Best Free Weather APIs (July 2026)

Ranked by uptime + speed + free-tier quality. Updated every hour.

Looking for a free weather API that works today? The list below is ranked by our composite score — weighted 60% uptime, 30% response speed, and 10% free-tier accessibility, recalculated every hour from live checks. See our methodology for how the score is computed.

Quick answer:

We track 15 free weather APIs with live hourly checks. The current top pick is NOAA National Weather Service (100% 30-day uptime) — and it needs no API key. 6 of the 15 require no API key at all, and 7 hold 99%+ uptime.

#1 NOAA National Weather Service — 🟢 Online
Official US government weather API providing forecasts, alerts, and observations for US locations. No key required.

Unlimited (US only), no key, no credit card
#2 Weatherstack — 🟢 Online
Real-time and historical weather data API powered by worldwide weather stations with JSON and XML output.

100 calls/month, free key, no credit card
#3 7Timer! — 🟢 Online
Free, no-key weather forecast API focused on astronomical and civil forecasts using NOAA GFS model data.

Unlimited, no key, no credit card
#4 MET Norway Locationforecast — 🟢 Online
Free weather forecast API from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute covering global locations. No key required.

Unlimited, no key, must set User-Agent header
#5 Open-Meteo — 🟢 Online
Free weather forecast API with no key required. 10,000 calls/day for non-commercial use.

10,000 calls/day, no key, no credit card
#6 Open-Meteo Air Quality — 🟢 Online
Free air quality forecast API providing PM2.5, PM10, ozone, and other pollutant data worldwide. No key required.

10,000 calls/day, no key, no credit card
#7 Bright Sky (DWD) — 🟢 Online
Open weather API built on German Weather Service (DWD) data covering all of Germany with no key required.

Unlimited, no key, no credit card
#8 OpenWeatherMap — 🔴 Offline
One of the most popular weather APIs with current, forecast, and historical data for any location worldwide.

1,000 calls/day, free key, no credit card
#9 OpenUV — 🔴 Offline
Real-time and forecast UV index API covering global locations using NASA satellite data. Free tier available.

100 calls/day, free key, no credit card
#10 WeatherAPI.com — 🔴 Offline
Comprehensive weather API offering current, forecast, historical, marine, and astronomy data with a generous free tier.

1,000,000 calls/month, free key, no credit card
#11 Tomorrow.io — 🔴 Offline
AI-powered weather API with hyperlocal forecasts, severe weather alerts, and climate intelligence for 25 locations free.

25 locations, 500 calls/day, free key, no CC
#12 Visual Crossing Weather — 🔴 Offline
Historical and forecast weather data API with CSV and JSON output, supporting 40+ years of history and 15-day forecasts.

1,000 records/day, free key, no credit card
#13 MeteoSource — 🔴 Offline
High-resolution weather forecast API with hourly and daily data, machine-learning corrected models for 150,000+ locations.

400 calls/day, free key, no credit card
#14 Weatherbit — 🔴 Offline
Global weather API offering current conditions, 16-day forecasts, hourly data, and severe weather alerts for 150+ countries.

500 calls/day, free key, no credit card
#15 AccuWeather API — 🔴 Offline
Industry-leading weather API with hyperlocal MinuteCast, severe weather alerts, and 45-day forecasts.

50 calls/day, free key, no credit card

The free weather API landscape in 2026

Free weather APIs power a surprising slice of the modern web — from Slack apps that post the morning forecast in a company channel, to farm-management dashboards, to hiking trail apps, to the automated tweets that go out when it rains in a specific neighborhood. What all these have in common is that none of them justify a $200/month API bill, so the developers behind them lean on the surprisingly durable ecosystem of free weather endpoints.

The landscape shifted meaningfully between 2020 and 2026. Dark Sky, once the gold standard for hyperlocal precipitation, was killed by Apple in 2023 (see our graveyard). Yahoo Weather quietly disappeared. MetaWeather went offline in 2022. The survivors are almost all backed either by government meteorological services (which don't need to monetize) or by projects that treat the API as a public good with a paid commercial tier for volume users. Open-Meteo, MET Norway, NOAA, and 7Timer all fit this pattern.

