# Pirate Weather vs Weatherbit API

> Pirate Weather scores 65.9 (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 current. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pirate-weather-vs-weatherbit
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pirate-weather-vs-weatherbit.md (~2,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pirate-weather-vs-weatherbit.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pirate-weather-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

Pirate Weather scores 65.9 (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 current.

- 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
- Weatherbit API: grade C, 57.7/100, rank #466 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/weatherbit.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/weatherbit.json

## 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:
- Schema & documentation, 85 against 72
- Agent ergonomics, 77 against 61
- Security & auth, 45 against 39
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 21
- Transparency & trust, 68 against 63

Also in its favour:
- Open source

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

### 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 75

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 | Pirate Weather | Weatherbit API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 75 | 91 | Weatherbit API +16 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 72 | Pirate Weather +13 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 61 | Pirate Weather +16 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 45 | 39 | Pirate Weather +6 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 30 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 21 | Pirate Weather +59 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 63 | Pirate Weather +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **65.9 · B** | **57.7 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Pirate Weather | Weatherbit API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Pirate Weather | Weatherbit LLC |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.pirateweather.net/forecast` | `https://api.weatherbit.io/v2.0` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (docs and spec), AGPL-3.0 (API code) | 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 | 2026-09-23 | 2025-08-01 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2025-05-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2023-12-26 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 907 stars | 78 PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (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.

**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

### 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

### 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, Pirate Weather or Weatherbit API?

Pirate Weather scores 65.9 (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 Pirate Weather and Weatherbit API need an API key?

Both need an API key.

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

Yes. Pirate Weather has a hosted endpoint at https://api.pirateweather.net/forecast and Weatherbit API at https://api.weatherbit.io/v2.0.

### Are Pirate Weather and Weatherbit 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 Weatherbit API.


## For agents

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

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