Answered by the Free Use Bible API
Securing Bible licensing agreements
AO LabCase for Support
AO Lab is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
Find us at helloao.org
The Great Commission remains unfinished.
3.6 billion people, 44% of the world, live in unreached people groups.
Source: Joshua Project, September 2026
The internet is now the largest mission field in history.
The world is increasingly online
+1.31 billionpeople in five years
60.1%online in 2020
+13.5%added between 2020–2025
26.4%not yet online
Source: ITU, Facts and Figures 2025
God has positioned over 2.5 billion believers worldwide to finish the task.
Source: Gordon-Conwell Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Status of Global Christianity 2026
So we’re clearing the way by transforming how Scripture is accessed and used online.
How we’re improving
Access
We believe God’s word is how God will see His purposes through.
But when we started out we couldn’t get access; so we built it for us and everyone like us.
Live 2022
December 2026
Free Use Bible API
Seed Bible
Instant, free Scripture for anyone building.
New tools to equip those the Lord has already called.
In 2022 reading the Bible online was easy, but building something required a lengthy permission process.
- Search for a Bible copyright holder’s website
- Fill out a lengthy form
- Wait a few weeks
- Get contacted, respond with more information
- Wait a few more weeks
- Get sent a licensing agreement (don’t bother negotiating it, they won’t agree)
- Realize it requires reporting analytics, which requires building tracking tools
- Build your tracking and reporting tools
- Contact them again and say you’re ready
- Wait a few more days
- Pay the fees
- Repeat with every publisher you need the Bible from
For countless believers globally this process was impossible.
Those in persecuted countries
Sharing information online can get them killed.
Believers with no money
Paid access turns away our poorest and neediest.
Builders distributing online
Global distribution requires no usage limits and anonymity.
“For many ministries, two barriers have historically made it difficult to incorporate Scripture into their digital experiences: the resources required to build reliable Bible technology and the complexity of securing Bible licensing agreements.”
YouVersion · Platform announcement, 31 March 2026
Others made incremental improvements, but the biggest barriers were never lifted.
API.Bible
AccountTerms per copyright holderKey approvalLicence fees
YouVersion Platform
AccountTerms acceptedApp registrationKey approval
Digital Bible Library
Organization approvalReview contract templatesReach out to each publisherRenegotiate at renewal
Free Use Bible API
No account needed, no agreement to sign, no key necessary
Our big innovation was to ask nothing. You request Scripture. You get Scripture.
That’s why the Free Use Bible API is the #1 way builders access Scripture online.
92 million+
requests served since March, 2026.
On pace for over 140 million requests this year.
Over 1,200 translations in over 1,000 languages.
No cost, no usage limits, no tracking, and no red tape.
Don’t take our word for it. Take Google’s.
Google · AI Mode · “what’s the best bible api for free scripture access?”
“Best for Overall Flexibility & Scale: Free Use Bible API. Built by the non-profit AO Lab, this is widely considered the most developer-friendly and unrestrictive API available.”
Google’s answer in an anonymized search, October 12, 2026.
Or take it from the people building with it.
“If you’re a Christian developer wanting to incorporate God’s Word into your project unencumbered, then AO Lab’s Free Use Bible API is the single most important piece of infrastructure on planet Earth. … If you use any digital Bible app or website, there’s a good chance you’re a downstream beneficiary of the Free Use Bible API and don’t even know it!”
“It’s the best Bible API ever. It’s on seedbible.org (the best Bible reading environment) and we use it in aquilla.app.”
“Praise be to God that He is raising people up to make high quality open source software.”
“The end goal isn’t who has the best tech, but enabling growth in believers.”
How we’re transforming
Capability
What we’ve already done for access to Scripture, we now want to do for its use.
Taken on by Seed Bible
The cost to build reliable Bible technology
Did you know? Every verse in this presentation opens in Seed Bible. Click one to try it yourself.
Bible apps and websites made Scripture easier to find.
But the Great Commission requires making it easier to send.
5 billion+
people are on social and messaging platforms.
The Great Commission is about people, and this is where most are.
Even YouVersion’s biggest day only reached a fraction of them.
Meta’s appsWhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook · Every day
3.6 billion
TelegramEvery month
1 billion+
DiscordEvery month
200 million+
YouVersionIts biggest day ever
22.2 million
“We believe the mission to share it is bigger than any one platform.”
Bobby GruenewaldFounder and CEO, YouVersion · 28 October 2025
Sources: YouVersion · Meta · Telegram · Discord
But Seed Bible goes anywhere a link can.
Seed Bible links work on any platform, no download or login required.
seedbible.org/?book=ROM&chapter=10&verse=9
This one opens to Romans 10:9.
Reaching 5 billion+ people will take the whole body of Christ.
Every believer is called to ministry, and every ministry needs the same foundation.
Everything beneath the top block takes a small team years of effort to build well.
Today each builds alone, and the result is a phone full of apps that can’t work together.
Bible apps166Discipleship128Prayer118Bible study166Scripture memory30Devotionals119Small groups54Journaling42Evangelism70
Source: faith.tools
Building for the body, as the body, means our services should serve the whole.
So we’re enabling builders to just do their part only.
90%The platform already built
10%Their use case
1,200+ translationsReader & search70+ interface languagesOffline & syncShared sessionsExtensions
Seed Bible enables every Biblical tool and application to surface at the right time and place.
