Is there a free NFL API?

Yes. The Free plan is $0 with 125 calls per month (1,000 in the first 30 days) at 1 request per second, no card required. The same key works for all 29 leagues.

Which NFL endpoints are available?

Available: live scores, events (scoreboard), event detail, play-by-play, box score, odds, win probability, teams, rosters, athletes, injuries, news, schedule / weeks. Not available or not verified: ncaa tournament (not available).

Does the NFL API include betting odds?

Yes. Upcoming NFL games returned a spread, moneyline and total when we checked, from a single source book, with line history. It is not a multi-book comparison feed and not suited to sub-second in-play betting.

Does it include NFL injuries?

Yes. The injuries endpoint returned current NFL designations grouped by team, and player-availability normalizes them to values like OUT and QUESTIONABLE. Pass team for a complete team report.

Can I get NFL score updates pushed instead of polling?

Yes. Webhooks are included on every paid plan (Starter, Growth, Pro, Scale). WebSocket is included on paid plans, and the Free plan gets a 500-message monthly preview. Both can be filtered to nfl.

NFL API

Realtime Sports API serves NFL games through the same REST endpoints and JSON schema as every other league, using sport=football and league=nfl. You get the current scoreboard, live scores, game detail, play-by-play, teams, rosters and news, plus current odds and line history from a single source book and the injury report. Data is aggregated from public sources and is typically 20-30 seconds behind live play (about 1 second after our source). There is no SLA.

Slugs: sport=football
league=nfl
Teams: 32
Season (from data): 2026 Regular Season
In the scoreboard now: 16 games, 1 live

Upcoming and live NFL games

NFL games from the API
Date	Away	Home	Time / Result	TV	Venue
Sun, Oct 4	Detroit Lions	Carolina Panthers	16 - 16 11:20 - 3rd Quarter		Bank of America Stadium · Charlotte, NC
Mon, Oct 5	Atlanta Falcons	New Orleans Saints	8:15 PM ET		Caesars Superdome · New Orleans, LA

From the /events endpoint for this league, refreshed every few minutes. Times are US Eastern. Full NFL schedule

Live example

Request

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $RSA_API_KEY" \
  "https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/football/leagues/nfl/events?limit=1"

Response captured from live data at 2026-10-05 02:13 UTC (refreshed every few minutes). Long arrays are trimmed; meta.rateLimit values are illustrative for a Free key.

Response

{
  "success": true,
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "401872978",
      "uid": "s:20~l:28~e:401872978",
      "name": "Detroit Lions at Carolina Panthers",
      "shortName": "DET @ CAR",
      "date": "2026-10-05T00:20Z",
      "status": {
        "state": "in",
        "completed": false,
        "period": 3,
        "clock": "11:20",
        "detail": "11:20 - 3rd Quarter",
        "halftime": false,
        "firstHalfEnded": true
      },
      "homeTeam": {
        "id": "29",
        "name": "Carolina Panthers",
        "abbreviation": "CAR",
        "logo": "https://realtimesportsapi.com/api/images/proxy?id=GgcVSgNPTUMITUgaFFQVVVQXBVwOHV5LRQBZD1lbBllDXR0HVl9AUlxGAEwbSkoYVg",
        "color": "0085ca",
        "alternateColor": "000000",
        "winner": false,
        "score": 16
      },
      "awayTeam": {
        "id": "8",
        "name": "Detroit Lions",
        "abbreviation": "DET",
        "logo": "https://realtimesportsapi.com/api/images/proxy?id=GgcVSgNPTUMITUgaFFQVVVQXBVwOHV5LRQBZD1lbBllDXR0HVl9AUlxGB0gdSkoYVg",
        "color": "0076b6",
        "alternateColor": "bbbbbb",
        "winner": false,
        "score": 16
      },
      "competition": {
        "attendance": 0,
        "neutralSite": false,
        "conferenceCompetition": false,
        "divisionCompetition": false,
        "playByPlayAvailable": true,
        "highlightsAvailable": true
      },
      "venue": {
        "id": "3628",
        "name": "Bank of America Stadium",
        "city": "Charlotte",
        "state": "NC",
        "indoor": false,
        "grass": false
      },
      "notes": [],
      "season": {
        "year": 2026,
        "displayName": "2026",
        "type": {
          "id": "2",
          "name": "Regular Season",
          "abbreviation": "reg"
        },
        "week": {
          "number": 4,
          "startDate": "2026-09-30T07:00Z",
          "endDate": "2026-10-07T06:59Z",
          "text": "Week 4"
        }
      },
      "broadcasts": [
        {
          "network": {
            "id": "1",
            "type": "National"
          },
          "type": "TV"
        }
      ],
      "officials": [
        {
          "id": "17690",
          "fullName": "Greg Wilson",
          "displayName": "Greg Wilson",
          "order": 1,
          "position": "Back Judge"
        },
        {
          "id": "3055005",
          "fullName": "Clay Martin",
          "displayName": "Clay Martin",
          "order": 2,
          "position": "Referee"
        },
        {
          "id": "3055221",
          "fullName": "Eugene Hall",
          "displayName": "Eugene Hall",
          "order": 3,
          "position": "Side Judge"
        },
        "... 4 more"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "rateLimit": {
      "limit": 125,
      "remaining": 124,
      "reset": 1793491200000
    }
  }
}

NFL endpoints

Checked against live data on 2026-10-04. Paths are relative to /api/v1/sports/football/leagues/nfl.

