OpenWeatherMap Free Tier Limits 2026

TL;DR

OpenWeatherMap's free tier still exists in 2026 but it's split into two systems with confusing limits. The Free Access APIs (current weather, forecasts) give you 60 calls/minute and 1,000,000 calls/month — generous and no credit card required. The One Call API 3.0 (the premium unified endpoint) requires a subscription but includes 1,000 free calls/day before billing kicks in. If you're building a hobby project or prototyping, the Free Access APIs are more than enough. If you need One Call API 3.0 features, you need a credit card on file — but you won't be charged unless you exceed 1,000 calls/day.

Key Takeaways

• Free Access APIs: 1M calls/month — covers current weather, 5-day forecast, air quality, geocoding; no credit card needed
• One Call API 3.0: 1,000 free calls/day — requires a subscription (credit card) but free up to the daily limit
• Overage on One Call 3.0 is automatic — exceed 1,000 calls/day and you're charged per call at the end of the billing month
• Account suspension happens after overage warnings — OWM sends email warnings before suspending your key
• Open-Meteo is the best truly-free alternative — no API key, no limits for non-commercial use, genuinely open data
• Tomorrow.io and Weatherbit offer competitive free tiers — up to 500 calls/day with more data fields than OWM's basic endpoints

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The Two Tiers You Need to Understand

OpenWeatherMap has evolved into two distinct product tracks, and confusing them is the primary source of "why is my API key not working?" questions in 2026.

Track 1: Free Access APIs

These are OWM's classic, no-credit-card-required endpoints:

Endpoint	Free Tier Limit
Current Weather (/weather)	1,000,000 calls/month, 60 calls/min
5-Day / 3-Hour Forecast (/forecast)	1,000,000 calls/month, 60 calls/min
Air Pollution (/air_pollution)	1,000,000 calls/month, 60 calls/min
Geocoding (/geo/1.0/direct)	1,000,000 calls/month, 60 calls/min
Historical Weather (/history)	❌ Not available on free
Hourly forecast (beyond 3h)	❌ Not available on free

To access Free Access APIs: Register at openweathermap.org, get an API key, no payment method required. Activation takes up to 2 hours for new keys.

For most hobby projects, personal weather dashboards, and Home Assistant integrations, the Free Access APIs are sufficient. 1M calls/month means you can poll current weather every 2.6 seconds continuously — far more than any real-world app needs.

Track 2: One Call API 3.0

One Call API 3.0 is OWM's unified premium endpoint that returns current weather, minute-by-minute precipitation, hourly forecasts for 48 hours, daily forecasts for 8 days, and weather alerts in a single request.

The catch: To use One Call API 3.0, you must subscribe — which requires a credit card. However, the first 1,000 calls per day are included at no charge.

The subscription structure:

• Subscribe to One Call API 3.0 subscription
• Default daily call limit: 2,000 calls/day (configurable in billing settings)
• Free threshold: 1,000 calls/day — calls below this threshold are not billed
• Overage: You're automatically charged per call over 1,000/day, summed monthly

Pricing over the free threshold (as of March 2026):

Calls/day	Monthly cost (approximate)
≤1,000	$0
2,000	~$3-5/month
10,000	~$15-25/month
100,000	~$150-200/month

Check the official pricing page for exact current rates — OWM adjusts pricing periodically.

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Setting Up Without Accidentally Getting Charged

The most common trap: developers subscribe to One Call API 3.0 for the better data, forget the credit card is on file, and discover a bill at month-end.

Safe setup for One Call API 3.0:

1. After subscribing, go to Billing Plans in your account
2. Set your daily call limit to exactly 1,000 (the free threshold)
3. This creates a hard cap — calls over 1,000/day fail rather than charge you

# Test your key and call type
curl "https://api.openweathermap.org/data/3.0/onecall?lat=40.7128&lon=-74.0060&appid=YOUR_KEY"

A 401 response means your key isn't subscribed to One Call API 3.0. A 429 means you've exceeded rate limits. A successful response returns current + forecast data in one call.

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What Changed in 2026

OpenWeatherMap made several quiet changes worth knowing:

One Call API 2.5 is deprecated. If you're using /data/2.5/onecall, it may still work but OWM has officially deprecated it in favor of 3.0. Migrate to /data/3.0/onecall — it requires the subscription but has more data and better accuracy.

Rate limit enforcement is stricter. In 2025 and early 2026, OWM tightened rate limiting for free tier accounts. The 60 calls/minute limit is now enforced with less grace period — burst requests that worked in 2024 may now return 429 errors.

