# Open-Meteo vs Weatherbit API

> Open-Meteo scores 63.4 (B) to Weatherbit's 57.7 (C) for weather data. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/open-meteo-vs-weatherbit
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/open-meteo-vs-weatherbit.md (~2,700 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/open-meteo-vs-weatherbit.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/open-meteo-vs-weatherbit.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

Open-Meteo scores 63.4 (B) on agent readiness against Weatherbit API's 57.7 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Weatherbit API leads on reliability. Both do weather data.

- 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
- Weatherbit API: grade C, 57.7/100, rank #599 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/weatherbit.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/weatherbit.json
- 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
- 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

### 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 72
- Agent ergonomics, 85 against 61
- Payments & pricing, 50 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 90 against 21
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 63

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: Commercial prices appear only at Stripe checkout

### Weatherbit API (C)

Good for: An application that needs forecasts plus specialised datasets (air quality, lightning, soil and degree days) from one paid subscription, queried by coordinates.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 91 against 50

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

Watch for: The key is accepted only as the `key` query parameter, and the spec lists plain http as a scheme


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Open-Meteo | Weatherbit API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 91 | Weatherbit API +41 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 72 | Open-Meteo +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 61 | Open-Meteo +24 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 38 | 39 | Weatherbit API +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 30 | Open-Meteo +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 90 | 21 | Open-Meteo +69 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 63 | Open-Meteo +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **63.4 · B** | **57.7 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Open-Meteo | Weatherbit API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Open-Meteo | Weatherbit LLC |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast` | `https://api.weatherbit.io/v2.0` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 (code), CC BY 4.0 (data) | Proprietary service under Weatherbit's terms of service. The free plan's data is under a Creative Commons non-commercial licence. The Python SDK is MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-10 | 2025-08-01 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2025-05-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2023-12-26 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 6.2k stars | 78 PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Weatherbit API.** A read-only weather API with a Swagger 2.0 spec, quota headers on every response and a status page showing 100 per cent on three API monitors over 90 days. The key travels only in the query string, the free plan allows 50 requests a day for non-commercial use, and the last dated API announcement is 1 August 2025.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Weatherbit API

1. Pass lat and lon. City, postal code and station lookups are accepted, but the docs recommend coordinates and mark station ID as use with caution
2. Read X-RateLimit-Remaining and X-RateLimit-Reset on each response. Daily quotas reset at 00:00 UTC and a spent quota returns 429 until then
3. Treat HTTP 204 with an empty body as no data found, not as an error
4. Split historical requests into ranges of one month or less. History needs the Plus plan or higher and has its own daily quota
5. Keep the key out of logs. It is part of the URL on every call, so always use https://api.weatherbit.io/v2.0

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Open-Meteo or Weatherbit API?

Open-Meteo scores 63.4 (B) on agent readiness against Weatherbit API's 57.7 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Weatherbit API leads on reliability.

### Do Open-Meteo and Weatherbit API need an API key?

Open-Meteo needs no key. Weatherbit API needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Open-Meteo and Weatherbit API without installing anything?

Yes. Open-Meteo has a hosted endpoint at https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast and Weatherbit API at https://api.weatherbit.io/v2.0.

### Are Open-Meteo and Weatherbit API open source?

Open-Meteo is open source (AGPL-3.0 (code), CC BY 4.0 (data)). No open-source release is listed for Weatherbit API.


## For agents

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

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