Endpoint	Path	NFL
Live scores	/events/live	Available
Events (scoreboard)	/events	Available
Event detail	/events/{eventId}	Available
Play-by-play	/events/{eventId}/plays	Available
Box score	/events/{eventId}/boxscore	Available
Odds	/events/{eventId}/odds	Available
Win probability	/events/{eventId}/winprobability	Available
Teams	/teams	Available
Rosters	/teams/{teamId}/roster	Available
Athletes	/athletes/search	Available
Injuries	/injuries	Available
News	/news	Available
Schedule / weeks	/seasons/{season}/schedule	Available
NCAA tournament	/seasons/{season}/tournament	Not available
Webhooks	/webhooks	Available
WebSocket	/websocket/auth	Available

Week-based season: list weeks with /seasons/{season}/weeks and fetch one week with /seasons/{season}/schedule?week=N (NFL and the other football league only).

Event object fields

Every NFL game in the events, live and schedule endpoints uses the same Event object as other leagues.

Field	Type	Notes
id	string	Event id; use it with the detail, plays, box score and odds endpoints.
uid	string
name	string	Full matchup name.
shortName	string	Abbreviated matchup, e.g. "AWAY @ HOME".
date	string	Start time, ISO-8601 UTC.
status	EventStatus	state (pre, in, post), completed, period, clock and display detail.
homeTeam	EventTeam	id, name, abbreviation, colors, logo (proxied), record, score, winner.
awayTeam	EventTeam	Same shape as homeTeam.
competition	object	attendance, neutralSite, conference/division flags, playByPlayAvailable.
venue	object	Venue id, name, city, state, indoor, grass (null when unknown).
notes	string[]	Headline notes, e.g. round or rivalry names.
season	object	year, type (preseason/regular/postseason) and week where the league uses weeks.
broadcasts	object[]	TV/stream networks for the game.
officials	object[]	Game officials when published.
odds	Odds	Only with includeOdds=true and when the game has odds.

Code samples

curl

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $RSA_API_KEY" \
  "https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/football/leagues/nfl/events?limit=5"

JavaScript (fetch)

const res = await fetch("https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/football/leagues/nfl/events?limit=5", {
  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.RSA_API_KEY}` }
});
const { success, data, meta } = await res.json();
console.log(data, meta.rateLimit);

Python (requests)

import os, requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/football/leagues/nfl/events?limit=5",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['RSA_API_KEY']}"},
    timeout=10,
)
body = res.json()
print(body["data"])

MCP prompt (Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT)

Using the Realtime Sports MCP server (https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/mcp), call get_events with sport "football" and league "nfl" and list the games it returns with start times, status and scores for NFL.

Connect the hosted MCP server first: setup guide. Each tool call counts as one API call.

Rate limits and pricing

Plan	Price	Calls	Rate	WebSocket	Webhooks
Free	$0	125/mo (1,000 first 30 days)	1/s	500 msgs/mo	No
Starter	$29/mo ($290/yr)	10,000/mo	5/s	Shares monthly pool	Shares monthly pool
Growth	$49/mo ($490/yr)	25,000/mo	10/s	Shares monthly pool	Shares monthly pool
Pro	$99/mo ($990/yr)	50,000/mo	20/s	100,000 msgs/mo	25,000/mo
Scale	$299/mo ($2,990/yr)	500,000/mo	100/s	500,000 msgs/mo	100,000/mo

Every successful REST call counts as one call. Over the limit you get HTTP 429 with a Retry-After header. No SLA. Full pricing.

29 leagues monitored live: NFL, college football, NBA, men's college basketball, MLB, NHL and 23 soccer competitions.

FAQ

Is there a free NFL API?: Yes. The Free plan is $0 with 125 calls per month (1,000 in the first 30 days) at 1 request per second, no card required. The same key works for all 29 leagues.
How fresh is the NFL data?: Data is aggregated from public sources and is typically 20-30 seconds behind live play (about 1 second after our source). There is no SLA. It is not intended for in-play betting that needs sub-second data.
Which NFL endpoints are available?: Available: live scores, events (scoreboard), event detail, play-by-play, box score, odds, win probability, teams, rosters, athletes, injuries, news, schedule / weeks. Not available or not verified: ncaa tournament (not available).
Does the NFL API include betting odds?: Yes. Upcoming NFL games returned a spread, moneyline and total when we checked, from a single source book, with line history. It is not a multi-book comparison feed and not suited to sub-second in-play betting.
Does it include NFL injuries?: Yes. The injuries endpoint returned current NFL designations grouped by team, and player-availability normalizes them to values like OUT and QUESTIONABLE. Pass team for a complete team report.
Can I get NFL score updates pushed instead of polling?: Yes. Webhooks are included on every paid plan (Starter, Growth, Pro, Scale). WebSocket is included on paid plans, and the Free plan gets a 500-message monthly preview. Both can be filtered to nfl.