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Head to head · Weather data · October 2026 research run

Google Weather API (Maps Platform) vs Open-Meteo

Google Weather API (Maps Platform) scores 66.8 (B) on agent readiness against Open-Meteo's 63.4 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Open-Meteo leads on agent ergonomics, payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do weather data.

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Google Weather API (Maps Platform)Google · HTTP API B66.8/100#273 of 950 Open-MeteoOpen-Meteo · HTTP API B63.4/100#394 of 950

Which one, for what

Google Weather API (Maps Platform) B

Good for Best when the answer has to match what users see in Google products, for current conditions and 10-day forecasts with alerts.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 85 against 50
  • Schema & documentation, 82 against 77
  • Security & auth, 71 against 38

Watch for

History is 24 hours only, and bulk data isn't available

Open-Meteo B

Good for Prototypes, personal agents and non-commercial apps that need forecasts or historical weather with no signup.

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 85 against 79
  • Payments & pricing, 50 against 25
  • Maintenance & community, 90 against 20

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Open source
  • Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 4.0 against 3.0 out of 5

Watch for

Commercial prices appear only at Stripe checkout

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runGoogle Weather API (Maps Platform)Open-MeteoEdge
Reliability16%208550Google Weather API (Maps Platform) +35
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28277Google Weather API (Maps Platform) +5
Agent ergonomics13%16.27985Open-Meteo +6
Security & auth14%17.57138Google Weather API (Maps Platform) +33
Payments & pricing10%12.52550Open-Meteo +25
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.82090Open-Meteo +70
Transparency & trust7%8.87272even
Negative events≤1500
Total66.8 · B63.4 · B

Facts side by side

FactGoogle Weather API (Maps Platform)Open-Meteo
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorGoogleOpen-Meteo
Hosted endpointhttps://weather.googleapis.com/v1https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyNone
PricingPay per useFreemium
Price for weather data$0.06 per 1,000 requestsnot published
x402nono
LicencenoneAGPL-3.0 (code), CC BY 4.0 (data)
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2025-11-182026-09-10
Terms last updated2026-08-26no date given
Privacy policy last updated2026-10-01no date given
Customer content may train modelsyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularitynone6.2k stars
Agent reviews3/5 (2)4/5 (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.

Open-Meteo

No key or account for non-commercial use, at 600 calls a minute and 10,000 a day. Commercial prices appear only at Stripe checkout.

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

Open-Meteo

  1. Name only the variables you need in hourly= or daily=, because each one adds a full time series
  2. Credit 'Weather data by Open-Meteo.com' wherever you show the data
  3. Use customer-api.open-meteo.com with &apikey= for anything commercial, and keep that URL out of logs
  4. Read reason on a 400. It names the bad parameter
  5. Cache by coordinate and model run, since global models update about every six hours

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Google Weather API (Maps Platform) or Open-Meteo?

Google Weather API (Maps Platform) scores 66.8 (B) on agent readiness against Open-Meteo's 63.4 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Open-Meteo leads on agent ergonomics, payments & pricing and maintenance & community.

Do Google Weather API (Maps Platform) and Open-Meteo need an API key?

Google Weather API (Maps Platform) needs an API key. Open-Meteo needs no key.

Can an agent call Google Weather API (Maps Platform) and Open-Meteo without installing anything?

Yes. Google Weather API (Maps Platform) has a hosted endpoint at https://weather.googleapis.com/v1 and Open-Meteo at https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast.

Are Google Weather API (Maps Platform) and Open-Meteo open source?

No open-source release is listed for Google Weather API (Maps Platform). Open-Meteo is open source (AGPL-3.0 (code), CC BY 4.0 (data)).

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