# Google Weather API (Maps Platform) vs Visual Crossing Weather API

> Google Weather API (Maps Platform) has a score of 67 (B) against Visual Crossing Weather API's 60.3 (C). Both do weather current. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 38 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-04

Google Weather API (Maps Platform) has a score of 67 (B) against Visual Crossing Weather API's 60.3 (C). Both do weather current. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 38 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
- 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

## Which one, for what

Pick Google Weather API (Maps Platform) for reliability (+19), schema & documentation (+8), security & auth (+31), transparency & trust (+14).

Pick Visual Crossing Weather API for payments & pricing (+15), maintenance & community (+38).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) | Visual Crossing Weather API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 85 | 66 | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) +19 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 74 | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 78 | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 71 | 40 | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) +31 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 40 | Visual Crossing Weather API +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 20 | 58 | Visual Crossing Weather API +38 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 61 | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) +14 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **67 · B** | **60.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Google Weather API (Maps Platform) | Visual Crossing Weather API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Google | Visual Crossing |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://weather.googleapis.com/v1` | `https://weather.visualcrossing.com/VisualCrossingWebServices/rest/services/timeline` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 1 |
| 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 | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2025-11-18 | none |
| Popularity | none | none |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (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.

**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.

## 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

### Visual Crossing Weather API

1. Always pass include= and elements=. A bare call returns days, hours and current for every element and burns records
2. Count records before a backfill. Hourly data is 24 records a day, so a year for one place is 8,760
3. Pass unitGroup=metric. The default is US units
4. Use the MCP server with X-VC-API-Key rather than pasting the key into a URL
5. Keep to one request at a time on Free and Professional. A second concurrent job returns 429

## Other comparisons with Google Weather API (Maps Platform) or Visual Crossing Weather API

- [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 Visual Crossing Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/accuweather-api-vs-visual-crossing.md)
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- [Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) vs Visual Crossing Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/met-office-datahub-vs-visual-crossing.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)
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