AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP vs Xweather Weather API

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.

Xweather Weather API

A public OpenAPI file with 236 operations, a hosted MCP server in the official registry and a free tier of 15,000 accesses a month suit agents. REST credentials travel only in the query string, per-minute limits are unpublished, and the group terms bar commercial use of free plans and passing data to third parties unless a service description allows it.

AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP

1. Cache location keys. They don't change, and the lookup is the call worth saving
2. Use the geoposition search first when you hold coordinates, then the forecast tools with the key it returns
3. Send the key as a Bearer header, not in the MCP URL, so it stays out of logs
4. Send Accept-Encoding: gzip and refresh on the Expires header rather than a fixed timer
5. Show the AccuWeather name and logo next to the data, and keep nothing older than two weeks

Xweather Weather API

1. Check success and error.code on every response. Application errors such as invalid_location return HTTP 200 with success false
2. Send fields, limit and plimit. The docs put a 15-day hourly forecast at about 600 KB, and about 25 KB with three fields
3. Read X-Cost-Tokens after each call. Cost is the endpoint multiplier times the intervals requested, so narrow from and to
4. For MCP, send Authorization: Bearer <client_id>_<client_secret> and avoid the api_key query parameter, which puts the secret in the URL
5. Add include_tags or include_tools to the MCP URL to load only the tool groups the task needs
6. On 429 read Retry-After and the X-RateLimit-Reset-* headers. maxhits_min clears at the next minute, maxhits at the period reset