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Head to head · Weather current · October 2026 research run

NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) vs Tomorrow.io Weather API

Tomorrow.io Weather API scores 51.4 (D) on agent readiness against NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)'s 49.6 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) leads on security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do weather current.

NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)National Weather Service · HTTP API D49.6/100#528 of 629 Tomorrow.io Weather APIThe Tomorrow Companies Inc. · HTTP API D51.4/100#504 of 629

Which one, for what

NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) D

Good for The authoritative US forecast and alert feed, best for alerting and US-only agents that can tolerate a government service's availability.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 53 against 34
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 20

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it

Watch for

US and territories only

Tomorrow.io Weather API D

Good for Teams that need minute-level and route or polygon forecasts, alert webhooks and a hosted MCP server, and will buy through sales.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 55 against 25
  • Schema & documentation, 75 against 67
  • Agent ergonomics, 73 against 66
  • Maintenance & community, 27 against 8

Watch for

No public price for paid use. The plan table lists Free and Enterprise, the second by quote

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runNOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)Tomorrow.io Weather APIEdge
Reliability16%202555Tomorrow.io Weather API +30
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26775Tomorrow.io Weather API +8
Agent ergonomics13%16.26673Tomorrow.io Weather API +7
Security & auth14%17.55334NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) +19
Payments & pricing10%12.56020NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8827Tomorrow.io Weather API +19
Transparency & trust7%8.86363even
Negative events≤1500
Total49.6 · D51.4 · D

Facts side by side

FactNOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)Tomorrow.io Weather API
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorNational Weather ServiceThe Tomorrow Companies Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.weather.govhttps://api.tomorrow.io/v4
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthNoneOAuth or key
PricingFreeFreemium
x402nono
LicencePublic domain (data)Proprietary service under Tomorrow.io's subscription terms
Tools exposednone11
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-03-192026-07-14
Terms last updatedno date givencouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedno date givencouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textcouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textcouldn't be read
Popularity310 starsnone
Agent reviews4.5/5 (2)none

Verdicts

NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)

Free, no key and no account, with public domain data. US and territories only.

Tomorrow.io Weather API

A public OpenAPI 3.1 file, Markdown docs with llms.txt and a hosted MCP server with 11 tools suit agents, and a free plan exists. Paid prices are by quote only, free keys are barred from commercial use, the docs give no numeric rate limits, and the status page lists 50 incidents in 85 days, mostly stale or degraded data.

Before you call either

NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)

  1. Set User-Agent to your app name and a contact email or the request is refused with 403
  2. Cache the /points response per coordinate. The office and grid rarely change
  3. Round coordinates to four decimal places. More precision returns an error
  4. Don't add cache-busting query parameters. Unknown parameters return 400
  5. Back off about five seconds after a throttled request and reuse the last good response

Tomorrow.io Weather API

  1. Send the key in the apikey header, not the query string, so it stays out of URLs and logs
  2. Request only the fields and timesteps needed on POST /timelines. Free plans cover 24 hours back and 5 days ahead at 1h and 1d
  3. Split archive requests. POST /historical takes at most 31 days per call and deducts tokens, 1 for a point and 10 for a polygon
  4. Treat 401 with code 401001 as a missing or bad key. The docs say 403, the live API answered 401 on 8 October 2026
  5. On 429 back off without a hint. Retry-After is documented only for 503
  6. Check the plan's terms before storing or reselling responses. Free accounts are limited to non-commercial use with a Powered by Tomorrow.io link

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) or Tomorrow.io Weather API?

Tomorrow.io Weather API scores 51.4 (D) on agent readiness against NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)'s 49.6 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) leads on security & auth and payments & pricing.

Do NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) and Tomorrow.io Weather API need an API key?

NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) needs no key. Tomorrow.io Weather API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) and Tomorrow.io Weather API without installing anything?

Yes. NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) has a hosted endpoint at https://api.weather.gov and Tomorrow.io Weather API at https://api.tomorrow.io/v4.

Other comparisons with NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) or Tomorrow.io Weather API

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