{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "accuweather-api", "name": "AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP", "vendor": "AccuWeather", "vendorUrl": "https://developer.accuweather.com", "kind": "http-api", "category": "weather", "summary": "Weather API for current conditions, forecasts, alerts and radar imagery, with an official read-only MCP server.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/accuweather-api", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/accuweather-api.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/accuweather-api.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/accuweather-api.json", "transports": [ "http", "streamable-http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://dataservice.accuweather.com", "packages": [], "auth": "api-key", "authNotes": "Authorization: Bearer with the Core Weather key on REST, the only method the authentication page documents. The MCP server also takes the key as an apikey parameter on its URL. Keys are rotated on the subscriptions page. Every weather call needs a location key first, from the locations search or geoposition endpoints.", "pricing": "freemium", "pricingNotes": "Free 14-day trial at 500 Core Weather calls a day, MCP included. Starter $2 a month for 15,000 calls ($0.25 per 1,000 over), Standard $25 for 225,000 ($0.12 over), Prime $250 for 1.8 million ($0.15 over), Elite $500 for 2.4 million ($0.22 over, MCP included), Enterprise on request. MinuteCast is a separate product, 50 calls a day free, Lite $25 for 10,000, Full $100 for 675,000. Lightning is Enterprise only (https://developer.accuweather.com/llms-full.txt). The previous free tier was retired with the new portal and old trial accounts have to sign up again (https://developer.accuweather.com/faq).", "priceSummary": "$2 / mo", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": 26, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-09-30" }, "docsUrl": "https://developer.accuweather.com/documentation/overview", "llmsTxt": "https://developer.accuweather.com/llms.txt", "capabilities": [ "weather.current", "weather.forecast", "weather.alerts", "data.weather" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "freemium", "free-tier", "mcp", "llms-txt", "closed-source", "enterprise" ], "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 48.8, "grade": "D", "agentReady": false, "rank": 372, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 452, "categoryRank": 7, "methodology": "0.3", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 60, "maintenance": 13, "payments": 25, "reliability": 65, "schema": 60, "security": 39, "transparency": 60 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-01" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "Official hosted MCP server, 26 read-only tools, same key as the REST API. Terms forbid using the data to train, validate or otherwise inform any AI system.", "strengths": [ "Official hosted MCP server, 26 read-only tools, same key as the REST API", "Packages from $2 a month, with published overage rates per 1,000 calls", "llms.txt, llms-full.txt and a Markdown twin for every docs page", "RFC 7807 error bodies and a documented status code table", "Status page with Enterprise and Developer Portal API components" ], "weaknesses": [ "Terms forbid using the data to train, validate or otherwise inform any AI system", "MCP access only on the trial and Elite ($500 a month)", "No changelog, and the terms allow API changes without notice", "Two calls per new place, a location key lookup then the forecast", "No security.txt, SLA or official SDK" ], "agentNotes": [ "Cache location keys. They don't change, and the lookup is the call worth saving", "Use the geoposition search first when you hold coordinates, then the forecast tools with the key it returns", "Send the key as a Bearer header, not in the MCP URL, so it stays out of logs", "Send Accept-Encoding: gzip and refresh on the Expires header rather than a fixed timer", "Show the AccuWeather name and logo next to the data, and keep nothing older than two weeks" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 2.5, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "D", "methodology": "0.3", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 48.8 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 60, "maintenance": 13, "payments": 25, "reliability": 65, "schema": 60, "security": 39, "transparency": 39 }, "provenanceScore": 80, "dataQualityScore": 39 }, "connect": { "http": "curl -H \"Authorization: Bearer $ACCUWEATHER_API_KEY\" -H \"Accept-Encoding: gzip\" --compressed \"https://dataservice.accuweather.com/currentconditions/v1/349727\"", "claudeCode": "claude mcp add --transport http accuweather https://dataservice.accuweather.com/mcp --header \"Authorization: Bearer $ACCUWEATHER_API_KEY\"", "config": { "mcpServers": { "accuweather": { "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer ${ACCUWEATHER_API_KEY}" }, "type": "http", "url": "https://dataservice.accuweather.com/mcp" } } } }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/weather.current", "tool": "https://letme.dev/accuweather-api" }, "area": "domain-data", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "Starter package", "unit": "month", "usd": 2, "note": "15,000 calls" }, { "item": "Standard package", "unit": "month", "usd": 25, "note": "225,000 calls" }, { "item": "Elite package", "unit": "month", "usd": 500, "note": "2.4 million calls, MCP access" }, { "item": "Overage on Starter", "unit": "1k-requests", "usd": 0.25 }, { "item": "Overage on Standard", "unit": "1k-requests", "usd": 0.12 }, { "item": "Call