API key activation time increased. New keys now take up to 2 hours to activate, up from the previously-advertised 10 minutes. Plan accordingly for development and CI/CD pipelines.

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Overage and Suspension: How It Actually Works

OWM's overage handling for One Call API 3.0 works in stages:

1. You exceed 1,000 calls/day → OWM begins counting overage calls
2. Automated email sent → OWM notifies you and suggests upgrading
3. If no response → OWM may suspend your API key
4. At month-end → If key is active, you're charged for all overage calls

OWM does not immediately suspend your key on the first overage — they give you time to respond. But if you ignore the emails, suspension happens. For Free Access APIs (1M/month), there's no suspension path — you simply can't exceed 1M calls/month without very aggressive polling.

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Alternatives Worth Knowing in 2026

If OWM's tier system doesn't fit your use case, these are the main alternatives:

Open-Meteo (Best Truly Free Option)

Open-Meteo is the most compelling alternative for non-commercial projects:

• No API key required for non-commercial use
• No rate limits documented for reasonable usage
• Hourly forecasts, historical data, and current conditions
• Open-source, backed by National Weather Service data
• 11 km resolution globally, 1 km in Europe

// No API key needed
const response = await fetch(
  "https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast?latitude=40.71&longitude=-74.01&current=temperature_2m,wind_speed_10m"
);
const data = await response.json();

For hobby projects, open-source apps, and prototypes, Open-Meteo is the best answer in 2026. The only limitation is that commercial use requires contacting them about licensing.

Tomorrow.io

• Free tier: 500 API calls/day, 25 calls/hour
• Coverage: 80+ weather fields including air quality, pollen, fire index
• Better documentation and developer experience than OWM
• Requires registration and API key

Weatherbit

• Free tier: 500 calls/day
• Hourly and daily forecasts on free plan
• Historical data (paid)
• Strong documentation

Visual Crossing

• Free tier: 1,000 records/day (weather record = a single location-day or location-hour)
• Historical weather going back to 1970 on free plan
• CSV and JSON responses
• Often better for historical data analysis

National Weather Service (NWS) API

• Completely free, no API key required
• US-only coverage
• Official government data
• Slower updates than commercial providers

// NWS API — no auth needed, US only
const points = await fetch("https://api.weather.gov/points/40.7128,-74.0060");
const { properties: { forecast } } = await points.json();
const forecastData = await fetch(forecast);

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Picking the Right API for Your Use Case

Use Case	Best Choice	Why
Personal/hobby project	Open-Meteo	No API key, truly free, great data
US-only production app	NWS + OWM basic	Free, reliable, official data
Global production app	OWM Free Access APIs	1M calls/month, reliable infrastructure
Current + detailed forecast in one call	OWM One Call 3.0	Best unified endpoint, free up to 1K/day
Weather + air quality + pollen	Tomorrow.io	More data fields than OWM
Historical data analysis	Visual Crossing	Historical free tier is strong
Prototyping without credit card	Open-Meteo or OWM Free Access	No payment required

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Code Examples

Current Weather (Free Access API)

const OWM_KEY = process.env.OPENWEATHER_API_KEY;
const lat = 40.7128;
const lon = -74.0060;

const res = await fetch(
  `https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?lat=${lat}&lon=${lon}&appid=${OWM_KEY}&units=metric`
);
const { main, weather, wind } = await res.json();
// main.temp, weather[0].description, wind.speed

One Call API 3.0 (Requires Subscription)

// Returns current + hourly + daily + alerts in one request
const res = await fetch(
  `https://api.openweathermap.org/data/3.0/onecall?lat=${lat}&lon=${lon}&appid=${OWM_KEY}&units=metric&exclude=minutely`
);
const { current, hourly, daily, alerts } = await res.json();

Open-Meteo (No API Key)

const res = await fetch(
  `https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast?latitude=${lat}&longitude=${lon}&current=temperature_2m,precipitation,wind_speed_10m&hourly=temperature_2m&forecast_days=3`
);
const { current, hourly } = await res.json();

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Methodology

• Free tier limits sourced from openweathermap.org/price and openweathermap.org/api/one-call-3 (March 2026)
• Alternative pricing from official docs: open-meteo.com, tomorrow.io, weatherbit.io, visualcrossing.com
• Rate limit behavior from OWM FAQ and community reports on GitHub, Stack Overflow
• Pricing estimates are approximate; check official sources for current rates

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Related: Best Weather APIs for Developers 2026, Tomorrow.io vs OpenWeatherMap API 2026, Best Free APIs for Developers 2026. Browse the full weather API directory on APIScout.