{
  "data": {
    "a": {
      "slug": "google-weather-api",
      "name": "Google Weather API (Maps Platform)",
      "vendor": "Google",
      "vendorUrl": "https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/weather",
      "kind": "http-api",
      "category": "weather",
      "summary": "Google Maps Platform's API for weather data.",
      "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-weather-api",
      "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-weather-api.md",
      "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-weather-api.min.md",
      "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-weather-api.json",
      "transports": [
        "http"
      ],
      "remoteUrl": "https://weather.googleapis.com/v1",
      "packages": [],
      "auth": "api-key",
      "authNotes": "A Maps Platform API key from a Cloud project with billing enabled, passed as the key query parameter in the documented examples. A Maps Demo Key lets you prototype with no billing account but isn't for production. OAuth 2.0 is the Maps Platform alternative.",
      "pricing": "usage",
      "pricingNotes": "One SKU, Weather Usage, in the Essentials tier. 10,000 events a month free, then $0.15 per 1,000 to 100,000, $0.12 to 500,000, $0.09 to 1 million, $0.06 to 5 million and $0.038 above that (https://developers.google.com/maps/billing-and-pricing/pricing). A billing account has to be attached to the project before the key works outside the demo key.",
      "priceSummary": "$0.15 / 1k req",
      "where": "hosted",
      "x402": {
        "level": "no",
        "endpoints": []
      },
      "toolCount": null,
      "popularity": {
        "githubStars": null,
        "npmWeekly": null,
        "pypiWeekly": null,
        "asOf": "2026-09-30"
      },
      "docsUrl": "https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/weather/overview",
      "openapi": "https://weather.googleapis.com/$discovery/rest?version=v1",
      "capabilities": [
        "weather.current",
        "weather.forecast",
        "weather.historical",
        "weather.alerts",
        "data.weather"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "hosted",
        "closed-source",
        "card-required",
        "usage-priced",
        "enterprise",
        "oauth"
      ],
      "lastRelease": "2025-11-18",
      "graded": true,
      "anchor": {
        "graded": true,
        "score": 67,
        "grade": "B",
        "agentReady": false,
        "rank": 151,
        "ranked": true,
        "rankOf": 452,
        "categoryRank": 1,
        "methodology": "0.3",
        "run": "2026-10-01",
        "scores": {
          "ergonomics": 79,
          "maintenance": 20,
          "payments": 25,
          "reliability": 85,
          "schema": 82,
          "security": 71,
          "transparency": 75
        },
        "pending": [
          "performance",
          "tasks"
        ],
        "assessment": {
          "confidence": "high",
          "date": "2026-10-01"
        },
        "negative": 0,
        "verdict": "Covered by the Maps Platform SLA, 99.9 per cent with service credits. History is 24 hours only, and bulk data isn't available.",
        "strengths": [
          "Covered by the Maps Platform SLA, 99.9 per cent with service credits",
          "No Weather API incidents on the status dashboard in the last 90 days",
          "Discovery document with enums and descriptions on every parameter",
          "ISO 27001, SOC 2 and 12 months' notice for breaking changes in the terms",
          "Weather lookup also available through Google's registered Grounding Lite MCP server"
        ],
        "weaknesses": [
          "History is 24 hours only, and bulk data isn't available",
          "Storing data outside the service and training or testing models on it are barred",
          "A Cloud project with billing is needed before production use",
          "No release note since 18 November 2025, and no llms.txt",
