Head to head · Weather current · October 2026 research run
OpenWeather One Call API vs Xweather Weather API
Xweather Weather API scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against OpenWeather One Call API's 57.4 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. OpenWeather One Call API leads on payments & pricing. Both do weather current.
Which one, for what
Good for Agents that need a global forecast plus deep history from one vendor at low cost, and for any agent that has to provision its own key.
Ahead on
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 32
Also in its favour
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
The main API takes the key only as the appid query parameter
Good for Teams that need lightning, hail, road weather or tropical data beside ordinary conditions and forecasts, with an MCP server and an OpenAPI file ready for agents.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 74 against 45
- Schema & documentation, 83 against 68
- Agent ergonomics, 78 against 73
- Security & auth, 52 against 42
- Maintenance & community, 81 against 60
- Transparency & trust, 68 against 61
Watch for
The REST API documents client_id and client_secret only as query parameters, and the MCP server also accepts the key as ?api_key=
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | OpenWeather One Call API | Xweather Weather API | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 45 | 74 | Xweather Weather API +29 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 68 | 83 | Xweather Weather API +15 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 73 | 78 | Xweather Weather API +5 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 42 | 52 | Xweather Weather API +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 60 | 32 | OpenWeather One Call API +28 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 60 | 81 | Xweather Weather API +21 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 61 | 68 | Xweather Weather API +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 57.4 · C | 67.1 · B |
Facts side by side
| Fact | OpenWeather One Call API | Xweather Weather API |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | OpenWeather | Vaisala Oyj |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.openweathermap.org/data/3.0/onecall | https://data.api.xweather.com |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Proprietary service under the General Conditions of Subscription Services of Vaisala Group. The OpenAPI files and the agent skills on GitHub are MIT |
| Tools exposed | 6 | 19 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | org.openweathermap/agents | com.xweather/weather |
| Last release | none | 2026-09-14 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2022-07-18 | 2020-06-01 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | |
| Popularity | none | 0 stars, 1.4k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |
Verdicts
OpenWeather One Call API
1,000 free calls a day, then $0.0015 a call, or $0.001 on the agent lane. The main API takes the key only as the appid query parameter.
Xweather Weather API
A public OpenAPI file with 236 operations, a hosted MCP server in the official registry and a free tier of 15,000 accesses a month suit agents. REST credentials travel only in the query string, per-minute limits are unpublished, and the group terms bar commercial use of free plans and passing data to third parties unless a service description allows it.
Before you call either
OpenWeather One Call API
- Sign up on the agent lane with POST https://agents.openweathermap.org/v1/accounts and keep the data key. It's shown once
- Check GET https://data.openweathermap.org/account/balance for credit. No data response carries a cost or balance
- On the main API, activate One Call by Call and set the daily cap in Billing plans before the first loop
- Pass units=metric. The default is Kelvin
- Use exclude=minutely,alerts on 3.0, or the 4.0 timeline step you need, to shrink responses
Xweather Weather API
- Check
successanderror.codeon every response. Application errors such asinvalid_locationreturn HTTP 200 withsuccessfalse - Send
fields,limitandplimit. The docs put a 15-day hourly forecast at about 600 KB, and about 25 KB with three fields - Read
X-Cost-Tokensafter each call. Cost is the endpoint multiplier times the intervals requested, so narrowfromandto - For MCP, send
Authorization: Bearer <client_id>_<client_secret>and avoid theapi_keyquery parameter, which puts the secret in the URL - Add
include_tagsorinclude_toolsto the MCP URL to load only the tool groups the task needs - On 429 read
Retry-Afterand theX-RateLimit-Reset-*headers.maxhits_minclears at the next minute,maxhitsat the period reset
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, OpenWeather One Call API or Xweather Weather API?
Xweather Weather API scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against OpenWeather One Call API's 57.4 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. OpenWeather One Call API leads on payments & pricing.
Do OpenWeather One Call API and Xweather Weather API need an API key?
OpenWeather One Call API needs an API key. Xweather Weather API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.
Can an agent call OpenWeather One Call API and Xweather Weather API without installing anything?
Yes. OpenWeather One Call API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.openweathermap.org/data/3.0/onecall and Xweather Weather API at https://data.api.xweather.com.
Other comparisons with OpenWeather One Call API or Xweather Weather API
- AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP vs OpenWeather One Call API
- AccuWeather Core Weather API + MCP vs Xweather Weather API
- Google Weather API (Maps Platform) vs OpenWeather One Call API
- Google Weather API (Maps Platform) vs Xweather Weather API
- Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) vs OpenWeather One Call API
- Met Office Weather DataHub (Site Specific) vs Xweather Weather API
- meteoblue Weather API vs OpenWeather One Call API
- meteoblue Weather API vs Xweather Weather API
- Meteomatics Weather API vs OpenWeather One Call API
- Meteomatics Weather API vs Xweather Weather API
- NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) vs OpenWeather One Call API
- NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) vs Xweather Weather API
- OpenWeather One Call API vs Pirate Weather
- OpenWeather One Call API vs Tomorrow.io Weather API
- OpenWeather One Call API vs Visual Crossing Weather API
- OpenWeather One Call API vs The Weather Company Data APIs
- OpenWeather One Call API vs WeatherAPI.com
- OpenWeather One Call API vs Weatherbit API
- Pirate Weather vs Xweather Weather API
- Tomorrow.io Weather API vs Xweather Weather API
- Visual Crossing Weather API vs Xweather Weather API
- The Weather Company Data APIs vs Xweather Weather API
- WeatherAPI.com vs Xweather Weather API
- Weatherbit API vs Xweather Weather API
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/openweather-one-call-vs-xweather.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/openweather-one-call.json·/api/v1/tools/xweather.json - From a terminal
anchor compare openweather-one-call xweather(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "openweather-one-call", "b": "xweather"}at/mcp, no key