Country Lookup API

About the Country Lookup API

Pass a common country name, alternate spelling, or ISO 3166 code in the query. It also works as a lightweight country flag API, since every record carries the country's flag emoji, and paid plans add each country's native name. The service searches a monthly updated dataset of 250 countries, returning matching records with capitals, domain extensions, region groupings, and mapped official languages. Paid plans can set the major cities parameter to include prominent urban centers along with geographic coordinates.

What people use it for

Customs Declaration Filling

When generating export manifests, logistics software queries the destination ISO code to append standardized official country names and regions.

Locale Preference Detection

E-commerce platforms resolve visitor country codes to display corresponding official languages and flag icons on storefront headers.

Global Vendor Profiling

Standardize supplier databases by resolving freeform location text into uniform ISO alpha-3 codes, capital cities, and top-level domains.

Traveler Briefing Packs

Travel booking apps supply passengers with destination briefing cards containing capital cities, spoken languages, and regional groupings before departure.

Ways to call it

One endpoint, many ways in — REST with JSON, XML, YAML and CSV, plus GraphQL and an MCP interface for AI agents.

JSON

Default REST response

XML

Markup format

YAML

Human-readable

CSV

Tabular export

Beta

GraphQL

Query language

New

MCP

For AI agents

Request parameters — GET /v1/countrylookup

Sent in the query string. Premium parameters are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them. Anything not listed here is dropped rather than passed through.

Required

Optional

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curl "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/countrylookup?country=USA&majorcities=true" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Authentication

Send your key in the x-api-key header. That is the only auth step — no token exchange, and no per-endpoint scope to configure.

Response — GET /v1/countrylookup

Every APIVerve endpoint returns the same three top-level keys, so one response handler covers your whole integration: status, error and data. Only data changes shape.

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{
  "status": "ok",
  "error": null,
  "data": {
    "search": "USA",
    "countries": [
      {
        "name": {
          "common": "United States",
          "official": "United States of America",
          "native": {
            "eng": {
              "official": "United States of America",
              "common": "United States"
            }
          }
        },
        "tld": [
          ".us"
        ],
        "cca2": "US",
        "ccn3": "840",
        "cca3": "USA",
        "cioc": "USA",
        "independent": true,
        "status": "officially-assigned",
        "unRegionalGroup": "Western European and Others Group",
        "capital": [
          "Washington D.C."
        ],
        "altSpellings": [
          "US",
          "USA",
          "United States of America"
        ],
        "region": "Americas",
        "subregion": "North America",
        "languages": {
          "eng": "English"
        },
        "latlng": [
          38,
          -97
        ],
        "landlocked": false,
        "flag": "🇺🇸"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Response fields

Paths are relative to data. Premium fields are absent rather than zeroed on plans that do not include them, so check for presence instead of comparing to 0.

Response headers

Every response carries your balance, so your own code always knows where it stands without polling anything. All four are exposed to browsers through CORS.

Errors

Read the HTTP status first, then error for the specific reason. The body names the parameter that has to change.

What a call costs — 2 credits per call

Credits are shared across every APIVerve API — one balance, one key, one bill. Failed requests never count against it, so a rejected input costs nothing.

Calls are what the credits buy at this API's rate — spend them here, on any of the other APIs, or across both. Nothing is reserved per endpoint.

Zero-code embed — one snippet, no backend

Drop an interactive Country Lookup form onto any page. The widget calls the API for you, so no key ever appears in your markup and there is nothing to deploy.

Changelog — Country Lookup API

Every change to this endpoint, newest first. Breaking changes ship as a new version and the previous one keeps serving — response fields are added, never removed or retyped in place, so an integration written against v1 keeps working.

Currently v1Data refreshed monthly