diff --git a/explorer-api/README.md b/explorer-api/README.md
index 49532965ca..d05c19064b 100644
--- a/explorer-api/README.md
+++ b/explorer-api/README.md
@@ -14,4 +14,8 @@ TODO:
 * grab mixnode description info via reqwest and serve it (avoid mixed-content errors)
 * serve it all over http
 * dependency injection
-* tests
\ No newline at end of file
+* tests
+
+## Running
+
+- Supply the environment variable `GEO_IP_SERVICE_API_KEY` with a key from https://freegeoip.app/
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/explorer-api/src/country_statistics/mod.rs b/explorer-api/src/country_statistics/mod.rs
index 6f588e4eef..681cc7cc32 100644
--- a/explorer-api/src/country_statistics/mod.rs
+++ b/explorer-api/src/country_statistics/mod.rs
@@ -90,7 +90,15 @@ impl CountryStatistics {
 }
 
 async fn locate(ip: &str) -> Result<GeoLocation, ReqwestError> {
-    let response = reqwest::get(format!("{}{}", crate::GEO_IP_SERVICE, ip)).await?;
+    let api_key = ::std::env::var("GEO_IP_SERVICE_API_KEY")
+        .expect("Env var GEO_IP_SERVICE_API_KEY is not set");
+    let response = reqwest::get(format!(
+        "{}{}?apikey={}",
+        crate::GEO_IP_SERVICE,
+        ip,
+        api_key
+    ))
+    .await?;
     let location = response.json::<GeoLocation>().await?;
     Ok(location)
 }