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Stockfish API vs Lichess cloud eval
Lichess exposes cached evaluations for positions its users have already analysed, free and rate-limited. It is excellent for opening positions and useless for a position nobody has looked at. This API runs a fresh search on any position, at the depth you choose, with a key, a quota and an SLA.
| Lichess cloud eval | stockfishapi.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh analysis of any position | No, cache only | Yes |
| Choose depth and multi-PV | No | Yes, up to depth 30 and 10 lines |
| Rate limit | Shared, unauthenticated | Per key, 5 to 200 rps by plan |
| Price | Free | Free tier, then $9/mo |
| Terms of use | Non-commercial, attribution | Commercial use allowed |
| Agent signup | No | POST /v1/signup |