Need to integrate Scripture into your app, website, or AI project — but don't want to deal with API keys, usage limits, or copyright headaches? The Free Use Bible API makes it simple.^1
Built by AO Lab, a nonprofit dedicated to making God's Word freely accessible, this open-source JSON API serves over 1,000 Bible translations with zero restrictions. No API keys, no rate limits, no copyright barriers — including for commercial use. The entire codebase is MIT-licensed and hosted on AWS for low-latency access worldwide.^2 The project is rooted in a conviction from Matthew 10:8: "Freely you have received; freely give."
The API provides a clean, well-structured JSON format that includes verse content, formatting information, footnotes, audio links, cross-references, and commentary datasets — everything a developer needs to build rich Scripture experiences.^3 It also ships with a CLI tool (@helloao/cli) for generating and managing your own instance of the API.^4
A key partnership with the Berean Standard Bible (BSB) team made much of this possible. After a year and a half of persistent conversations, AO Lab founder Craig Bradley and Jon from gracious.tech helped persuade the BSB team to release their modern, readable English translation into the public domain — a milestone that opened the door for unrestricted Scripture access.^5 Today the API also includes translations sourced from fetch.bible and other public domain works.
Why Developers Love It"HelloAO provides a free Bible API that also has the BSB, WEB, NET (2015) I believe and many other public domain translations."^6
"Bible Insight makes use of the Bible data provided by AO Lab's Free Use Bible API. This project makes the Bible freely available to everyone."^7
Notable- Used by Navigate The Way ✝️ to power accurate Bible text in their ChatGPT integration^8
- 108 stars and 25 forks on GitHub, with 7 contributors and active development (last commit Feb 2026)^2
- Featured on get.bible's official list of Bible data sets and APIs^9
- Published as an npm package (@helloao/cli) for self-hosting^4
- Also powers the faith.tools Bible MCP project for AI chatbot Scripture accuracy
- Berean Bible texts are officially dedicated to the public domain as of April 30, 2023^10
