# Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) vs Open-Meteo

> Open-Meteo scores 63.4 (B) to Met Office Weather DataHub's 45.5 (E) for weather data. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/met-office-datahub-vs-open-meteo
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/met-office-datahub-vs-open-meteo.md (~2,900 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/met-office-datahub-vs-open-meteo.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/met-office-datahub-vs-open-meteo.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: 2026-10-01

Open-Meteo scores 63.4 (B) on agent readiness against Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific)'s 45.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) leads on security & auth. Both do weather data.

- Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific): grade E, 45.5/100, rank #863 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/met-office-datahub.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/met-office-datahub.json
- Open-Meteo: grade B, 63.4/100, rank #394 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/open-meteo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/open-meteo.json
- Best weather and climate data APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/weather/index.md
- All 120 weather comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/weather/index.md
- Best data provider APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/data-providers/index.md
- All 31 data comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/data-providers/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) (E)

Good for: Best when a UK answer has to come from the national weather service, and when the licence to republish matters.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 66 against 38

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No OpenAPI, llms.txt, SDK or MCP server

### Open-Meteo (B)

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

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 77 against 32
- Agent ergonomics, 85 against 53
- Payments & pricing, 50 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 90 against 15
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 62

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

| Category | Weight | Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) | Open-Meteo | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 48 | 50 | Open-Meteo +2 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 32 | 77 | Open-Meteo +45 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 53 | 85 | Open-Meteo +32 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 66 | 38 | Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) +28 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 50 | Open-Meteo +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 15 | 90 | Open-Meteo +75 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 72 | Open-Meteo +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **45.5 · E** | **63.4 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) | Open-Meteo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Met Office | Open-Meteo |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://data.hub.api.metoffice.gov.uk/sitespecific/v0/point` | `https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | BSD-3-Clause (utilities) | AGPL-3.0 (code), CC BY 4.0 (data) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | none | 2026-09-10 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-04-03 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 6.2k stars |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 4/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific).** Statutory UK weather service, with a FAQ licence to copy, publish and adapt the data. No OpenAPI, llms.txt, SDK or MCP server.

**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

### Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific)

1. Register an application and subscribe it to the Global Spot plan first. The key is tied to that order and shown once
2. Send the key in the apikey header with Accept: application/json, and latitude and longitude as query parameters
3. Add excludeParameterMetadata=true to drop the parameter descriptions from every response
4. Pick the timestep by need. hourly covers 48 hours, three-hourly 168, daily 7 days, and each call counts against the daily limit
5. Stop on a 429. The limit is daily and resets at 00:00 UTC

### 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, Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) or Open-Meteo?

Open-Meteo scores 63.4 (B) on agent readiness against Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific)'s 45.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) leads on security & auth.

### Do Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) and Open-Meteo need an API key?

Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) needs an API key. Open-Meteo needs no key.

### Can an agent call Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) and Open-Meteo without installing anything?

Yes. Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) has a hosted endpoint at https://data.hub.api.metoffice.gov.uk/sitespecific/v0/point and Open-Meteo at https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast.

### Are Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) and Open-Meteo open source?

No open-source release is listed for Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific). Open-Meteo is open source (AGPL-3.0 (code), CC BY 4.0 (data)).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/met-office-datahub-vs-open-meteo.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/met-office-datahub-vs-open-meteo.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "met-office-datahub", "b": "open-meteo"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare met-office-datahub open-meteo`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/met-office-datahub.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/open-meteo.json

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