Science & Math — entry 027 of 28
USGS Water Services
USGS Water Services is a keyless REST API serving real-time and historical streamflow, groundwater, and water-quality readings from thousands of USGS monitoring sites across the US, in WaterML XML, JSON, or the legacy tab-delimited RDB format. The agency has announced it will decommission this API family in early 2027 in favor of its new Water Data APIs (api.waterdata.usgs.gov), with no degradation planned before August 2026 — new integrations should target the successor service.
AuthenticationNone requiredCall it straight away — no key, no signup.
HTTPSSupportedTraffic is encrypted in transit.
CORSEnabledCallable directly from browser JavaScript.
PricingFreeNo paid tier — free for the documented use case.
FormatsJSON, XML, RDBResponses can be requested as JSON or XML or RDB.
GreatAPIs Score
Score80
Authentication25/25No authentication required
Pricing20/20Free to use
Docs0/20No docs or spec available
Formats15/15Supports 3 response formats
Freshness20/20Verified within 6 months
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<a href="https://greatapis.com/api/usgs-water-services/"><img src="https://greatapis.com/badge/usgs-water-services.svg" alt="Scored 80 on greatapis.com"></a>Auth quickstart
- No key needed — call it now.
Stored keyNo key stored
Your key is stored only in this browser (localStorage) and sent directly to the API — never to greatapis.