zip-codes-api

Python client for the ZIP Codes API — US ZIP and Canadian postal data with 14 years of US Census ACS demographics (2011–2024), radius search (centroid + spatial coverage-weighting), address validation with ZIP+4, distance, and typo-tolerant autocomplete.

pip install zip-codes-api          # core
pip install 'zip-codes-api[pandas]'  # + DataFrame helpers for research

Quickstart

from zip_codes_api import ZipCodesClient

# Public demo key works for demo ZIPs (90210, 10001, ...). Any ZIP: get a free
# key at https://www.zip-codes.com/api/signup (2,500 credits/day, no card).
client = ZipCodesClient("zc_test_DEMOAPIKEY000000000000")

bh = client.zip("90210", include=["acs_demographic", "timezone"])
print(bh["city"])  # Beverly Hills
print(client.last_meta["credits"]["used"])  # credits this call cost

Single-target methods (zip, quick_zip, radius, distance, address, suggest) return the first result object. Batch methods return the list of per-item results. Pass raw=True for the full response envelope. client.last_meta always holds the most recent response's meta (including credits).

14 years of demographics as a DataFrame

The reason most researchers reach for this API — a longitudinal ZIP-level series in one call, with the year-to-year Census variable drift and the 2020 GEO_ID change already normalized:

df = client.acs_timeseries("90210", profile="demographic", years=range(2011, 2025))
print(df[["sex_and_age.total_population", "sex_and_age.median_age"]])
#       sex_and_age.total_population  sex_and_age.median_age
# year
# 2011                        21719                    45.7
# ...
# 2024                        19004                    51.9

profile is one of demographic (DP05), social (DP02), economic (DP03), housing (DP04).

Coverage-weighted radius aggregation (no GIS)

/radius in spatial mode intersects your radius with actual ZIP/FSA boundary polygons and weights the ACS aggregate by each ZIP's pct_inside — a ZIP 30% inside contributes 30% of its population, not all-or-nothing:

r = client.radius("90210", max_radius=10, mode="spatial", include="acs_demographic")
pop = r["stats"]["acs"]["current"]["demographic"]["sex_and_age"]["total_population"]["est"]
print(f"{pop:,} people within 10 miles (coverage-weighted)")

matches = client.radius_dataframe("90210", max_radius=10, mode="spatial")  # pandas
print(matches[["code", "city", "pct_inside", "distance_miles"]].head())

Other endpoints

client.quick_zip("M5V")                       # Canadian FSA: city/province/coords
client.distance("90210", "10001")             # great-circle distance + bearing
client.address("200 N Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90012")  # validate + ZIP+4
client.suggest("9021")                         # autocomplete -> result["matches"]

# Batch (up to 100; requires a paid subscription key)
client.zip_batch(["90210", "10001", "M5V"], include="timezone")

Errors

Failures raise typed exceptions carrying the API's code, status, and request_id:

from zip_codes_api import InsufficientCreditsError, RateLimitError, NotFoundError

try:
    client.zip("90210", include=["acs_economic"])
except RateLimitError as e:
    print("retry after", e.retry_after, "seconds")
except InsufficientCreditsError:
    ...
except NotFoundError:
    ...

ZipCodesClient retries 429 / 5xx automatically (honoring Retry-After), up to max_retries (default 2).

Links

• API docs: https://www.zip-codes.com/api/docs
• Get a free key: https://www.zip-codes.com/api/signup
• Sample data + notebooks: https://github.com/ZIP-Codes-API/acs-by-zip
• Research/journalism/nonprofit credits: https://www.zip-codes.com/api/research-credits

License

MIT. Underlying demographic data is US Census Bureau ACS (public domain). Suggested acknowledgement:

Demographic data: US Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates, accessed via ZIP Codes API (Zip-Codes.com), https://www.zip-codes.com/api/