on Starter, at the plan cap", "unit": "1k-requests", "usd": 0.13, "note": "$2 over 15,000 calls" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "AccuWeather Intl., LLC (API terms), AccuWeather, Inc. (privacy)", "domain": "accuweather.com", "domainRegistered": "1995-10-27", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://developer.accuweather.com/documentation/terms-of-use", "privacy": "https://www.accuweather.com/en/privacy", "statusPage": "https://status.accuweather.com/", "changelog": "", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-01", "notes": [ "The API terms (updated 2026-04-28) name AccuWeather Intl., LLC under Pennsylvania law. The privacy policy (updated 2025-10-31) names AccuWeather, Inc., 385 Science Park Road, State College, PA 16803, as controller.", "security.txt returns 404 on both developer.accuweather.com and www.accuweather.com.", "status.accuweather.com lists Enterprise API and Developer Portal API components.", "The portal has no release notes or changelog, and the terms reserve the right to change the APIs without notice.", "The old developer portal's free tier was retired at the relaunch, and existing trial accounts had to sign up again." ], "score": 80 }, "dataQuality": { "coverage": "Global, by AccuWeather location key", "coverageRating": 4, "freshness": "Not stated as a cadence. Responses carry an Expires header the docs say to refresh on", "freshnessClass": "hourly", "history": "Past 24 hours of conditions", "historyYears": 0.003, "methodology": "", "sourcesDisclosed": false, "licence": "Proprietary. Two-week cache, no redistribution, no AI training, logo attribution", "licenceClass": "clear", "standing": "", "standingClass": "none", "reuse": "The terms allow caching for up to two weeks to improve the user experience and forbid storing the data for any other purpose, reselling or redistributing it, or using it to train, validate or inform an AI or ML model.", "score": 39, "checks": null }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/accuweather-api.json", "live": { "slug": "accuweather-api", "probe": { "target": "https://dataservice.accuweather.com", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-10-05T00:15:18.722505071Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 404, "lastMs": 35, "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 37, "p95ms24h": 89, "samples24h": 272, "samples30d": 903, "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-01", "probes": 109, "ok": 109 }, { "date": "2026-10-02", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-03", "probes": 271, "ok": 271 }, { "date": "2026-10-04", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-05", "probes": 3, "ok": 3 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.accuweather.com", "indicator": "none", "summary": "All Systems Operational", "checkedAt": "2026-10-05T00:11:10.879968569Z" }, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://accuweather.com/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "unknown", "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:15:37.910930882Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://developer.accuweather.com/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:17:12.683997664Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "accuweather.com", "registered": "1995-10-27", "source": "https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/accuweather.com", "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T13:10:45.927087024Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://www.accuweather.com/en/privacy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 403, "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:48:56.483628112Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z" }, { "url": "https://developer.accuweather.com/documentation/terms-of-use", "kind": "terms", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:42:27.752900841Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "d23f608f9840" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-05T00:15:18.722505071Z" } }, "b": { "slug": "visual-crossing", "name": "Visual Crossing Weather API", "vendor": "Visual Crossing", "vendorUrl": "https://www.visualcrossing.com", "kind": "http-api", "category": "weather", "summary": "Weather API for historical conditions, forecasts and climate data by location and date range.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/visual-crossing", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/visual-crossing.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/visual-crossing.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/visual-crossing.json", "repo": "https://github.com/visualcrossing/WeatherApi", "transports": [ "http", "streamable-http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://weather.visualcrossing.com/VisualCrossingWebServices/rest/services/timeline", "packages": [], "auth": "api-key", "authNotes": "The Timeline API takes the key as the key query parameter. The MCP server takes it in an X-VC-API-Key header, or OAuth (user or machine-to-machine) once Visual Crossing has provisioned it for the account.", "pricing": "freemium", "pricingNotes": "Billed in records. A day of daily data is one record, a day of hourly data is 24, and a full 15-day forecast for one location is one record. Free at 1,000 records a day (30,000 a month), no card, one concurrent request, attribution required. Metered at $0.0001 a record above the free 1,000 a day, unlimited records, up to 25,000 records a query. Professional (10 million records a month) shows no price, and Corporate and Enterprise are contact sales. A February 