Zillow API in 2026: access rules, RentCast and options

Does Zillow have a public API?

Only by application. Zillow Group says it has close to 20 APIs for the public and for partners. The datasets most people want, Zestimates and property records, are served through Bridge Interactive’s Bridge API.

Bridge offers three Zillow Group datasets: public records for about 148 million properties across 3,200 US counties, all current property and rental Zestimates, and Zillow’s housing market metrics. Zillow describes the Zestimate API as meant for commercial use by businesses, and points research and academic users to its free data downloads.

What are the limits on Zillow’s API?

Bridge’s FAQ for Zillow Group data sets these rules.

• Approval: you apply, and Zillow reviews your use case against its terms before granting access.
• Volume: approved users get a maximum of 1,000 calls a day per dataset.
• No storage: you may only retrieve and display Zillow data dynamically, not store it locally.
• Attribution: your app must link back to Zillow.
• No scraping: Bridge says spiders, reverse engineering or pulling data outside the Bridge API violate Zillow’s terms.

What are the real options for Zillow-style property data?

Most builders end up with a property data vendor that sells self-serve keys. Terms checked November 10, 2026.

What does the RentCast API include?

RentCast sells four self-serve plans, from a free Developer plan with 50 requests a month to a Scale plan with 25,000. Each includes a monthly request allowance and charges overage per extra request, at a lower rate on larger plans.

The data covers property records, owners, tax history, value and rent estimates with comparables, sale and rental listings, and market statistics by ZIP code.

What does RentCast cost through Locus Pro?

Every RentCast endpoint in the Locus catalog costs 30.3 credits, about $0.0303, per call. That covers value estimates, rent estimates, property records, sale and rental listings, and market statistics. RentCast is a reviewed vendor. 1,000 credits equal $1. Prices come from the Locus catalog on November 10, 2026.

Worked example: underwriting 20 deals a month with a value estimate, a rent estimate and a market lookup each is 60 calls, or 1,818 credits, about $1.82, with no RentCast account or plan to manage. At high volume, calls can cost less with your own RentCast account and API key.

• Property data without a subscription
• Browse the tool catalog

What should I watch for with property data APIs?

Property data looks precise and often is not.

• Estimates are estimates: an automated valuation is a model output, not an appraisal.
• Coverage varies: RentCast covers most US residential properties and select commercial types, with market data for most ZIP codes and cities.
• Storage rules differ: Zillow forbids storing its data. Check each vendor’s license before you cache results.
• Scraped endpoints: the Zillow site APIs in the Locus catalog come from a third party, can break when Zillow changes its site, and run against Zillow’s stated terms.

Which Zillow API alternative should I choose?

Pick by whether you need Zillow’s numbers or just good property data.

• You need Zestimates in a commercial product: apply through Bridge.
• You need market trends for research: Zillow Research CSVs, free.
• You need address-level values, rents and comps at volume: a RentCast plan.
• An agent that underwrites a few deals a week: RentCast through Locus Pro, with no RentCast account.