Top weather APIs in 2026

If you’re evaluating weather APIs, you already know accuracy and uptime are table stakes. The real question is which provider’s data model, resolution, and event coverage best match your product’s technical demands. This guide evaluates ten weather APIs in 2026. We'll cover several providers that may suit simpler use cases or specific budget constraints.

Before getting into the top 10, here are some factors to consider when selecting a weather API depending on your application's needs and the industry you plan to target.

How to evaluate a weather API

Choosing a weather API involves more than just forecast length or endpoint count. The right provider depends on how your system ingests, caches, and displays weather data at scale. Use this checklist to narrow your options:

• Coverage: Verify the provider’s grid size (for example, 1 km or 10 km) and update the cadence accordingly. Finer grids and faster refresh rates are essential for hyperlocal or time-sensitive features.

• Hazards: Identify the specialized datasets your application requires, such as those for lightning, hail, roads, marine, or air quality. Confirm whether these are produced by the provider or aggregated from external sources.

• Formats: Match the output format to your workflow. For example:

JSON or GeoJSON for app development and mapping

CSV or XLSX for analytics and business intelligence

GRIB or NetCDF for scientific or machine learning applications

• Integration surface: Check for SDKs in your preferred languages, webhook or push delivery options, bulk download capabilities, and the availability of sandbox environments.

• Operational reliability: Look for transparent rate-limit headers, published uptime metrics or SLAs, and any latency data such as p50, p95, and p99 measurements.

• Historical depth: Confirm how far back archives extend and at what temporal resolution (e.g., hourly, daily, or event-based).

• Authentication model: Note whether the API uses API keys, OAuth, or signed requests, and if test credentials are available.

Now that you’re familiar with the factors we’re considering, here are the top 10 weather APIs for 2026.

Top weather APIs in 2026 for real-world applications

1. Xweather

Xweather (formerly AerisWeather) is widely considered one of the best weather APIs when evaluated on data quality, global coverage, reliability, and advanced mapping features.

Backed by Vaisala, Xweather provides source-level access to high-resolution observational data, with a particular strength in lightning intelligence delivered directly from Vaisala-owned detection networks. Xweather’s lightning API is built on these networks to provide low-latency, high-accuracy lightning data used in real-time alerting, situational awareness, and historical analysis. This makes it especially well suited for applications where lightning detection speed and accuracy are critical.

Xweather also offers specialized severe weather intelligence such as short-term hail forecasts, , and road weather conditions. In addition to deterministic forecasts up to 15 days and long-term historical data (dating to 2004), Xweather offers advanced mapping tools, machine-ready APIs, and AI-generated weather summaries that interpret forecast impacts in natural language. Its global coverage, enterprise-grade uptime, and specialized datasets distinguish it from general-purpose weather APIs.

Xweather is often chosen for applications where lightning accuracy and latency are critical, along with broader requirements for source-quality weather data, global coverage, and reliable performance, placing it among the leading weather APIs used by both consumer forecast platforms and enterprise systems.

2. WeatherAPI.com

WeatherAPI.com is a commercial weather and geolocation service that offers weather data and forecasts via REST APIs. With historical data going back to January 2010, they provide deterministic forecasting for up to 14 days. WeatherAPI.com utilizes global modeling, which results in simpler caching strategies and faster response times due to smaller data volumes for medium resolution. However, you get less granular data since global models have fewer data points for any given area.

3. Meteomatics

Meteomatics is a weather data provider offering global weather and climate data services through REST API or geospatial protocols (WMS and WFS). Their APIs support multiple output formats, including NetCDF. The Meteomatics weather API service provides historical data, deterministic forecasting up to 15 days, and extended and probabilistic forecasting for up to 7 months. Meteomatics provides a wide range of weather parameters with access to data from multiple sources.

4. AccuWeather

AccuWeather combines different data channels to provide weather data and forecasts globally. They offer specialized forecasting in the form of Severe weather warnings and alerts, Air quality indices (AQI), UV index, and Pollen forecasts. AccuWeather offers a globally scalable API supporting hyperlocal forecasts collected from multiple models. The AccuWeather API provides JSON support for output and offers two API options: Core Weather and MinuteCast. One potential drawback is that AccuWeather requires developers to include the AccuWeather logo within their app or product.