- In the headerListen to the chapter read aloud
- In the textA study note on the verse being read
- Beside the textA ministry’s teaching on this chapter
- In the toolbarMemorize the verse you just read
And like the Free Use Bible API, Seed Bible asks nothing in return.
Open source. Free to white label. Free to modify. Free to redeploy.
Anyone can start today and never look back.
This means every ministry can make Seed Bible its own.
- Your brandYour name and colors on every page
- Your notesYour study notes on every verse
- Your teachingYour videos and teaching beside every chapter
- Your toolsThe tools you build, one tap away
Thousands of Christian developers are already coming to us.
We only need to make Seed Bible available to them.
And by integrating with other providers and ministry partners (not publicly announced yet) we hope to tap into their wider networks.
Bonfire
Reflections Ministries
faith.tools
Change Church
Runfree
Friendship Vallejo
Vista Hills Church
Converge Great Lakes
Gateway Church
Northside Baptist Church
Before 2027, we finish the foundation.
Seed Bible’s full release launches through the Free Use Bible API and early adopter partners, anchored by developer docs in December so anyone can build on it.
- Developer docs · DecemberClear documentation so any developer can build on Seed Bible and publish their own extensions.
- Customization CenterAny ministry can shape its own Seed Bible, switch on partner extensions, surface its own content beside every passage, and see how people are using it.
- Onboarding and TodayA clearer first ten seconds, and a redesigned Today screen that makes sense even when you are reading alone.
- CommunityReaders can subscribe to one another, the start of reading Scripture together.
- PlaylistsThe feature every ministry asks for keeps improving, alongside reading plans and an embed mode for any website.
2027 is all about growth.
Q1 2027 · Partner integrations
Seed Bible integrates with The Apologist Project, Bonfire and Turumba, so AI conversations happening all day long can open Scripture in Seed Bible and point to each partner’s own content. Our first hackathons bring the docs to developer communities, and we build on what they bring back.
Q2 2027 · Reading that leads to people
Reading activity becomes next steps. If someone you mentor reads half the New Testament in three weeks, Seed Bible prompts you to take them for coffee, and if they drift, it prompts you to check in. Partner integrations deepen, shaped by hackathon feedback.
Q3 2027 · Social platforms
Seed Bible embeds in WhatsApp, Telegram and Discord, so Scripture sessions happen on the platforms where people already live. Hackathons put these new tools in builders’ hands.
Q4 2027 onward · Teaching tools and growth campaigns
Playlists become interactive lessons. A Sunday sermon turns into a follow-up playlist for every small group, scheduled weeks ahead, and a playlist shared with a friend exploring faith can come with an AI guide. Campaigns invite hundreds of churches to make Seed Bible their go-to community platform for life, while hackathons keep community feedback driving what we build next.
Meet the team.
Click a portrait to explore our leadership bios.
Caleb
Operations
Amit
Product Team
Amir
Product Team
Kushagra
Product Team
Sujan
Product Team
Mazen
Product Team
Gabriel
Product Team
Salvatore
3D Artist
We self-funded and bootstrapped our way here.
Work began · Sept 2021Today
202120222023202420252026
- AO Lab founded · Feb 2022
- Self-funded · over $80,000
- Service revenue · over $620,000
- Donor support · over $160,000
Funding needs and opportunities
Essential
$38,793/month
$465,520 a year
- Executive Director*$7,000
- CTO and Head of Product*$20,000
- International developers, design and art (7)$10,710
- Operations: accounting, AI tools and services$1,083
Essential operational costs to continue as-is without cutting staff or losing momentum.
Growth
$51,943/month
$623,320 a year
- Essential$38,793
- One more developer team member$7,650
- Improved content$2,100
- Marketing and outbound to church and ministry partners$3,400
More hands on the platform, so we can build faster for the partners already waiting on it.
Maximum Kingdom Building Velocity
$67,943/month
$885,320 in 2027
- Growth$51,943
- Operational capacity for new hires$16,000
- 2 hackathons of our own, plus promoting and joining 30+ hackathons globally via partners$70,000one-time
2 virtual hackathons with prizes to supercharge global development.
*Fully loaded pay. AO Lab provides no health insurance, retirement or other benefits of any kind, so $10,000 a month is the entire cost of a senior US role. Staff currently seek healthcare and other benefits at their own expense on the open market.
Please consider partnering with us to see it through.
Your gift frees the whole team to focus wholly on the mission.
2027 partnership goal
$465,520
That covers our essential needs. If you’d like to help pour more fuel on the fire please help us however God lays on your heart.
95%
of the prior-year budget went to the people directly building and leading the work.
5%
supported essential infrastructure, operations, light travel, and the distributed team.
Open
source code and free Scripture access preserve portability and enduring value.
Board
independent nonprofit governance provides accountability and stewardship.
Every gift furthers the Great Commission through infrastructure many ministries use again and again.
No offices, no admin layer, no development department: eleven people, four in the United States and seven abroad, building the platform.
Gifts go to AO Lab, a 501(c)(3), and are tax-deductible as allowed by law, by card, bank, donor-advised fund, stock, IRA or QCD, or crypto.
Talk to our Executive Director
For a larger or multi-year gift, start with a conversation and we will walk you through the roadmap.