# Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) vs Stormglass API

> Met Office Weather DataHub scores 45.5 (E) to Stormglass's 39.9 (E) for weather forecasts. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/met-office-datahub-vs-stormglass
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/met-office-datahub-vs-stormglass.md (~2,900 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/met-office-datahub-vs-stormglass.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/met-office-datahub-vs-stormglass.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: 2026-10-09

Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) scores 45.5 (E) on agent readiness against Stormglass API's 39.9 (E), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Stormglass API leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics. Both do weather forecasts.

- 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
- Stormglass API: grade E, 39.9/100, rank #914 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/stormglass.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/stormglass.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

## 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:
- Reliability, 48 against 34
- Security & auth, 66 against 44
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 25
- Transparency & trust, 62 against 45

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

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

### Stormglass API (E)

Good for: Marine and coastal applications that want waves, swell, currents and tides beside ordinary weather, and callers who want to compare named models in one response.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 40 against 32
- Agent ergonomics, 65 against 53

Watch for: No OpenAPI file, llms.txt, official SDK or changelog was found. The docs are eleven Markdown pages


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) | Stormglass API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 48 | 34 | Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) +14 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 32 | 40 | Stormglass API +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 53 | 65 | Stormglass API +12 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 66 | 44 | Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) +22 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 25 | Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 15 | 15 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 45 | Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) +17 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **45.5 · E** | **39.9 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) | Stormglass API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Met Office | Storm Glass AB |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://data.hub.api.metoffice.gov.uk/sitespecific/v0/point` | `https://api.stormglass.io/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | BSD-3-Clause (utilities) | Proprietary service under Storm Glass AB's Terms and Conditions. The Free and Small plans are not for commercial use |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | none | 2026-02-26 |
| 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 | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | yes |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |

## 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.

**Stormglass API.** A read-only weather and marine API with about 70 hourly parameters, per-source values from named national models, tide data and ERA5 history from 2014. No OpenAPI file, status page, SDK or security page was found, the free plan allows 10 requests a day, and the docs and FAQ disagree on the status code for a spent quota.

## 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

### Stormglass API

1. Send the key as `Authorization: KEY` with no Bearer prefix. A missing or wrong key returns 403 with `{"errors":{"key":"API key is invalid"}}`
2. Always pass `source=sg` or a short source list on `/weather/point`. The default is every source, which multiplies the size of each hourly record
3. Treat 402 as a spent daily quota, not a billing failure, and stop until the next day. Read `meta.requestCount` against `meta.dailyQuota` on each response
4. Use `/historical/point` for past dates, at most 10 days a call and nothing newer than about 7 days. `/weather/point` looks back 14 days only
5. Send and read all times in UTC. Tide sea levels are relative to the chosen datum (MSL by default) and are not water depth

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) or Stormglass API?

Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) scores 45.5 (E) on agent readiness against Stormglass API's 39.9 (E), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Stormglass API leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics.

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

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) and Stormglass API 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 Stormglass API at https://api.stormglass.io/v2.


## For agents

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

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