pitching lines (ERA, strikeouts, walks, innings pitched). These update every minute during live games. Player endpoints cover detailed profiles, season statistics, career summaries, and per-game performance data. Odds cover moneyline, run line, totals, and first-five-inning lines with pre-game and live in-game markets.

Pricing starts with a free tier at 100 requests per day. The free plan includes core data like scores, matches, standings, player stats, lineups, and highlights. Odds and the geo-restriction checker are not available on the free plan. Paid plans begin at $7.99 per month for 7,500 daily requests and unlock the full API including odds and geo-restrictions. The top tier is $44.99 per month for 65,000 daily requests. Annual discounts of up to 40% are available through the Highlightly platform. Custom plans are also offered. There are no SDKs, so everything runs through the standard REST API.

Highlightly is a newer entrant compared to established providers like BallDontLie or the official MLB Stats API. The developer ecosystem is smaller, with fewer community wrappers and third-party integrations. However, it is the only provider in this list that combines structured match data with video highlights in a single subscription. NCAA Division I coverage is included by default, which several other providers either do not offer or charge separately for.

BallDontLie

BallDontLie started as a free NBA stats project and has grown into a multi-sport data platform covering 20+ leagues including MLB and College Baseball. The MLB API contains data from 2002 to the current season. Across all tiers, available endpoints include teams, players, games, player stats, season stats, standings, injuries, betting odds, player props, plays, plate appearances, pitch type stats, and lineups. The platform provides Python and JavaScript SDKs, an MCP server for AI assistants, and a Google Sheets integration that lets non-technical users pull live MLB data directly into spreadsheets.

Every sport ships with a complete OpenAPI specification, which means you can hand the spec to any AI assistant and describe what you want to build without writing code yourself. BallDontLie also offers StoryStats, a content API that generates pregame, live, and postgame narrative content for MLB games. Webhooks are available for real-time notifications across 125+ event types including game starts, player scores, and injury updates.

Pricing is per sport. The free tier includes MLB but only provides access to teams, players, and games. The rate limit is 5 requests per minute. The ALL-STAR plan at $9.99 per month adds player injuries, active players, team standings, and player stats with a rate limit of 60 requests per minute. The GOAT plan at $39.99 per month unlocks everything else including season stats, player splits, plays, plate appearances, pitch type stats, betting odds, player props, and lineups at 600 requests per minute. A 48-hour free trial of the GOAT tier is available with a 5 request per minute trial limit. Payment method is required at signup but you can cancel anytime before the trial ends. Each sport is a separate subscription. An ALL-ACCESS tier at $299.99 per month gives access to every endpoint across every sport.

The trade-off is that the free tier is very limited. You only get teams, players, and games. Standings and player stats require the $9.99 tier. Betting odds, player props, season stats, and most of the deeper endpoints require the $39.99 tier. There is no video or highlights content. The free tier rate limit of 5 requests per minute is also more restrictive than Highlightly or API-Baseball for rapid prototyping. BallDontLie is a strong choice for developers who want SDKs, AI agent integration, or Google Sheets access alongside their MLB data.

MLB Stats API

The MLB Stats API at statsapi.mlb.com is the official free statistics API maintained by Major League Baseball. It requires no API key and no authentication. You can start making requests immediately. The API covers every MLB team, game, and player with extensive historical data. Endpoints include schedules, rosters, player stats, live game feeds, standings, and league leaders.

The data comes directly from MLB and is as official as it gets. Community-built libraries exist for Python, Ruby, Node.js, and other languages. The API is widely used by open source projects, data scientists, and hobby developers building dashboards and analysis tools. For anyone who needs deep historical MLB data at zero cost, it is unbeatable.

The main limitation is that the API is technically undocumented and unsupported. MLB does not provide official documentation, an SLA, or developer support. Endpoints can change without notice, as happened in 2023 when the old Gameday API was deprecated. There are no odds, no predictions, no betting data, and no video highlights. College baseball is not covered. Live score updates require polling since there are no push feeds. The data format can also be complex and inconsistent across endpoints.

The MLB Stats API is the best starting point for historical research, data science projects, and anyone learning to work with baseball data. It is not suitable for production applications that need reliability guarantees, betting data, or media content.