5. Tomorrow.io

Tomorrow.io uses AI models to provide high-resolution data for hyperlocal observation and minute-by-minute forecasting. You can access the platform through its REST API and get outputs in JSON format. Tomorrow.io operates its own forecasting model called 1 Forecast (1F) to generate a range of probabilistic outcomes in seven different percentiles – 5%, 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 90%, and 95%.

6. OpenWeatherMap

OpenWeatherMap is a global weather data API service widely used for its current weather data, hourly forecasts, daily forecasts, and historical weather data. They provide weather data primarily through their REST API, which offers endpoints such as Historical Data APIs and One Call API 3.0. OpenWeatherMap provides comprehensive weather parameters with data from over 82,000 global sensors, radar-based nowcasts, weather stations, and other weather sensors. Its free tier and active community, along with SDKs in various languages such as Python and JavaScript, make it popular amongst developers.

7. Weatherstack

Weatherstack is a global weather data REST API that provides real-time weather data and forecasts. With Weatherstack, you receive HTTPS encryption for REST APIs, regardless of your plan. Their APIs output weather data solely in JSON. Weatherstack allows you to access historical data dating back to July 2008 and provides a standard 14-day weather forecast (for Pro plan or higher). The API supports over 40 languages and offers bulk query capability (available with the Pro plan or higher).

8. Weatherbit

Weatherbit is an AI-powered weather API offering weather forecasts and historical weather data. It aims to fix bias in forecast models using machine learning techniques. They provide weather data primarily through their REST API, and are also compatible with tile-serving clients such as Leaflet and Mapbox. Weatherbit allows you to access historical weather data dating back 30 years. Weatherbit uses a combination of regional models (like the NOAA HRRR) and global models (like the GFS) to produce 16-day/daily forecasts.

9. Visual Crossing

Visual Crossing is a global weather data and API provider of historical, forecast, current conditions, and industry-specific weather data. They provide weather data primarily through their REST API, which is compatible with any programming language. Visual Crossing provides deterministic forecasts of up to 15 days (hourly and daily) and global historical data.

10. DTN

DTN is a global data company that provides weather data through a RESTful API solution, offering geospatial queries, webhook integration, and SDKs, allowing for easier integration with most programming languages. DTN's weather API supports multiple output formats, like GeoJSON, NetCDF, CSV, XML, JSON, and TXT. Deterministic forecasts span up to 15 days for gridded weather conditions. Historical observations go back 30 years.

What’s next?

For production applications requiring accuracy and hazard detection, the Xweather API stands out. It offers significant advantages with its enterprise-grade infrastructure, specialized endpoints for lightning, hail, and road conditions, and AI-powered forecasts that deliver up to 78% better accuracy than traditional NWP models. The combination of under 10km resolution and 2-minute hazard data updates makes it particularly well-suited for applications in renewable energy, mobility and infrastructure, as well as outdoor operations and public safety.

For teams with simpler requirements or tighter budgets, alternatives like WeatherAPI.com and OpenWeatherMap provide basic coverage with free tiers suitable for prototyping. Applications focused on historical analysis may find Visual Crossing's archive useful, while agricultural applications might consider Weatherbit's specialized endpoints. However, these providers generally offer coarser resolution and fewer hazard-specific datasets than Xweather's enterprise capabilities.

Before committing to any provider, take advantage of trial periods to validate performance against your specific requirements. Test:

• Response times under load

• Data accuracy for your geographic focus areas

• Availability of the specialized datasets your application requires

• Integration complexity with your existing infrastructure

Ultimately, the best weather API depends on how your application uses weather data and which risks or decisions that data supports. This comparison is intended to highlight where different providers excel, from basic forecasting to specialized hazard detection and enterprise-scale reliability, so you can choose a platform that aligns with your technical and operational requirements.