Datacircle

Best current weather API in 2026

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WeatherAPI.com, Weatherbit and Open-Meteo are the best current weather API providers in our benchmark. We benchmarked 5 providers and rank all 5 by score. For the three we score highest, we show each one's top scoring plan, each part of the plan's score and what 1,000 places cost. We rank 102 plans by price. OpenWeather's £370 monthly plan is the cheapest paid plan per 1,000 places: $0.00049.

Every current weather API provider we score, ranked

  1. WeatherAPI.com, $7 monthly: Overall score 80.2, Data score 69, $0.0023 per 1,000 places
  2. Weatherbit, $495 monthly: Overall score 77.2, Data score 69, $0.0083 per 1,000 places
  3. Open-Meteo, €160 monthly, API Professional (10 million calls): Overall score 63.6, Data score 38, $0.018 per 1,000 places
  4. Visual Crossing, pay as you go: Overall score 62.7, Data score 76, $0.10 per 1,000 places
  5. API Ninjas, $299 monthly: Overall score 51.5, Data score 31, $0.03 per 1,000 places

  1. #1 WeatherAPI.com: Current weather API

    WeatherAPI.com, $7 monthly

    It returns 6 of the 7 key fields we check: Temperature, Precipitation, Wind, Conditions, Humidity, UV index.

    Overall score
    80.2
    $ per 1,000
    $0.0023
    Price score
    81
    • $ per 1,000 places the provider has no weather for: the provider's pages don't say
    • Plans of this API we rank by price: 102
    • Plans cheaper per 1,000 places than this plan: 7
    Data score
    69
    Cost to get started score
    90
    • How you pay: monthly
    • Least to pay before your first result: $7
    Bundle score
    90
    • Also pays for, from the same budget: Forecast API · History API · Alerts API · Marine API · Search/Autocomplete API · IP Lookup API and 3 more
    Performance score
    100
    • This call's median time on 30 October 2026, minus the baseline: 0.071 s, counted as 0.1 s
    • Open-Meteo, the fastest benchmarked provider: under 0.1 s, counted as 0.1 s
    • On 30 October 2026, we sent this provider the same 20 places as every other provider in our benchmark.
    • This plan scored 0.6897 out of 1 on those 20 places. That gives this plan a Data score of 69 out of 100.

  2. #2 Weatherbit: Current weather API

    Weatherbit, $495 monthly

    It returns all 7 key fields we check: Temperature, Precipitation, Wind, Conditions, Humidity, Pressure, UV index.

    Overall score
    77.2
    $ per 1,000
    $0.0083
    Price score
    82
    • $ per 1,000 places the provider has no weather for: $0
    • Plans of this API we rank by price: 102
    • Plans cheaper per 1,000 places than this plan: 21
    Data score
    69
    Cost to get started score
    62
    • How you pay: monthly
    • Least to pay before your first result: $495
    Bundle score
    83
    • Also pays for, from the same budget: Daily Forecast API (16 day) · Hourly Forecast API (240 hour) · Minutely Forecast API (60 minute) and 2 more
    Performance score
    100
    • This call's median time on 30 October 2026, minus the baseline: 0.037 s, counted as 0.1 s
    • Open-Meteo, the fastest benchmarked provider: under 0.1 s, counted as 0.1 s
    • On 30 October 2026, we sent this provider the same 20 places as every other provider in our benchmark.
    • This plan scored 0.6897 out of 1 on those 20 places. That gives this plan a Data score of 69 out of 100.

  3. #3 Open-Meteo: Current weather API

    Open-Meteo, €160 monthly, API Professional (10 million calls)

    It returns all 7 key fields we check. 4 are in the plan's price: Temperature, Precipitation, Conditions, Humidity. 3 cost extra: Wind, Pressure, UV index.

    Overall score
    63.6
    $ per 1,000
    $0.018
    Price score
    72
    • $ per 1,000 places the provider has no weather for: $0
    • Plans of this API we rank by price: 102
    • Plans cheaper per 1,000 places than this plan: 33
    Data score
    38
    Cost to get started score
    69
    • How you pay: monthly
    • Least to pay before your first result: $180.05
    Bundle score
    92
    • Also pays for, from the same budget: Air Quality API · Marine API · Flood API · Elevation API · Geocoding API · Historical Weather API and 6 more
    Performance score
    100
    • This call's median time on 30 October 2026, minus the baseline: 0.002 s, counted as 0.1 s
    • Open-Meteo, the fastest benchmarked provider: under 0.1 s, counted as 0.1 s
    • On 30 October 2026, we sent this provider the same 20 places as every other provider in our benchmark.
    • This plan scored 0.3793 out of 1 on those 20 places. That gives this plan a Data score of 38 out of 100.

The Data score on current weather APIs

This score, out of 100, shows how much of the current weather a provider's call returns for a place. We send each place's latitude and longitude to the provider's call. For each place, we count the parts the answer held, such as the temperature and the wind. We divide that count by the parts we count for the place. We count a part when a live call that offers the part returned it for the place. On a place where fewer than two live calls offer the part and return data, we count the part when any call returned it. We don't count a value given again in another unit. We don't count a value worked out from the date and the place, such as sunrise. We don't check one provider's values against another's. Providers read different weather stations and models. Then we average the results over all places. Each place counts the same. When a provider didn't find a place, we count that place as 0. We compare a provider that ran on fewer places with the other providers on those same places. A provider can't score higher by running only on easy places. We lower the score when we test the call on fewer places than the benchmark has.

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