          "Minute forecast is Experimental and outside the deprecation promise"
        ],
        "agentNotes": [
          "Ask for only the days or hours you need, one location a call. Every call is one billable event",
          "Page with pageSize and pageToken rather than asking for 240 hours at once",
          "Check the coverage page before promising alerts. Coverage is by country",
          "Refetch rather than cache. The Maps terms give no caching window for weather content",
          "Restrict the key to the Weather API and your server IPs in the Cloud console"
        ],
        "metrics": {
          "kind": "remote",
          "measured": false
        },
        "reviewCount": 2,
        "avgRating": 3,
        "history": [
          {
            "basis": "public evidence",
            "confidence": "high",
            "grade": "B",
            "methodology": "0.3",
            "pending": [
              "performance",
              "tasks"
            ],
            "run": "2026-10-01",
            "runLabel": "October 2026 research run",
            "score": 67
          }
        ],
        "editorialScores": {
          "ergonomics": 79,
          "maintenance": 20,
          "payments": 25,
          "reliability": 85,
          "schema": 82,
          "security": 71,
          "transparency": 65
        },
        "provenanceScore": 85,
        "dataQualityScore": 67
      },
      "connect": {
        "http": "curl \"https://weather.googleapis.com/v1/currentConditions:lookup?key=$GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY\u0026location.latitude=51.51\u0026location.longitude=-0.13\""
      },
      "letme": {
        "capability": "https://letme.dev/weather.current",
        "tool": "https://letme.dev/google-weather-api"
      },
      "sameCompany": [
        "gemini-api",
        "gemini-embedding",
        "vertex-ai-tuning",
        "google-model-armor",
        "google-imagen",
        "google-veo",
        "google-lyria",
        "google-speech-to-text",
        "google-adk",
        "google-secret-manager",
        "chrome-devtools-mcp",
        "google-maps-platform",
        "google-cloud-translation",
        "google-calendar-api",
        "google-drive-api",
        "gemini-cli"
      ],
      "area": "domain-data",
      "unitPrices": [
        {
          "item": "Weather Usage, first 100,000",
          "unit": "1k-requests",
          "usd": 0.15,
          "note": "10,000 free a month"
        },
        {
          "item": "Weather Usage, 100,001 to 500,000",
          "unit": "1k-requests",
          "usd": 0.12
        },
        {
          "item": "Weather Usage, 1 million to 5 million",
          "unit": "1k-requests",
          "usd": 0.06,
          "note": "$0.038 above 5 million"
        }
      ],
      "provenance": {
        "legalEntity": "Google LLC or a regional Google entity, by billing country",
        "domain": "google.com",
        "domainRegistered": "1997-09-15",
        "domainNote": "The API sits on weather.googleapis.com, Google's API domain, and the docs on developers.google.com.",
        "endpointOnVendorDomain": false,
        "terms": "https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/terms",
        "privacy": "https://policies.google.com/privacy",
        "statusPage": "https://status.cloud.google.com/maps-platform/",
        "changelog": "https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/weather/release-notes",
        "securityTxt": "valid",
        "checked": "2026-09-30",
        "notes": [
          "The Maps Platform terms name the contracting entity through Google's entity table, with separate EEA service terms for EEA billing addresses.",
          "google.com/.well-known/security.txt lists security@google.com and expires 2030-04-01.",
          "The weather policies page lists attribution rules for weather content but defers caching to the Maps Platform terms, which don't give a weather-specific window."
