A million free calls a month is a lot of weather for a hobby app. OpenWeatherMap is a weather data API used in hobby projects, home automation and apps. The free plan gives 60 calls per minute and 1,000,000 calls per month across Current Weather, a 5-day forecast in 3-hour steps, Air Pollution, Weather Maps with 15 layers and Geocoding. The One Call API is billed per call: the first 1,000 calls each day are free, then 0.0012 GBP per call, and users on Reddit report that activating it asks for a credit card. Paid subscriptions are priced in pounds, from 30 for Startup to 1,200 for Expert. Data is licensed under ODbL, which carries attribution and share-alike duties. Students get a free bundle of extra products.
Free tier quotas
Free plan rate
60 calls per minute
Free plan volume
1,000,000 calls per month
Free plan products
Current Weather, 3-hour forecast for 5 days, Air Pollution, Weather Maps (15 layers), Geocoding
One Call API
First 1,000 calls per day free, then 0.0012 GBP per call
Students
Free access to Current, Forecast, History, Statistical, Accumulated, Hourly (4 days) and Daily (16 days)
Data licence
ODbL
Currency
Paid prices are listed in pounds sterling
Last sniffed Oct 9, 2026. Always confirm on the official pricing page.
👍 Good boy
+The free plan volume is large: 1,000,000 calls a month at 60 per minute is enough for a dashboard, a bot or a home automation project that polls a few locations.
+Several products sit inside the free plan: current weather, a 5-day forecast, air pollution data, 15 weather map layers and geocoding, so one key covers location lookup and conditions.
+The One Call API is pay-per-call with no subscription, and the first 1,000 calls each day are free, so a small app pays nothing and a bigger one pays about 1.20 pounds per 1,000 calls.
+Students get a separate free bundle that includes history, statistical and accumulated data and a 16-day daily forecast, products that are otherwise part of paid plans.
+Paid subscriptions have published numbers for rate and volume, from Startup at 600 calls a minute and 10 million a month to Expert at 100,000 a minute and 3 billion a month.
+The product is widely known. