Best NBA APIs in 2026

The NBA has picked up serious momentum again. Regular season games are averaging around 1.8 million viewers across NBC, ESPN, and Prime Video. That is a 16% increase year-over-year. The 2026 All-Star Game alone drew 8.8 million viewers, nearly double last year's number. A lot of that growth comes from expanded media deals and more nationally televised games.

More viewers usually means more demand for apps, dashboards, betting tools, and anything else built on top of NBA data. Choosing the right API matters, because they differ in pricing, coverage, and what is actually included at each tier.

Highlightly

Highlightly bundles NBA and NCAAB data into a single API. You get live scores, player stats, box scores, lineups, standings, and predictions with win probabilities, along with odds from 85+ bookmakers. It also serves video highlights through the API. Game recaps, interviews, press conferences, and top plays are all available with metadata and embed links. A geo-restriction checker can also be used to verify whether a clip can be shown in a given country before serving it. No other NBA API reviewed here includes video content.

College basketball is included by default, covering 35+ Division I conferences at no extra cost. Several other providers charge separately for NCAAB data.

Pricing starts with a free tier at 100 requests per day. The free plan covers core data like scores, matches, standings, player stats, box scores, and lineups, but does not include NBA highlights or odds. NCAA highlights are available on the free plan. Paid plans begin at $7.99 per month and unlock the full API, including NBA video highlights and odds. 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.

BallDontLie

Over 20+ basketball leagues are covered by BallDontLie. They have grown well beyond their origins as a free NBA stats project. Their NBA data goes back to 1946, and the endpoint list is long. They include teams, players, games, game player stats, season averages, advanced stats, box scores, lineups, play-by-play, injuries, standings, league leaders, betting odds, player props and even contracts. The platform also provides Python and JavaScript SDKs, an MCP server for AI assistants and a Google Sheets integration.

The free tier gives access to three endpoint groups. These include teams, players and games. The free tier is also capped at five requests per minute. Game player stats and injury data require the ALL-STAR plan at $9.99 per month. Box scores, lineups, standings, odds, player props, contracts, and play-by-play require the GOAT plan at $39.99 per month. These tiers apply per sport, so accessing both NBA and NCAAB at the GOAT level would cost $79.98 per month. An All-Access plan at $499.99 per month unlocks every sport and endpoint, along with webhooks and a backtesting tool called BDL Lab.

Play-by-play data only goes back to the 2025 NBA season. NCAAB, NCAAW, and WNBA each require their own subscription unless you are on the All-Access plan. There is no video content. BallDontLie works well for developers who want SDK support and multi-sport coverage. However, reaching the same feature set that other providers include on lower tiers requires the $39.99 plan.

API-NBA

API-NBA is a part of the API-Sports company, which focuses purely on NBA data. It includes over a decade of historical coverage, thousands of players, and live updates every 15 seconds during games. Endpoints cover teams, players, standings, games, stats, and odds.

One thing worth noting is that paid plans do not gate features. Everything is available once you subscribe. Pricing starts with a free tier at 100 requests per day, then $15 per month for the Pro plan. Ultra is $25 per month for 75,000 requests, and Mega is $35 per month for 150,000. 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 scope. There is no NCAAB coverage and no video content. NCAAB and international basketball require a separate subscription to their Basketball API. API-Sports also offers a widget builder for embedding scores and standings without writing custom frontend code.

SportsDataIO

SportsDataIO is aimed at enterprise users and offers one of the deepest NBA datasets available. In addition to standard stats, it includes fantasy projections, depth charts, news feeds, and editorial content. The platform also has a predictive engine called BAKER for forecasting and modeling across games, seasons, and careers. A historical database with decades of data is available for analytics work.

Pricing is not public and requires a sales process. Industry estimates place starting costs at $500 to $1,000+ per month. A free trial with 1,000 monthly API calls is available, but production access requires a B2B contract. This is geared toward companies with dedicated data budgets rather than individual developers.

MySportsFeeds

MySportsFeeds covers multiple North American leagues and uses a modular pricing model. Instead of one bundled plan, you start with a core package covering schedules, scores, and venues, then add extras like detailed stats, play-by-play, odds, or projections as needed. Data is available in JSON, XML, and CSV formats.

The base plan starts at $29 CAD per month, but real-time data and advanced feeds require higher tiers or custom pricing. A lower-cost option for personal use starts at $5 CAD per month. Multi-league discounts range from 10% for two leagues to 30% for six. The flexibility is useful if you only need specific subsets of data, but costs can add up once you start stacking addons.

Sportradar

Sportradar is one of the biggest names in sports data and holds official partnerships with the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, and NASCAR. Its NBA API, currently in version 8, includes 36+ feeds covering live scores, play-by-play, player and team stats, standings, rankings, odds, editorial content, and player imagery. It also supports real-time push feeds alongside standard REST endpoints.

Pricing is not public and operates on a B2B contract model. 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+ per month for a single sport, with multi-sport deals scaling higher. The accuracy and reliability of the data reflect the official NBA partnership, but the cost and onboarding process are built for larger organizations.

Choosing the right NBA API

The right choice mostly comes down to what you are building. If you need video alongside stats, Highlightly is the only option here that offers both in a single API. If you want simple NBA data with no feature gating, API-NBA is easy to work with.

BallDontLie covers the most ground in terms of endpoint variety, but the features that most projects need (box scores, standings, odds) are locked to the $39.99 per month tier. For comparison, Highlightly includes those from $7.99 per month, and API-NBA from $15 per month.

For more advanced or large-scale use cases, SportsDataIO and Sportradar are the main enterprise options. If you prefer a modular setup, MySportsFeeds gives you that flexibility, though costs can scale as you add more feeds.

For prototyping and early development, the free tiers from Highlightly and API-NBA are the most practical starting points. Both offer 100 requests per day with no credit card required.

Conclusion

All of these APIs can handle basic NBA data like scores and stats. The real differences come down to pricing models, data depth, and whether features like odds, college basketball, or video are included or sold separately.

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