        ],
        "score": 85
      },
      "dataQuality": {
        "coverage": "Near-global. No data for CN, CU, IR, KP and SY. Public alerts in dozens of countries listed on the coverage page",
        "coverageRating": 4,
        "freshness": "Current conditions every 15 minutes, hourly and daily forecasts every 30 minutes, history twice a day",
        "freshnessClass": "minutes",
        "history": "Hourly, last 24 hours",
        "historyYears": 0.003,
        "methodology": "https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/weather/faq",
        "sourcesDisclosed": true,
        "licence": "Google Maps Platform terms. No storage outside the service, no model training, attribution required",
        "licenceClass": "clear",
        "standing": "",
        "standingClass": "none",
        "reuse": "The Maps Platform terms bar pre-fetching, indexing, storing or bulk-downloading content outside the services and using it to train, test, validate or fine-tune AI models. Display it with Google attribution and refetch it.",
        "score": 67,
        "checks": null
      },
      "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-weather-api.json",
      "live": {
        "slug": "google-weather-api",
        "probe": {
          "target": "https://weather.googleapis.com/v1",
          "method": "get",
          "lastAt": "2026-10-04T23:48:09.067176731Z",
          "lastOk": true,
          "lastStatus": 404,
          "lastMs": 631,
          "authRequired": false,
          "uptime24h": 100,
          "uptime30d": 100,
          "p50ms24h": 601,
          "p95ms24h": 645,
          "samples24h": 272,
          "samples30d": 898,
          "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": 270,
              "ok": 270
            }
          ]
        },
        "vendorStatus": {
          "page": "https://status.cloud.google.com/maps-platform",
          "indicator": "unknown",
          "summary": "no machine-readable status found",
          "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T21:40:05.96682468Z"
        },
        "securityTxt": {
          "url": "https://google.com/.well-known/security.txt",
          "state": "valid",
          "expires": "2030-04-01T00:00:00z",
          "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:15:53.387118101Z"
        },
        "domain": {
          "domain": "google.com",
          "registered": "1997-09-15",
          "source": "https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/google.com",
          "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T13:05:50.737985829Z"
        },
        "pages": [
          {
            "url": "https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/weather/release-notes",
            "kind": "changelog",
            "status": 200,
            "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:42:55.639250528Z",
            "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
            "fingerprint": "c2b2bf1b1e23"
          }
        ],
        "updatedAt": "2026-10-04T23:48:09.067176731Z"
      }
    },
    "b": {
      "slug": "pirate-weather",
      "name": "Pirate Weather",
      "vendor": "Pirate Weather",
      "vendorUrl": "https://pirateweather.net",
      "kind": "http-api",
      "category": "weather",
      "summary": "Open-source weather API with Dark Sky-compatible responses, forecasts, alerts and historical data from public weather models.",
      "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pirate-weather",
      "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pirate-weather.md",
      "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pirate-weather.min.md",
      "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pirate-weather.json",
      "repo": "https://github.com/Pirate-Weather/pirateweather",
      "license": "Apache-2.0 (docs and spec), AGPL-3.0 (API code)",
      "transports": [
        "http",
        "streamable-http"
      ],
      "remoteUrl": "https://api.pirateweather.net/forecast",
      "packages": [],
      "auth": "api-key",
      "authNotes": "The key is a path segment, /forecast/{key}/{lat},{lon}, or an apikey request header with any placeholder in the path. The MCP server takes the same key as the apikey query parameter on its URL. Keys are issued through an Apiable portal at pirate-weather.apiable.io and can take up to 20 minutes to go live.",
      "pricing": "freemium",
      "pricingNotes": "Free at 10,000 calls a month. A $2 a month plan raises that to 20,000, and GitHub Sponsors takes one-off donations. Higher plans are sold through pirate-weather.apiable.io, which renders only with JavaScript, so we couldn't read them (https://pirateweather.net/en/latest/).",
      "priceSummary": "$2 / mo",
      "where": "hosted",
      "x402": {
        "level": "no",
        "endpoints": []
      },
      "toolCount": null,
      "popularity": {
        "githubStars": 907,
        "npmWeekly": null,
        "pypiWeekly": null,
        "asOf": "2026-09-30"
      },
      "docsUrl": "https://pirateweather.net/en/latest/API/",
      "openapi": "https://github.com/Pirate-Weather/pirateweather/blob/main/PW_OpenAPI.yaml",
      "capabilities": [
        "weather.current",
        "weather.forecast",
        "weather.historical",
        "weather.alerts",
        "data.weather"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "hosted",
        "open-source",
        "freemium",
        "free-tier",
        "no-card",
        "mcp",
        "openapi",
        "status-page"
      ],
      "lastRelease": "2026-09-23",
      "graded": true,
      "anchor": {
        "graded": true,
        "score": 66.2,
        "grade": "B",
        "agentReady": false,
        "rank": 162,
        "ranked": true,
        "rankOf": 452,
        "categoryRank": 2,
        "methodology": "0.3",
        "run": "2026-10-01",
        "scores": {
          "ergonomics": 77,
          "maintenance": 80,
          "payments": 30,
          "reliability": 75,
          "schema": 85,
          "security": 45,
          "transparency": 71
        },
        "pending": [
          "performance",
          "tasks"
        ],
        "assessment": {
          "confidence": "medium",
          "date": "2026-10-01"
        },
        "negative": 0,
        "verdict": "Named model sources and a documented priority order for every field. No SLA, and the terms call it best effort.",
        "strengths": [
          "Named model sources and a documented priority order for every field",
          "OpenAPI 3.1 spec at version 2.10.2 and a dated changelog with a pull request per change",
          "Four releases between 9 July and 23 September 2026",
          "ERA5 history to January 1940 and URMA for the last 10 days in North America",
          "Response-sizing parameters that cut a forecast to the blocks and rows asked for"
        ],
        "weaknesses": [
          "No SLA, and the terms call it best effort",
          "Key in the URL path by default, and only in the query string for the MCP server",
          "Plans above $2 a month sit behind a JavaScript-only portal, and signup needs a person",
          "No security.txt, SECURITY.md or MCP registry entry",
          "The privacy notice and terms are generator templates from 2024 and say nothing on data reuse"
        ],
        "agentNotes": [
          "Send the key in an apikey header and put a placeholder in the path so it stays out of logs",
          "Pass blocks= and hourly_indices= or daily_indices= to get only the rows you need. The default payload is large",
          "Ask for version=2 to get fields Dark Sky never had, such as smoke, fire index and the source list",
          "Point historical requests at timemachine.pirateweather.net with a UNIX timestamp after the coordinate",
          "Watch Ratelimit-Remaining. The cap is monthly, so a runaway loop can spend it in a day"
        ],
        "metrics": {
          "kind": "remote",
          "measured": false
        },
        "reviewCount": 2,
        "avgRating": 4,
        "history": [
          {
            "basis": "public evidence",
            "confidence": "medium",
            "grade": "B",
            "methodology": "0.3",
            "pending": [
              "performance",
              "tasks"
            ],
            "run": "2026-10-01",
            "runLabel": "October 2026 research run",
            "score": 66.2
          }
        ],
        "editorialScores": {
          "ergonomics": 77,
          "maintenance": 80,
          "payments": 30,
          "reliability": 75,
          "schema": 85,
          "security": 45,
          "transparency": 55
        },
        "provenanceScore": 86,
        "dataQualityScore": 72
      },
      "connect": {
        "http": "curl -H \"apikey: $PIRATE_WEATHER_API_KEY\" \"https://api.pirateweather.net/forecast/key/51.51,-0.13?units=si\u0026exclude=minutely\u0026version=2\"",
        "claudeCode": "claude mcp add --transport http pirate-weather \"https://mcp.pirateweather.net/mcp?apikey=$PIRATE_WEATHER_API_KEY\"",
        "config": {
          "mcpServers": {
            "pirate-weather": {
              "type": "http",
              "url": "https://mcp.pirateweather.net/mcp?apikey=${PIRATE_WEATHER_API_KEY}"
            }
          }
        }
      },
      "letme": {
        "capability": "https://letme.dev/weather.current",
        "tool": "https://letme.dev/pirate-weather"
      },
      "area": "domain-data",
      "unitPrices": [
        {
          "item": "Supporter plan",
          "unit": "month",
          "usd": 2,
          "note": "20,000 calls a month"
        },
        {
          "item": "Call on the Supporter plan, at the cap",
          "unit": "1k-requests",
          "usd": 0.1,
          "note": "$2 over 20,000 calls"
        }
      ],
      "provenance": {
        "legalEntity": "PirateWeatherAPI (Ontario, Canada)",
        "domain": "pirateweather.net",
        "domainRegistered": "2021-03-01",
        "endpointOnVendorDomain": true,
        "terms": "https://pirateweather.net/en/latest/Apiable/ApiableTerms/",
        "privacy": "https://pirateweather.net/en/latest/Apiable/ApiablePrivacy/",
        "statusPage": "https://pirateweather.xitoring.io/",
        "changelog": "https://pirateweather.net/en/latest/changelog/",
        "securityTxt": "none",
        "checked": "2026-09-30",
        "notes": [
          "The terms (last updated 2024-09-23) are generator-made, name the company only as PirateWeatherAPI in Ontario, Canada, and cap liability at $100 or what you paid.",
          "The terms of service add one rule of their own, don't circumvent the call limit with multiple accounts, and say the data shouldn't be used for life or property critical applications.",
          "Keys, plans and billing run through a third-party Apiable portal at pirate-weather.apiable.io.",
          "pirateweather.net/.well-known/security.txt returns 404."