API-Baseball

API-Baseball is part of the API-Sports family, the same company behind API-Football. It covers MLB and other baseball leagues with endpoints for games, standings, odds, teams, players, and statistics. The platform is available on RapidAPI and uses the same interface and pricing model as the rest of the API-Sports ecosystem. Free widgets are available for embedding livescores, standings, and schedules.

Paid plans do not gate features. Everything is available once you subscribe. Pricing starts with a free tier at 100 requests per day. All endpoints are accessible on every plan. The Pro plan is $19 per month, Ultra is $29 per month for higher request volumes, and Mega is $39 per month. There are no overage charges. Once you hit your daily limit, requests simply stop. All plans are prepaid with no auto-renewal.

The trade-off is that API-Baseball has a smaller baseball-specific community compared to BallDontLie or the MLB Stats API. There is no video or highlights content. Coverage depth for college baseball is limited. Each sport under the API-Sports umbrella requires a separate subscription. API-Baseball works well for developers already using API-Football or other API-Sports products who want a consistent interface across sports.

SportsDataIO

SportsDataIO is an enterprise-grade sports data provider with real-time coverage of every MLB game. The platform includes fantasy projections, depth charts, news feeds, editorial content, and a predictive engine called BAKER for forecasting across games, seasons, and careers. The historical database goes back decades, which is useful for modeling, analytics, and profile pages.

A self-serve "Discovery Lab" tier is available at $99 to $149 per month with daily call caps and next-day delayed data, aimed at personal projects and hobby apps. A free trial provides scrambled but realistic data so you can test endpoint structure and response formats before committing. Full commercial access with real-time data, SLA, and dedicated support requires a sales conversation. Industry estimates place production starting costs at $500 to $1,000 or more per month.

SportsDataIO is aimed at enterprise companies with dedicated data budgets, though the Discovery Lab now offers a lower entry point for smaller teams. If you are building a large-scale fantasy platform, betting product, or media application, SportsDataIO is worth evaluating either through the Discovery Lab or their sales team.

Sportradar

Sportradar is one of the largest sports data companies in the world and is an official MLB data partner. The current version is MLB v8. Coverage extends beyond MLB to include global baseball through the Global Baseball API, which covers NPB (Japan), KBO (South Korea), the World Baseball Classic, and NCAA Women's Softball. Data depth includes pitch-level tracking, play-by-play commentary, advanced analytics, and real-time push feeds alongside standard REST endpoints.

Pricing operates on a B2B contract model and is not publicly listed. A 30-day developer trial is available with real production data at reduced rate limits. Industry estimates place starting costs at $500 to $1,000 or more per month for a single sport. Multi-sport packages scale from there.

The accuracy and depth of data reflect official league partnerships, but the cost and onboarding process are built for larger organizations. Sportradar is the right fit for broadcasters, major betting operators, and enterprise platforms that need the highest possible data fidelity. It is also the only provider here that covers international baseball leagues like NPB and KBO in depth.

Choosing the right MLB API

The right choice mostly comes down to what you are building. If you need video highlights alongside stats, Highlightly is the only option here that offers both in a single API. If you want SDKs, AI agent integration, or Google Sheets access, BallDontLie has the strongest developer tooling in this space.

If you need deep historical MLB data at zero cost, the MLB Stats API is unbeatable, but it comes with no documentation, no support, and no SLA. If you already use API-Football and want a consistent multi-sport setup, API-Baseball keeps things familiar. For enterprise use cases, SportsDataIO and Sportradar are the established names. Sportradar is the official MLB data partner and also covers international baseball leagues.

For prototyping and early development, the free tiers from Highlightly and BallDontLie are the most practical starting points. Highlightly offers 100 requests per day with no credit card required. BallDontLie provides free MLB access at 5 requests per minute. The MLB season runs from late March through October, with the College World Series in June and July, making mid-season a good time to evaluate providers with live data.

Conclusion

All of these APIs can handle basic MLB data like scores, standings, and schedules. The real differences come down to data depth, pricing models, and whether features like video highlights, box scores, odds, or college baseball coverage are included or sold separately.

If you are just getting started, free tiers from providers like Highlightly and BallDontLie are usually enough to test an idea before committing to a paid plan. For more information on Highlightly's MLB coverage, see the official API documentation.