Open-Meteo API
Overview
Open-Meteo is a completely free and open-source weather API for non-commercial use that provides hourly and daily forecasts, historical data, and climate projections for any location worldwide without requiring an API key. You can start making requests immediately with just a latitude and longitude. It is one of the best beginner weather APIs due to its simplicity, generous free tier, and excellent documentation.
Beginner Tip
No sign-up or API key is needed — just provide latitude and longitude and a list of the weather variables you want. The hourly parameter accepts a comma-separated list like temperature_2m,precipitation,wind_speed_10m to customize the response.
Measurement Record
What actually happened when we called this API from our own infrastructure. Every value below was recorded by the request, not copied from the provider's documentation.
- Request
- GET https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast?latitude=52.52&longitude=13.41&hourly=temperature_2m,precipitation,wind_speed_10m
- Result
- HTTP 200 · application/json · 5,935 bytes · compressed
- Response time
- 296 ms (median of 3) · fastest 289 ms
- Transport
- TLSv1.3 · TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 · certificate issued by Let's Encrypt
- Browser CORS
- Allowed — Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
- Recorded
- 2026-08-10
Fields Returned
Top-level fields present in the response we captured, with the type and value we actually received.
| Field | Type | Value received |
|---|---|---|
| latitude | number | 52.52 |
| longitude | number | 13.419998 |
| generationtime_ms | number | 4.540562629699707 |
| utc_offset_seconds | integer | 0 |
| timezone | string | GMT |
| timezone_abbreviation | string | GMT |
| elevation | integer | 38 |
| hourly_units | object | {4 fields} |
| hourly | object | {4 fields} |
Captured Response
Captured from a real request to https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast?latitude=52.52&longitude=13.41&hourly=temperature_2m,precipitation,wind_speed_10m on 2026-08-10. Long arrays and nested objects are truncated to keep the shape readable.
{
"latitude": 52.52,
"longitude": 13.419998,
"generationtime_ms": 4.540562629699707,
"utc_offset_seconds": 0,
"timezone": "GMT",
"timezone_abbreviation": "GMT",
"elevation": 38,
"hourly_units": {
"time": "iso8601",
"temperature_2m": "°C",
"precipitation": "mm",
"wind_speed_10m": "km/h"
},
"hourly": {
"time": [
"2026-08-10T00:00"
],
"temperature_2m": [
23.7
],
"precipitation": [
0
],
"wind_speed_10m": [
6.2
]
}
} Field Reference
latitude Latitude of the nearest grid point used for the forecast. longitude Longitude of the nearest grid point used for the forecast. Implementation Example
Calls a real endpoint of this API. Replace any placeholder credentials with your own key.
// Get current weather and forecast by coordinates (no API key required)
const url = "https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast?latitude=52.52&longitude=13.41¤t_weather=true&hourly=temperature_2m,precipitation";
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(`Current Temperature: ${data.current_weather.temperature}°C`);
console.log(`Wind Speed: ${data.current_weather.windspeed} km/h`);
console.log(`Weather Code: ${data.current_weather.weathercode}`);
console.log(`Hourly forecast available for ${data.hourly.time.length} hours`); What Can You Build?
Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.
How This API Fails
We deliberately sent this API a broken request and recorded exactly what came back on 2026-08-10. Knowing the shape of an error before you hit it makes error handling much easier to write.
{
"reason": "Not Found",
"error": true
} {
"error": true,
"reason": "Data corrupted at path ''. Cannot initialize Float from invalid String value !!!invalid!!!."
} Common Errors & Troubleshooting
Generated guidance based on this API's documentation, not observed by us. Treat it as a starting point and check against the provider's own error reference.
Measured Score Breakdown
Live HTTP request to the API endpoint
Fully tested on Aug 10, 2026
Technical Specifications
Related Tags
Alternatives to Open-Meteo
Technical alternatives for different use cases.
Simple astronomical and weather forecast, no auth required
Astronomy-related weather forecasts
Detailed current conditions and historical data
Includes air quality data with no API key required
Real-time AQI station-level reporting
Quick prototyping of air quality features
More features like weather alerts and air pollution data
Apps needing weather alerts and push notifications
Cost-sensitive projects (requires paid plan for serious use)
No API key needed, fully open-source weather data
Production apps needing guaranteed uptime
Quick prototyping without registration
Recipes Using Open-Meteo
Build something with this API. Each recipe includes step-by-step instructions and code outlines.
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