        ],
        "score": 86
      },
      "dataQuality": {
        "coverage": "Global, strongest in North America where NBM and HRRR apply at about 3 km, with Canadian models in Canada and DWD MOSMIX stations elsewhere",
        "coverageRating": 4,
        "freshness": "RTMA-RU every 15 minutes, HRRR and NBM hourly, global models every 6 hours",
        "freshnessClass": "hourly",
        "history": "ERA5 reanalysis from January 1940, the project's archive of 1-hour forecasts from June 2024, and URMA analyses for the last 10 days in North America since 2.10.1",
        "historyYears": 86,
        "methodology": "https://pirateweather.net/en/latest/DataSources/",
        "sourcesDisclosed": true,
        "licence": "Apache-2.0 docs, AGPL-3.0 API code, terms silent on data reuse",
        "licenceClass": "unclear",
        "standing": "",
        "standingClass": "none",
        "reuse": "The terms say nothing about caching or redistributing responses and add only two rules, no circumventing the call limit with extra accounts and no life or property critical use. The models behind the data are public data from NOAA, ECMWF open data, ECCC and DWD.",
        "score": 72,
        "checks": null
      },
      "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pirate-weather.json",
      "live": {
        "slug": "pirate-weather",
        "probe": {
          "target": "https://api.pirateweather.net/forecast",
          "method": "get",
          "lastAt": "2026-10-04T23:48:14.052557641Z",
          "lastOk": true,
          "lastStatus": 404,
          "lastMs": 102,
          "authRequired": false,
          "uptime24h": 100,
          "uptime30d": 100,
          "p50ms24h": 105,
          "p95ms24h": 154,
          "samples24h": 272,
          "samples30d": 898,
          "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": 270,
              "ok": 270
            }
          ]
        },
        "vendorStatus": {
          "page": "https://pirateweather.xitoring.io",
          "indicator": "unknown",
          "summary": "no machine-readable status found",
          "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T21:40:23.776757395Z"
        },
        "githubStars": 910,
        "securityTxt": {
          "url": "https://pirateweather.net/.well-known/security.txt",
          "state": "none",
          "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:15:49.683216911Z"
        },
        "domain": {
          "domain": "pirateweather.net",
          "registered": "2021-03-01",
          "source": "https://rdap.verisign.com/net/v1/domain/pirateweather.net",
          "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T13:04:40.132666729Z"
        },
        "pages": [
          {
            "url": "https://pirateweather.net/en/latest/changelog/",
            "kind": "changelog",
            "status": 404,
            "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:46:44.667604199Z",
            "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z"
          },
          {
            "url": "https://pirateweather.net/en/latest/Apiable/ApiablePrivacy/",
            "kind": "privacy",
            "status": 404,
            "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:46:40.536531228Z",
            "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z"
          },
          {
            "url": "https://pirateweather.net/en/latest/Apiable/ApiableTerms/",
            "kind": "terms",
            "status": 404,
            "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:46:42.64213118Z",
            "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z"
          }
        ],
        "updatedAt": "2026-10-04T23:48:14.052557641Z"
      }
    },
    "summary": "Google Weather API (Maps Platform) has a score of 67 (B) against Pirate Weather's 66.2 (B). Both do weather current. The largest gap is maintenance \u0026 community, 60 points."
