# Google Weather API (Maps Platform) vs NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)

> Google Weather API (Maps Platform) has a score of 67 (B) against NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)'s 49.9 (D). Both do weather current. The largest gap is reliability, 60 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-nws-api
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-nws-api.md (~1,700 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-nws-api.min.md (~430 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-nws-api.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-05

Google Weather API (Maps Platform) has a score of 67 (B) against NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)'s 49.9 (D). Both do weather current. The largest gap is reliability, 60 points.

- Google Weather API (Maps Platform): grade B, 67/100, rank #151 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-weather-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-weather-api.json
- NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov): grade D, 49.9/100, rank #364 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nws-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/nws-api.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Google Weather API (Maps Platform) for reliability (+60), schema & documentation (+15), agent ergonomics (+13), security & auth (+18), maintenance & community (+12), transparency & trust (+8).

Pick NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) for payments & pricing (+35).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) | NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 85 | 25 | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) +60 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 67 | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) +15 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 66 | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 71 | 53 | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) +18 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 60 | NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 20 | 8 | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) +12 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 67 | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **67 · B** | **49.9 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) | NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Google | National Weather Service |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://weather.googleapis.com/v1` | `https://api.weather.gov` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Public domain (data) |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2025-11-18 | 2026-03-19 |
| Popularity | none | 310 stars |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 4.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Google Weather API (Maps Platform).** Covered by the Maps Platform SLA, 99.9 per cent with service credits. History is 24 hours only, and bulk data isn't available.

**NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov).** Free, no key and no account, with public domain data. US and territories only.

## Before you call either

### Google Weather API (Maps Platform)

1. Ask for only the days or hours you need, one location a call. Every call is one billable event
2. Page with pageSize and pageToken rather than asking for 240 hours at once
3. Check the coverage page before promising alerts. Coverage is by country
4. Refetch rather than cache. The Maps terms give no caching window for weather content
5. Restrict the key to the Weather API and your server IPs in the Cloud console

### NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)

1. Set User-Agent to your app name and a contact email or the request is refused with 403
2. Cache the /points response per coordinate. The office and grid rarely change
3. Round coordinates to four decimal places. More precision returns an error
4. Don't add cache-busting query parameters. Unknown parameters return 400
5. Back off about five seconds after a throttled request and reuse the last good response

## Other comparisons with Google Weather API (Maps Platform) or NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)

- [AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP vs Google Weather API (Maps Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/accuweather-api-vs-google-weather-api.md)
- [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)
- [Google Weather API (Maps Platform) vs Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-met-office-datahub.md)
- [Google Weather API (Maps Platform) vs OpenWeather One Call API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-openweather-one-call.md)
- [Google Weather API (Maps Platform) vs Pirate Weather](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-pirate-weather.md)
- [Google Weather API (Maps Platform) vs Visual Crossing Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-visual-crossing.md)
- [Google Weather API (Maps Platform) vs WeatherAPI.com](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-weatherapi-com.md)
- [Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) vs NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/met-office-datahub-vs-nws-api.md)
- [NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) vs OpenWeather One Call API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nws-api-vs-openweather-one-call.md)
- [NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) vs Pirate Weather](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nws-api-vs-pirate-weather.md)
- [NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) vs Visual Crossing Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nws-api-vs-visual-crossing.md)
- [NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) vs WeatherAPI.com](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nws-api-vs-weatherapi-com.md)