2023 post put Professional and Corporate at $35 and $150 a month. The plan table lists 99.5 per cent uptime on Free and 99.9 on paid plans (https://www.visualcrossing.com/weather-data-pricing/ and https://www.visualcrossing.com/resources/blog/what-will-my-weather-data-cost/).", "priceSummary": "$0.10 / 1k req", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": 1, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-09-30" }, "docsUrl": "https://www.visualcrossing.com/resources/documentation/weather-api/timeline-weather-api/", "llmsTxt": "https://www.visualcrossing.com/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://www.visualcrossing.com/weather/specs/visualcrossing-weather-api-openapi.json", "capabilities": [ "weather.current", "weather.forecast", "weather.historical", "weather.alerts", "data.weather" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "freemium", "free-tier", "no-card", "mcp", "closed-source", "usage-priced" ], "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 60.3, "grade": "C", "agentReady": false, "rank": 251, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 452, "categoryRank": 4, "methodology": "0.3", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 78, "maintenance": 58, "payments": 40, "reliability": 66, "schema": 74, "security": 40, "transparency": 61 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-01" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "History from 1970, current conditions and a 15-day forecast from one endpoint. Key only in the query string on the REST API.", "strengths": [ "History from 1970, current conditions and a 15-day forecast from one endpoint", "$0.0001 a record with 1,000 free a day and no card", "Official MCP server with one tool, key in a header or OAuth", "llms.txt, an OpenAPI spec and a quarterly changelog, most recently 4 September 2026", "Status page and published uptime targets of 99.5 per cent free and 99.9 paid" ], "weaknesses": [ "Key only in the query string on the REST API", "OpenAPI spec defines no enums and no error responses", "Privacy policy states no retention periods or subprocessors", "Storing results needs the right licence level, and the terms carry a non-compete", "No security.txt, disclosure policy or MCP registry entry" ], "agentNotes": [ "Always pass include= and elements=. A bare call returns days, hours and current for every element and burns records", "Count records before a backfill. Hourly data is 24 records a day, so a year for one place is 8,760", "Pass unitGroup=metric. The default is US units", "Use the MCP server with X-VC-API-Key rather than pasting the key into a URL", "Keep to one request at a time on Free and Professional. A second concurrent job returns 429" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 4, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "C", "methodology": "0.3", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 60.3 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 78, "maintenance": 58, "payments": 40, "reliability": 66, "schema": 74, "security": 40, "transparency": 31 }, "provenanceScore": 90, "dataQualityScore": 77 }, "connect": { "http": "curl \"https://weather.visualcrossing.com/VisualCrossingWebServices/rest/services/timeline/51.51,-0.13/2026-09-01/2026-09-07?unitGroup=metric\u0026include=days\u0026elements=datetime,tempmax,tempmin,precip\u0026contentType=json\u0026key=$VISUALCROSSING_API_KEY\"", "claudeCode": "claude mcp add --transport http visualcrossing https://mcp.visualcrossing.com/VisualCrossingWebServices/rest/api/v1/mcp --header \"X-VC-API-Key: $VISUALCROSSING_API_KEY\"", "config": { "mcpServers": { "visualcrossing": { "headers": { "X-VC-API-Key": "${VISUALCROSSING_API_KEY}" }, "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp.visualcrossing.com/VisualCrossingWebServices/rest/api/v1/mcp" } } } }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/weather.current", "tool": "https://letme.dev/visual-crossing" }, "area": "domain-data", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "Metered record", "unit": "record", "usd": 0.0001, "note": "First 1,000 records a day free" }, { "item": "Metered, 15-day forecast calls", "unit": "1k-requests", "usd": 0.1, "note": "One record a forecast call, $0.0001 each" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Visual Crossing Corporation", "domain": "visualcrossing.com", "domainRegistered": "2005-10-11", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://www.visualcrossing.com/weather-services-terms/", "privacy": "https://www.visualcrossing.com/privacy/", "statusPage": "https://status.visualcrossing.com/", "changelog": "https://www.visualcrossing.com/resources/documentation/weather-api/weather-api-changelog/", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-01", "notes": [ "The terms (last updated January 2023) name Visual Crossing Corporation under Virginia law but give no address.", "The privacy policy is at /privacy/ (updated 23 May 2025). The /privacy-policy/ path returns 404.", "The status page at status.visualcrossing.com runs on UptimeRobot.", "/.well-known/security.txt returns 404 per the 30 September check.", "The GitHub repository holds sample code in several languages, not an SDK." ], "score": 90 }, "dataQuality": { "coverage": "Global, any address or coordinate, up to 100 locations a query on Professional", "coverageRating": 4, "freshness": "Stations update every 15 to 30 minutes or hourly per the product page. Forecast refresh cadence not stated", "freshnessClass": "hourly", "history": "From 1970-01-01, hourly and daily, plus archived forecasts through the Historical Weather Forecast API added in Q2 