  },
  "kind": "anchor.page",
  "links": {
    "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json",
    "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-pirate-weather",
    "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-pirate-weather.json",
    "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt",
    "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-pirate-weather.md",
    "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-pirate-weather.min.md"
  },
  "markdown": "Google Weather API (Maps Platform) has a score of 67 (B) against Pirate Weather's 66.2 (B). Both do weather current. The largest gap is maintenance \u0026 community, 60 points.\n\n- 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\n- Pirate Weather: grade B, 66.2/100, rank #162 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pirate-weather.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pirate-weather.json\n\n## Which one, for what\n\nPick Google Weather API (Maps Platform) for reliability (+10), security \u0026 auth (+26).\n\nPick Pirate Weather for payments \u0026 pricing (+5), maintenance \u0026 community (+60).\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) | Pirate Weather | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 85 | 75 | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) +10 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 85 | Pirate Weather +3 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 77 | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) +2 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 71 | 45 | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) +26 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 30 | Pirate Weather +5 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 20 | 80 | Pirate Weather +60 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 71 | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) +4 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **67 · B** | **66.2 · B** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) | Pirate Weather |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |\n| Vendor | Google | Pirate Weather |\n| Hosted endpoint | `https://weather.googleapis.com/v1` | `https://api.pirateweather.net/forecast` |\n| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |\n| Auth | API key | API key |\n| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | none | Apache-2.0 (docs and spec), AGPL-3.0 (API code) |\n| Tools exposed | none | none |\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 | no | no |\n| llms.txt | no | no |\n| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |\n| Last release | 2025-11-18 | 2026-09-23 |\n| Popularity | none | 907 stars |\n| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 4/5 (2) |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**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.\n\n**Pirate Weather.** Named model sources and a documented priority order for every field. No SLA, and the terms call it best effort.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Google Weather API (Maps Platform)\n\n1. Ask for only the days or hours you need, one location a call. Every call is one billable event\n2. Page with pageSize and pageToken rather than asking for 240 hours at once\n3. Check the coverage page before promising alerts. Coverage is by country\n4. Refetch rather than cache. The Maps terms give no caching window for weather content\n5. Restrict the key to the Weather API and your server IPs in the Cloud console\n\n### Pirate Weather\n\n1. Send the key in an apikey header and put a placeholder in the path so it stays out of logs\n2. Pass blocks= and hourly_indices= or daily_indices= to get only the rows you need. The default payload is large\n3. Ask for version=2 to get fields Dark Sky never had, such as smoke, fire index and the source list\n4. Point historical requests at timemachine.pirateweather.net with a UNIX timestamp after the coordinate\n5. Watch Ratelimit-Remaining. The cap is monthly, so a runaway loop can spend it in a day\n\n## Other comparisons with Google Weather API (Maps Platform) or Pirate Weather\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 Pirate Weather](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/accuweather-api-vs-pirate-weather.md)\n- [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)\n- [Google Weather API (Maps Platform) vs NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-nws-api.md)\n- [Google Weather API (Maps Platform) vs OpenWeather One Call API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-openweather-one-call.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- [Google Weather API (Maps Platform) vs WeatherAPI.com](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-weatherapi-com.md)\n- [Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) vs Pirate Weather](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/met-office-datahub-vs-pirate-weather.md)\n- [NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) vs Pirate Weather](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nws-api-vs-pirate-weather.md)\n- [OpenWeather One Call API vs Pirate Weather](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openweather-one-call-vs-pirate-weather.md)\n- [Pirate Weather vs Visual Crossing Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pirate-weather-vs-visual-crossing.md)\n- [Pirate Weather vs WeatherAPI.com](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pirate-weather-vs-weatherapi-com.md)\n",
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        "name": "Google Weather API (Maps Platform) vs Pirate Weather",
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    "description": "Google Weather API (Maps Platform) has a score of 67 (B) against Pirate Weather's 66.2 (B). Both do weather current. The largest gap is maintenance \u0026 community, 60 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.",
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