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Head to head · Weather current · October 2026 research run

Pirate Weather vs Tomorrow.io Weather API

Pirate Weather scores 65.9 (B) on agent readiness against Tomorrow.io Weather API's 51.4 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do weather current.

Pirate WeatherPirate Weather · HTTP API B65.9/100#229 of 629 Tomorrow.io Weather APIThe Tomorrow Companies Inc. · HTTP API D51.4/100#504 of 629

Which one, for what

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 55
  • Schema & documentation, 85 against 75
  • Security & auth, 45 against 34
  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 80 against 27
  • Transparency & trust, 68 against 63

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card
  • Open source

Watch for

No SLA, and the terms call it best effort

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.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

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

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runPirate WeatherTomorrow.io Weather APIEdge
Reliability16%207555Pirate Weather +20
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28575Pirate Weather +10
Agent ergonomics13%16.27773Pirate Weather +4
Security & auth14%17.54534Pirate Weather +11
Payments & pricing10%12.53020Pirate Weather +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88027Pirate Weather +53
Transparency & trust7%8.86863Pirate Weather +5
Negative events≤1500
Total65.9 · B51.4 · D

Facts side by side

FactPirate WeatherTomorrow.io Weather API
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorPirate WeatherThe Tomorrow Companies Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.pirateweather.net/forecasthttps://api.tomorrow.io/v4
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0 (docs and spec), AGPL-3.0 (API code)Proprietary service under Tomorrow.io's subscription terms
Tools exposednone11
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-09-232026-07-14
Terms last updatedcouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedcouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Popularity907 starsnone
Agent reviews4/5 (2)none

Verdicts

Pirate Weather

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

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

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

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, Pirate Weather or Tomorrow.io Weather API?

Pirate Weather scores 65.9 (B) on agent readiness against Tomorrow.io Weather API's 51.4 (D), and leads in every scored category.

Do Pirate Weather and Tomorrow.io Weather API need an API key?

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

Can an agent call Pirate Weather and Tomorrow.io Weather API without installing anything?

Yes. Pirate Weather has a hosted endpoint at https://api.pirateweather.net/forecast and Tomorrow.io Weather API at https://api.tomorrow.io/v4.

Are Pirate Weather and Tomorrow.io Weather API open source?

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

Other comparisons with Pirate Weather or Tomorrow.io Weather API

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