TCG API vs JustTCG
TCG API and JustTCG both target developers who need trading card game pricing data. They take different approaches to game coverage, pricing granularity, and feature sets. Here is an honest comparison to help you decide which fits your project.
Feature Comparison
Key Differences
Game coverage. This is the biggest differentiator. TCG API covers 54 games — every game available on TCGPlayer, from the biggest titles like Pokemon and Magic to niche games like Riftbound and Grand Archive. JustTCG covers 18 games, focusing on the most popular titles. If you are building a tool for a less mainstream game, TCG API is more likely to have it.
Pricing granularity. Both APIs offer condition-specific pricing broken out by Near Mint, Lightly Played, Moderately Played, and other grades. TCG API's condition prices come from live TCGPlayer listings — lowest listing, shipping-inclusive floor, and a junk-resistant median per printing and condition — refreshed daily across all 54 games, alongside the aggregate market, low, mid, and high price points. JustTCG models condition prices for its 18 covered games.
Built-in analytics. TCG API includes price change tracking (24h, 7d, 30d) directly in card responses, making it easy to show price trends without storing historical snapshots yourself. This is a meaningful time-saver for developers building price monitoring tools.
Different trade-offs. Both APIs serve the same general audience — developers building TCG tools. TCG API pairs the widest coverage (54 games) with built-in analytics and condition-level pricing across all of them. JustTCG focuses its condition pricing on the 18 titles it covers.
Which games does each one actually cover?
The "54 vs 18" number hides what actually matters: which games does the API you are evaluating support, and which does it not? For a multi-game tool, the answer decides whether the API is viable.
Covered by both (all 18)
Safe to switch either way.
- · Magic, Pokemon, Pokemon Japan
- · Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece, Digimon
- · Disney Lorcana, Flesh and Blood
- · Riftbound, Gundam, hololive
- · Star Wars: Unlimited, Union Arena
- · Sorcery, Grand Archive, UniVersus
- · Dragon Ball Super (Masters + Fusion World)
TCG API only (36 games)
Where JustTCG users hit the wall.
- · Weiss Schwarz
- · Cardfight Vanguard
- · Shadowverse: Evolve
- · Final Fantasy TCG
- · Battle Spirits Saga
- · Force of Will, WIXOSS
- · MetaZoo, Elestrals, KeyForge
- · Transformers, Warhammer AoS
- · 25 more niche and legacy games
Neither (external)
Not on TCGPlayer at all.
- · OCG Yu-Gi-Oh! (Konami JP)
- · Sports cards
- · Non-TCG collectibles
If your roadmap includes any TCG outside those 18, TCG API is the safer bet — and since condition-level pricing (NM through Damaged) now ships on every one of the 54 games, choosing breadth no longer means giving up condition granularity.
Is JustTCG any good?
Short answer: yes. JustTCG is a real, actively maintained product. It publishes complete API documentation, ships an official TypeScript SDK, runs a beta MCP endpoint for agent workflows, posts a public changelog, and lists its prices openly rather than behind a sales call. Its free tier needs no credit card. Nothing about it looks risky to build on.
Where it beats us. JustTCG refreshes pricing every 6 hours. TCG API refreshes daily for the top games and roughly every 3 days across the rest of the catalogue. If your product depends on catching intraday moves, that is a real difference and it favours them. They also offer graded-card and localized in-store pricing, which we do not.
Where we differ. Coverage: they support 18 games, we support 54 — and our catalogue is a superset, so anything you can price on JustTCG you can price here. That only matters if you need the long tail: Weiss Schwarz, Cardfight Vanguard, Final Fantasy, MetaZoo and 32 others.
Volume is the other difference. JustTCG caps by month as well as by day — 1,000 calls a month free, 10,000 for $19, 50,000 for $49. TCG API caps by day only: 100/day free, 1,000/day for $9.99, 10,000/day for $49.99, which works out to roughly 3,000, 30,000 and 300,000 a month. Both offer price history; theirs reaches 180 days, ours reaches full history on Pro and above.
Figures checked against justtcg.com in August 2026. Both free tiers are no-credit-card, so the fastest way to decide is to run your own workload through each.
When to Choose Each
Choose TCG API when...
- ✓ You need the widest game coverage (54 games)
- ✓ Your project covers niche or less popular TCGs
- ✓ You want built-in price change tracking (24h/7d/30d)
- ✓ You need bulk endpoints for full set data dumps
- ✓ You need condition-specific pricing (NM, LP, MP, HP, DMG) — on any game, not just the top 20
Choose JustTCG when...
- ✓ You prefer modeled per-condition market estimates over live listing floors and medians
- ✓ You only work with the 18 games JustTCG covers
- ✓ You already have an integration built on their response shapes
- ✓ You want a second source to cross-check condition prices against
Try TCG API
Get pricing data across every TCG with a clean, simple API:
# Search across any of the 54 supported games
curl "https://api.tcgapi.dev/v1/search?q=elsa&game=lorcana-tcg" \
-H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"
# Response includes Normal + Foil pricing with trends:
// "market_price": 4.25,
// "foil_market_price": 8.50,
// "price_change_7d": 0.30Ready to build with the widest TCG coverage?
Get started with 100 free requests per day. No credit card required.