Open-Meteo vs OpenWeatherMap
Free API comparison
| Open-Meteo | OpenWeatherMap | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Weather forecasts | Weather forecasts |
| API key | Not needed | Needed, free |
| Pricing | Free for non-commercial use; commercial use needs a paid plan. | Free plan with a limit per minute and per month; paid plans for more calls and features. |
| Commercial use | Not on the free plan | Not stated |
| From the browser | Yes (CORS) | Yes (CORS) |
| Formats | JSON | JSON, XML |
| Interface | REST, HTTP-GET | REST, HTTP-GET |
| Provider | open-meteo.com | openweathermap.org |
| MCP server | No | No |
Which one to choose
Both give forecasts for any place in the world. Open-Meteo needs no key and adds historical weather back to 1940, air quality and marine forecasts, but its free use is for non-commercial projects only. OpenWeatherMap needs a free key and limits calls per minute and per month, and builds on more than 40,000 weather stations. For a hobby project or a prototype, Open-Meteo is the quickest start.
Each service's own page has its full description, a code example and what visitors report: Open-Meteo, OpenWeatherMap.