# Meteomatics Weather API vs Pirate Weather

> Pirate Weather scores 65.9 (B) on agent readiness against Meteomatics Weather API's 49.6 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Meteomatics Weather API leads on security & auth. Both do weather current. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meteomatics-vs-pirate-weather
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meteomatics-vs-pirate-weather.md (~2,750 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meteomatics-vs-pirate-weather.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meteomatics-vs-pirate-weather.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: 2026-10-08

Pirate Weather scores 65.9 (B) on agent readiness against Meteomatics Weather API's 49.6 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Meteomatics Weather API leads on security & auth. Both do weather current.

- Meteomatics Weather API: grade D, 49.6/100, rank #606 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/meteomatics.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/meteomatics.json
- Pirate Weather: grade B, 65.9/100, rank #249 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pirate-weather.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pirate-weather.json

## Which one, for what

### Meteomatics Weather API (D)

Good for: Companies in energy, aviation, insurance and logistics that need many models, long history, polygon and route queries and an SLA, and will buy by contract.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 54 against 45

Watch for: No public price, free tier or self-serve signup found. Credentials arrive by email after a sales conversation

### Pirate Weather (B)

Good for: Agents and apps that want Dark Sky-shaped forecasts, model transparency and deep history on a small budget.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 75 against 34
- Schema & documentation, 85 against 71
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 0
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 42
- Transparency & trust, 68 against 59

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

Watch for: No SLA, and the terms call it best effort


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Meteomatics Weather API | Pirate Weather | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 34 | 75 | Pirate Weather +41 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 85 | Pirate Weather +14 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 77 | Meteomatics Weather API +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 54 | 45 | Meteomatics Weather API +9 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 30 | Pirate Weather +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 42 | 80 | Pirate Weather +38 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 59 | 68 | Pirate Weather +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **49.6 · D** | **65.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Meteomatics Weather API | Pirate Weather |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Meteomatics AG | Pirate Weather |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.meteomatics.com` | `https://api.pirateweather.net/forecast` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Meteomatics' general terms and conditions. The Python connector on GitHub is MIT | Apache-2.0 (docs and spec), AGPL-3.0 (API code) |
| Tools exposed | 9 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-08-24 | 2026-09-23 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 56 stars, 16k PyPI/wk | 907 stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 4/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Meteomatics Weather API.** A public OpenAPI file, a hosted MCP server whose nine tools are all marked read-only, a published SLA with compensation and ISO 27001 certification suit company use. Access needs a sales contract, with no public price, free tier or self-serve signup found, no status page, and REST calls that authenticate with a username and password.

**Pirate Weather.** Named model sources and a documented priority order for every field. No SLA, and the terms call it best effort.

## Before you call either

### Meteomatics Weather API

1. Ask the account owner for credentials first. There is no signup, and both the REST API and the MCP server need a Meteomatics account with API access
2. Build REST URLs as validdatetime/parameters/location/format, for example `2026-10-08T00:00:00Z/t_2m:C/52.52,13.40/json`. Parameter names carry their unit after a colon
3. Keep each query to 10 locations and 10 parameters unless the contract says otherwise, and use POST when a GET URL passes 2,000 characters
4. Send credentials or the token in the `Authorization` header. Avoid the documented `access_token` query parameter, which puts the token in URLs and logs
5. Read `/user_stats_json` before a large job. It reports queries sent and the contract's limits, and 429 means a limit is spent
6. Treat reserved values such as -888 and -999 as invalid or missing data, and shrink the request when a 408 arrives after the 300-second timeout

### Pirate Weather

1. Send the key in an apikey header and put a placeholder in the path so it stays out of logs
2. Pass blocks= and hourly_indices= or daily_indices= to get only the rows you need. The default payload is large
3. Ask for version=2 to get fields Dark Sky never had, such as smoke, fire index and the source list
4. Point historical requests at timemachine.pirateweather.net with a UNIX timestamp after the coordinate
5. Watch Ratelimit-Remaining. The cap is monthly, so a runaway loop can spend it in a day

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Meteomatics Weather API or Pirate Weather?

Pirate Weather scores 65.9 (B) on agent readiness against Meteomatics Weather API's 49.6 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Meteomatics Weather API leads on security & auth.

### Do Meteomatics Weather API and Pirate Weather need an API key?

Meteomatics Weather API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Pirate Weather needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Meteomatics Weather API and Pirate Weather without installing anything?

Yes. Meteomatics Weather API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.meteomatics.com and Pirate Weather at https://api.pirateweather.net/forecast.

### Are Meteomatics Weather API and Pirate Weather open source?

No open-source release is listed for Meteomatics Weather API. Pirate Weather is open source (Apache-2.0 (docs and spec), AGPL-3.0 (API code)).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Meteomatics Weather API or Pirate Weather

- [AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP vs Meteomatics Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/accuweather-api-vs-meteomatics.md)
- [AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP vs Pirate Weather](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/accuweather-api-vs-pirate-weather.md)
- [Google Weather API (Maps Platform) vs Meteomatics Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-meteomatics.md)
- [Google Weather API (Maps Platform) vs Pirate Weather](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-weather-api-vs-pirate-weather.md)
- [Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) vs Meteomatics Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/met-office-datahub-vs-meteomatics.md)
- [Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) vs Pirate Weather](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/met-office-datahub-vs-pirate-weather.md)
- [meteoblue Weather API vs Meteomatics Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meteoblue-vs-meteomatics.md)
- [meteoblue Weather API vs Pirate Weather](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meteoblue-vs-pirate-weather.md)
- [Meteomatics Weather API vs NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meteomatics-vs-nws-api.md)
- [Meteomatics Weather API vs OpenWeather One Call API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meteomatics-vs-openweather-one-call.md)
- [Meteomatics Weather API vs Tomorrow.io Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meteomatics-vs-tomorrow-io.md)
- [Meteomatics Weather API vs Visual Crossing Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meteomatics-vs-visual-crossing.md)
- [Meteomatics Weather API vs The Weather Company Data APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meteomatics-vs-weather-company.md)
- [Meteomatics Weather API vs WeatherAPI.com](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meteomatics-vs-weatherapi-com.md)
- [Meteomatics Weather API vs Weatherbit API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meteomatics-vs-weatherbit.md)
- [Meteomatics Weather API vs Xweather Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meteomatics-vs-xweather.md)
- [NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) vs Pirate Weather](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nws-api-vs-pirate-weather.md)
- [OpenWeather One Call API vs Pirate Weather](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openweather-one-call-vs-pirate-weather.md)
- [Pirate Weather vs Tomorrow.io Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pirate-weather-vs-tomorrow-io.md)
- [Pirate Weather vs Visual Crossing Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pirate-weather-vs-visual-crossing.md)
- [Pirate Weather vs The Weather Company Data APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pirate-weather-vs-weather-company.md)
- [Pirate Weather vs WeatherAPI.com](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pirate-weather-vs-weatherapi-com.md)
- [Pirate Weather vs Weatherbit API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pirate-weather-vs-weatherbit.md)
- [Pirate Weather vs Xweather Weather API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pirate-weather-vs-xweather.md)