REST API

PrayCalc exposes a free public REST API for prayer time calculations, location lookup, and calendar export. All endpoints accept GET requests and return JSON (or text/calendar for the ICS endpoint).

Base URL

https://praycalc.com/api

These are same-origin endpoints for the praycalc.com web app (mobile, desktop, and the calendar export flow). There is no Access-Control-Allow-Origin header, so browser fetch/XMLHttpRequest calls from a different origin will be blocked by CORS — server-to-server calls (curl, backend jobs) are unaffected.

There is no API key, authentication, or rate limiting on any endpoint.

Prayer times

Calculate prayer times for a date range at any coordinate.

GET /api/prayers?lat={lat}&lng={lng}&tz={tz}&from={date}&to={date}&hanafi={0|1}&method={id}

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`lat`	float	Yes	Latitude
`lng`	float	Yes	Longitude
`tz`	string	No	IANA timezone name (e.g., `America/New_York`). Defaults to `UTC`
`from`	string	Yes	Start date in `YYYY-MM-DD` format
`to`	string	Yes	End date in `YYYY-MM-DD` format
`hanafi`	`0` or `1`	No	Use Hanafi Asr calculation. Defaults to `0` (Shafi’i)
`method`	string	No	Calculation method id. Defaults to PrayCalc’s dynamic method (`DPC`) when omitted. One of `DPC`, `UOIF`, `ISNACA`, `ISNA`, `SAMR`, `IGUT`, `MWL`, `DIBT`, `Karachi`, `Kuwait`, `UAQ`, `Qatar`, `Egypt`, `MUIS`, `MSC`

Response

A bare JSON array — one entry per day in the range, not wrapped in a { "days": [...] } object:

[
  {
    "date": "2026-07-10",
    "prayers": {
      "Fajr": "03:48:18",
      "Sunrise": "05:34:03",
      "Dhuhr": "13:03:57",
      "Asr": "17:00:37",
      "Maghrib": "20:28:56",
      "Isha": "21:43:38",
      "Qiyam": "01:46:45"
    }
  }
]

prayers always includes Qiyam (last third of the night) in addition to the five daily prayers and Sunrise.

Notes

Maximum date range: 400 days
Times use the NREL SPA algorithm (solar position to 0.0003 degree accuracy)
Cache: public, max-age=3600
An unrecognized method value returns 400 with the list of valid ids in the error message

Example

curl "https://praycalc.com/api/prayers?lat=40.7128&lng=-74.006&tz=America/New_York&from=2026-07-10&to=2026-07-10"

Geolocation

Look up location details by coordinates, place name, or client IP.

GET /api/geo?lat={lat}&lng={lng}
GET /api/geo?q={query}
GET /api/geo?ip=1

Parameters

Use one of the three modes:

Mode	Parameters	Description
Coordinates	`lat` + `lng`	Reverse geocode a lat/lng pair
Name lookup	`q` (min 2 chars)	Look up a place by name
IP detection	`ip=1`	Detect the client’s IP (or Vercel’s edge geo headers) and geolocate it

Response

{
  "lat": 40.71427,
  "lng": -74.00597,
  "displayName": "New York, NY",
  "city": "New York",
  "state": "ny",
  "country": "us",
  "slug": "us/ny/new-york",
  "timezone": "America/New_York"
}

state and country are lowercase two-letter codes (US state abbreviation / ISO country code), not full names. slug is the path PrayCalc uses for that location’s shareable URL (e.g. praycalc.com/us/ny/new-york).

On a miss (no match, private/unresolvable IP, or missing params), the endpoint returns HTTP 200 with a JSON null body — never 404.

Location search

Autocomplete search across cities worldwide.

GET /api/search?q={query}

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`q`	string	Yes	Search query (minimum 2 characters)

Response

Returns an array of matching locations in the same shape as /api/geo, ordered by population:

[
  {
    "lat": 51.50853,
    "lng": -0.12574,
    "displayName": "London, GB",
    "city": "London",
    "state": "gb",
    "country": "gb",
    "slug": "gb/london",
    "timezone": "Europe/London"
  }
]

Returns an empty array ([]) if the query is under 2 characters or no results are found.

Calendar export (ICS)

Generate a subscribable iCalendar feed — one event per prayer per day.

GET /api/calendar.ics?lat={lat}&lng={lng}&tz={tz}&days={n}&hanafi={0|1}&events={0|1}

There is no PDF calendar endpoint — /api/calendar/pdf does not exist (404). PDF export, if offered, is a client-side feature of the web app, not a REST endpoint.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`lat`	float	Yes	Latitude
`lng`	float	Yes	Longitude
`tz`	string	No	IANA timezone name. Defaults to `UTC`
`days`	integer	No	Number of days to export, `1`-`365`. Defaults to `30`
`hanafi`	`0` or `1`	No	Use Hanafi Asr calculation. Defaults to `0` (Shafi’i)
`events`	`0` or `1`	No	Include all-day events for fixed Islamic observances (Ramadan start, both Eids, Ashura, Islamic New Year, Laylat al-Qadr, Isra & Mi’raj). Defaults to `0` (off)

Response

Returns an RFC 5545 .ics file:

Content-Type: text/calendar; charset=utf-8
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="prayer-times-<tz>.ics"

Example

curl -o calendar.ics "https://praycalc.com/api/calendar.ics?lat=40.7128&lng=-74.006&tz=America/New_York&days=30"

Error responses

Errors return a JSON body with just an error string — there is no status field in the body (the status is only in the HTTP response code):

{
  "error": "Missing or invalid params"
}

Status	Meaning
`400`	Invalid or missing parameters (bad coordinates, dates, timezone, or `method`)

/api/geo and /api/search do not return 404 for a miss — see their sections above.