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Open-Meteo is a free and open-source weather API for non-commercial use

open-meteo.com

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Re: Open-Meteo is a free and open-source weather API for non-commercial use

#5

Post by abetusk »

This is a very confusingly worded.

I think what they mean is that the data and code itself is libre/free/open [0] [1] but the API access is essentially rate limited for non-paying customers?

[0] https://open-meteo.com/en/licence (CC-BY)

[1] https://github.com/open-meteo/open-meteo/blob/main/LICENSE (AGPL)

Re: Open-Meteo is a free and open-source weather API for non-commercial use

#6

Post by tedivm »

abetusk wrote: post #5

This is a very confusingly worded. I think what they mean is that the data and code itself is libre/free/open [0] [1] but the API access is essentially rate limited for non-paying customers? [0] https://open-meteo.com/en/licence (CC-BY) [1] https://github.com/open-meteo/open-meteo/blob/main/LICENSE (AGPL)

Most APIs, even ones you pay for, are rate limited. I don't think having a rate limit changes the open nature of the API. I'm looking forward to seeing if I can plug this in to my Home Assistant install for weather so I can compare it to Pirate Weather which I use now.

Re: Open-Meteo is a free and open-source weather API for non-commercial use

#7

Post by open-meteo »

abetusk wrote: post #5

This is a very confusingly worded. I think what they mean is that the data and code itself is libre/free/open [0] [1] but the API access is essentially rate limited for non-paying customers? [0] https://open-meteo.com/en/licence (CC-BY) [1] https://github.com/open-meteo/open-meteo/blob/main/LICENSE (AGPL)

Hi, creator of Open-Meteo here. The limits are 600 calls / min, 5.000 calls / hour and 10.000 calls / day. Limits are applied on an IP basis.

This is not ideal for shared hosting services like cloudflare workers, but is the easiest and privacy-friendly way to limit access to fair-use.

Additionally, weather data is uploaded to a AWS S3 open-data sponsorship and you can run your own API instances (even commercially). The only draw back is, that a lot of data needs to transferred. I am working on a S3 cloud-native approach, but it is still in testing.

The free tier is cross-financed by commercial customers that use the service for energy forecasting, agriculture planing or wild fire prevention. There is no external funding, VCs, or whatsoever, the code is build in public on GitHub and I intent to continue running the free API service as is.

Re: Open-Meteo is a free and open-source weather API for non-commercial use

#8

Post by abetusk »

tedivm wrote: post #6
abetusk wrote: post #5

This is a very confusingly worded. I think what they mean is that the data and code itself is libre/free/open [0] [1] but the API access is essentially rate limited for non-paying customers? [0] https://open-meteo.com/en/licence (CC-BY) [1] https://github.com/open-meteo/open-meteo/blob/main/LICENSE (AGPL)

Most APIs, even ones you pay for, are rate limited. I don't think having a rate limit changes the open nature of the API. I'm looking forward to seeing if I can plug this in to my Home Assistant install for weather so I can compare it to Pirate Weather which I use now.

Agreed. I think the source code is open and I think the data is open. The by-line is just a bit confusing.

I think what they're trying to say is "Our service is completely open source. Our code is open source and our data is open source. We provide reasonable rate limits to our API access for non-paying customers. See our pricing plan if you'd like to become a commercial user and increase your rate limits".

Re: Open-Meteo is a free and open-source weather API for non-commercial use

#10

Post by alsetmusic »

What timing. I was on a hunt only yesterday for free weather APIs for scripting on a personal hobby. I recognize the page design, but I can’t recall how it rated compared to the competition nor whether it made the list to use. I’ll revisit when I get back to my computer. I live HN.
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