For 2026, the practical short list has narrowed to five APIs worth testing before you write any code: Open-Meteo (best default), OpenWeatherMap (best brand recognition and library support), MET Norway (best for Nordic accuracy and free-tier stability), NOAA (best for US alerts), and Tomorrow.io (best free tier among proprietary providers). The rest of this page ranks them from live data.

How to choose a free weather API

Start with three questions: where do you need coverage, how far ahead do you need forecasts, and how far back do you need history. Open-Meteo has global coverage, 16-day forecast horizon, and hourly data going back to 1940 — for most projects the answer is Open-Meteo and you move on. If you specifically need US severe-weather alerts, layer NOAA on top. If you need commercial-license clarity from day one, budget for Tomorrow.io or the Open-Meteo commercial tier.

Then check the data model. Weather APIs vary sharply in what they call the same variable. Some return temperature as temperature, some as temp, some as temp_c, some as temperature_2m (the WMO standard, denoting 2 meters above ground). Some report wind speed in meters/second, some in km/h, some in mph. Wire your code to the API's canonical names on day one — do not paper over inconsistencies in an adapter layer that will bite you later.

Finally, verify the rate-limit reality matches the docs. Every provider on this page has an advertised free tier and an actual free tier, and the gap can be significant. Open-Meteo's 10,000 calls/day is honest and enforced by IP. OpenWeatherMap's 60 calls/minute is real but the day-cap enforcement varies. Tomorrow.io throttles more aggressively than the docs suggest at peak times. Our /methodology page explains how we measure this.

Common pitfalls when integrating weather APIs

The most expensive mistake is bundling geocoding into your weather cost budget. Weather APIs universally require latitude and longitude — not city names — so every user-facing weather feature actually needs two API calls per query. Geocoding limits (Nominatim: 1 req/sec) are usually the bottleneck, not weather. Cache geocoding results aggressively; city-name to lat/lng is stable enough for a 30-day cache.

The second is ignoring timezone semantics. Most weather APIs return timestamps in UTC by default and expect you to convert. Some (Open-Meteo) can infer a local timezone from coordinates if you pass timezone=auto. A 3 PM local forecast displayed as 3 PM UTC on the west coast of the US is a bug users notice immediately.

The third is trusting the marketing on model accuracy. All major APIs blend multiple numerical models under the hood and the reported forecast is a smoothed average. For extreme events (hurricanes, ice storms, flash floods) that averaging obscures the tail. If your app makes decisions that could hurt people (aviation, marine, wildfire), do not use a general-purpose free weather API as the sole input — layer NOAA or MET Norway alerts on top.

Compare Weather APIs

Side-by-side comparisons of the top Weather APIs — free tier, uptime, and response time:

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best free weather API in 2026?

Open-Meteo is currently the most generous: no API key required, 10,000 calls/day for non-commercial use, and reliable global coverage. WeatherAPI.com and OpenWeatherMap also have solid free tiers but require a free account.

Do free weather APIs require a credit card?

Most don't. Open-Meteo and Bright Sky require no payment information. OpenWeatherMap and WeatherAPI.com require an email but no card. AccuWeather's free tier is the strictest and limits you to 50 calls/day.

Which free weather APIs are production-reliable?

We measure uptime hourly. Currently the most reliable in our tracking are Open-Meteo, MET Norway, and NOAA Weather (US-only). Check the live ranking on this page — it updates every hour.

Can I use free weather data commercially?

It depends on the provider. Open-Meteo is free for non-commercial use only. WeatherAPI.com permits commercial use on its free tier with attribution. Always check the API's terms of service before deploying to production.

How accurate are free weather forecasts?

Free APIs typically use the same underlying weather models (GFS, ECMWF) as paid services, so short-term accuracy is comparable. Paid tiers usually unlock historical data, more frequent updates, and minute-level forecasts.