2026", "historyYears": 56, "methodology": "https://www.visualcrossing.com/resources/documentation/weather-api/timeline-weather-api/", "sourcesDisclosed": true, "licence": "Proprietary. Storage by licence level, no resale, non-compete", "licenceClass": "clear", "standing": "", "standingClass": "none", "reuse": "Results may be stored in a database only where the licence level permits it, except for personal use. Resale and redistribution are barred, using the data to replicate a Visual Crossing service is barred, and Enterprise is the plan that adds external data-sharing rights.", "score": 77, "checks": null }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/visual-crossing.json", "live": { "slug": "visual-crossing", "probe": { "target": "https://weather.visualcrossing.com/VisualCrossingWebServices/rest/services/timeline", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-10-05T00:15:32.264178893Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 401, "lastMs": 251, "lastNote": "asks for credentials", "authRequired": true, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 256, "p95ms24h": 295, "samples24h": 272, "samples30d": 903, "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-01", "probes": 109, "ok": 109 }, { "date": "2026-10-02", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-03", "probes": 271, "ok": 271 }, { "date": "2026-10-04", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-05", "probes": 3, "ok": 3 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.visualcrossing.com", "indicator": "unknown", "summary": "no machine-readable status found", "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T21:40:33.384039028Z" }, "githubStars": 55, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://visualcrossing.com/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:15:36.837103071Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://www.visualcrossing.com/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:18:21.271479326Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "visualcrossing.com", "registered": "2005-10-11", "source": "https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/visualcrossing.com", "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T13:06:40.738574234Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://www.visualcrossing.com/resources/documentation/weather-api/weather-api-changelog/", "kind": "changelog", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:52:47.418150983Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "77ecfd35a643" }, { "url": "https://www.visualcrossing.com/weather-data-pricing/", "kind": "pricing", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:52:49.331082427Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "cb8af14c5632" }, { "url": "https://www.visualcrossing.com/privacy/", "kind": "privacy", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:52:45.228070626Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "0ccd098bba16" }, { "url": "https://www.visualcrossing.com/weather-services-terms/", "kind": "terms", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:52:51.357308005Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "5225b6169954" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-05T00:15:32.264178893Z" } }, "summary": "Visual Crossing Weather API has a score of 60.3 (C) against AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP's 48.8 (D). Both do weather current. The largest gap is maintenance \u0026 community, 45 points." }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/accuweather-api-vs-visual-crossing", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/accuweather-api-vs-visual-crossing.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/accuweather-api-vs-visual-crossing.md", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/accuweather-api-vs-visual-crossing.min.md" }, "markdown": "Visual Crossing Weather API has a score of 60.3 (C) against AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP's 48.8 (D). Both do weather current. The largest gap is maintenance \u0026 community, 45 points.\n\n- AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP: grade D, 48.8/100, rank #372 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/accuweather-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/accuweather-api.json\n- Visual Crossing Weather API: grade C, 60.3/100, rank #251 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/visual-crossing.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/visual-crossing.json\n\n## Which one, for what\n\nPick AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).\n\nPick Visual Crossing Weather API for schema \u0026 documentation (+14), agent ergonomics (+18), payments \u0026 pricing (+15), maintenance \u0026 community (+45).\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP | Visual Crossing Weather API | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 66 | Visual Crossing Weather API +1 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 60 | 74 | Visual Crossing Weather API +14 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 60 | 78 | Visual Crossing Weather API +18 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 39 | 40 | Visual Crossing Weather API +1 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 40 | Visual Crossing Weather API +15 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 13 | 58 | Visual Crossing Weather API +45 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 61 | Visual Crossing Weather API +1 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **48.8 · D** | **60.3 · C** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP | Visual Crossing Weather API |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |\n| Vendor | AccuWeather | Visual Crossing |\n| Hosted endpoint | `https://dataservice.accuweather.com` | `https://weather.visualcrossing.com/VisualCrossingWebServices/rest/services/timeline` |\n| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |\n| Auth | API key | API key |\n| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | none | none |\n| Tools exposed | 26 | 1 |\n| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |\n| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |\n| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |\n| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |\n| llms.txt | yes | yes |\n| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |\n| Last release | none | none |\n| Popularity | none | none |\n| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | 4/5 (2) |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP.** Official hosted MCP server, 26 read-only tools, same key as the REST API. Terms forbid using the data to train, validate or otherwise inform any AI system.\n\n**Visual Crossing Weather API.** History from 1970, current conditions and a 15-day forecast from one endpoint. Key only in the query string on the REST API.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP\n\n1. Cache location keys. They don't change, and the lookup is the call worth saving\n2. Use the geoposition search first when you hold coordinates, then the forecast tools with the key it returns\n3. Send the key as a Bearer header, not in the MCP URL, so it stays out of logs\n4. Send Accept-Encoding: gzip and refresh on the Expires header rather than a fixed timer\n5. Show the AccuWeather name and logo next to the data, and keep nothing older than two weeks\n\n### Visual Crossing Weather API\n\n1. Always pass include= and elements=. A bare call returns days, hours and current for every element and burns records\n2. Count records before a backfill. Hourly data is 24 records a day, so a year for one place is 8,760\n3. Pass unitGroup=metric. The default is US units\n4. Use the MCP server with X-VC-API-Key rather than pasting the key into a URL\n5. Keep to one request at a time on Free and Professional. A second concurrent job returns 429\n\n## Other comparisons with AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP or Visual Crossing Weather API\n\n- [AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP vs Google Weather API (Maps Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/accuweather-api-vs-google-weather-api.md)\n- [AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP vs Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/accuweather-api-vs-met-office-datahub.md)\n- [AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP vs NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/accuweather-api-vs-nws-api.md)\n- [AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP vs OpenWeather One Call API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/accuweather-api-vs-openweather-one-call.md)\n- [AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP vs Pirate Weather](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/accuweather-api-vs-pirate-weather.md)\n- [AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP vs WeatherAPI.com](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/accuweather-api-vs-weatherapi-com.md)\n- [Google Weather API (Maps Platform) vs Visual Crossing Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-visual-crossing.md)\n- [Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) vs Visual Crossing Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/met-office-datahub-vs-visual-crossing.md)\n- [NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) vs Visual Crossing Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nws-api-vs-visual-crossing.md)\n- [OpenWeather One Call API vs Visual Crossing Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openweather-one-call-vs-visual-crossing.md)\n- [Pirate Weather vs Visual Crossing Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pirate-weather-vs-visual-crossing.md)\n- [Visual Crossing Weather API vs WeatherAPI.com](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/visual-crossing-vs-weatherapi-com.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-10-05", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.3", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ { "name": "Home", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/" }, { "name": "Compare", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/" }, { "name": "AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP vs Visual Crossing Weather API", "url": "" } ], "description": "Visual Crossing Weather API has a score of 60.3 (C) against AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP's 48.8 (D). Both do weather current. The largest gap is maintenance \u0026 community, 45 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP D 48.8", "Visual Crossing Weather API C 60.3", "scores" ], "h1": "AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP vs Visual Crossing Weather API", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-accuweather-api-vs-visual-crossing.png", "path": "/compare/accuweather-api-vs-visual-crossing", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP vs Visual Crossing Weather API", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-05", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/accuweather-api-vs-visual-crossing" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 1700, "slim": 380 }, "version": 1 }