Narwhal API
Official government holidays alongside economic release calendars and FX under one key.
Best public holiday APIs in 2026
The best public holiday API depends on country coverage, commercial licence and hosting. Nager.Date offers a free hosted API with no key, 200+ countries and no published SLA. Narwhal publishes official government holidays for 37 countries in 2026 and 31 in 2027.
Decision
Choose Narwhal when its countries and years fit and you want official government holidays alongside release calendars and FX through REST and MCP. Choose a specialist or local library for broader geography or offline use.
Provider shortlist
Some Narwhal countries have only one of the two published years. Narwhal API is owned and operated by Nusantara Ventures, LLC.
HolidayAPI
Broad country and subdivision coverage with long calendar ranges.
Calendarific
Broad hosted holiday coverage with a low-cost Starter plan.
Nager.Date
A free hosted holiday API without an API key.
API Ninjas
Holiday lookups alongside a broad API catalogue and official MCP tools.
Abstract API
Hosted holiday lookups across countries and regions.
date-holidays
Free offline holiday calculations in JavaScript without network requests.
Compare the options
Best fit is not feature parity. Check the evidence and limitation together.
| Provider | Best for | Evidence checked | Important limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Narwhal API | Official government holidays alongside economic release calendars and FX under one key. | Hosted REST and MCP support whole-year, single-date and next-holiday lookups. | Coverage is small: 37 countries in 2026 and 31 in 2027, with some countries having only one year. |
| HolidayAPI | Broad country and subdivision coverage with long calendar ranges. | Countries costs $249/year; both paid plans include one million monthly requests and commercial use. | Billing is annual only; the free request quota is unpublished, and offline storage requires an active subscription. |
| Calendarific | Broad hosted holiday coverage with a low-cost Starter plan. | It lists 230+ countries and 3,300+ regions; Starter costs $12/month for 10,000 calls. | Free has 500 monthly calls, attribution and quarterly updates; daily updates require Enterprise at $4,000/year. |
| Nager.Date | A free hosted holiday API without an API key. | The MIT project lists 200+ countries and advertises no hosted request limits. | Offline Docker and NuGet need a sponsor licence key; no SLA is published. |
| API Ninjas | Holiday lookups alongside a broad API catalogue and official MCP tools. | It covers 230+ countries and territories; Premium supports year selection from 2005 through 2039. | Free returns the current year, allows 3,000 monthly calls, requires attribution and excludes commercial use. |
| Abstract API | Hosted holiday lookups across countries and regions. | It claims 190+ countries and 3,500 regions, with 1,000 free requests at one request per second. | A paid Standard plan exists, but its request allowance and update frequency are inconsistent on the page. |
| date-holidays | Free offline holiday calculations in JavaScript without network requests. | The library lists 207 countries and subdivisions; code uses ISC and data uses CC BY-SA 3.0. | You host and update it; data partly uses Wikipedia, and computed Islamic dates can differ from moon sighting. |
Choose by requirement
Check countries and years
Narwhal publishes official government holidays for 37 countries in 2026 and 31 in 2027. Check each country before using it for a multinational calendar.
Hosted or local execution
Choose Narwhal for REST and MCP alongside calendars and FX. Choose date-holidays for local JavaScript execution, accepting package updates and data licence obligations.
Check commercial terms
Narwhal Free allows commercial apps. API Ninjas Free does not; Calendarific requires attribution, while HolidayAPI bills paid commercial access annually.
Market holidays and early closes
Narwhal covers government public holidays, not exchange trading calendars, market closures, early-close times or half-day sessions. Check a market-calendar source for those; Narwhal offers no CSV download of them.
Sources and review date
Each detailed provider page lists the first-party documentation used, its evidence boundaries, and its review date.
Reviewed: