Google Flights API alternative: the part you were actually after
There is no public Google Flights API — QPX Express was shut down in 2018 and nothing replaced it, which is why this search keeps being made. Most people looking for one want one of two things: results to display, or the price-tracking half (is this cheap, will it drop, when do I buy). Piratefly is the second half, over our own observed price history, with a free tier and no signup. It is not a search engine and it is not a scraper of Google.
What Piratefly does not do
No scraping of Google Flights, no live availability, no bookable itineraries, no airline inventory. We are not affiliated with Google. What we have is a long observation history of real fares on real routes, and a verdict built on it.
What maps across, use case by use case
| What you wanted a Google Flights API for | Piratefly |
|---|---|
| The price graph — is this fare high or low for this route? | GET /v1/analisi returns a percentile against that route’s own observed history, plus a verdict (buy / wait / your call). |
| The cheapest-month view | The same response ranks months by median fare, with the sample size behind each one. |
| "Prices are currently low / book now" advice | That is the verdict field, and it is computed from history, not from a single snapshot. |
| Date grid with live prices to display | Not covered. We return timing intelligence, never a bookable fare. |
| Booking, seat selection, ticketing | Not covered, and not planned. |
| Access: scraping, or a paid unofficial wrapper | A documented JSON endpoint: 30 requests/day per IP with no key; $9.99/month removes the cap, card or USDC, key issued immediately. |
One call, no key
Cities by name, not IATA codes. This is a real response from the live API:
curl "https://next.piratefly.com/v1/analisi?origine=Stockholm&destinazione=Rome"{
"origine": "Stockholm",
"destinazione": "Rome",
"valuta": "EUR",
"verdetto": {
"livello": "ottimo",
"percentile": 9,
"medianaCent": 5600,
"minimoCent": 2500,
"campione": 23
},
"mesiPerConvenienza": [
{ "mese": 8, "medianaCent": 5900, "campione": 33 },
{ "mese": 10, "medianaCent": 8900, "campione": 74 }
],
"anticipoConsigliato": { "daGiorni": 56, "aGiorni": 83, "medianaCent": 5800 },
"osservazioni": 169
}Reading the response
percentile is where today’s cheapest fare sits in that route’s own history (9 = cheaper than 91% of everything we have seen), campione is how many observations that verdict rests on, mesiPerConvenienza ranks months by median fare, and anticipoConsigliato is the booking window that has historically come out cheapest. Prices are cents, EUR.
Try it, then decide
The free tier needs no account: paste the URL above in a browser. When 30 calls a day stops being enough, the Pro plan is on the API page.
Is there an official Google Flights API?
Not a public one. Google retired QPX Express in April 2018 and has not offered a public flight-search API since; what circulates today is either scraping or third-party wrappers. Piratefly is neither — it answers from price history we observe and store ourselves.
Can I use Piratefly to search or book flights?
No. Piratefly returns booking-timing intelligence — how today’s cheapest observed fare compares to a route’s history, which months are cheap, how far ahead to book. It never returns a bookable itinerary, so it is a complement to a search or booking API, not a replacement for one.
What are the limits and the price?
30 requests/day per IP for free with no signup and no key. Pro is $9.99/month for no daily cap, paid by card on Stripe or in USDC on Solana, with the key handed back immediately — no approval queue.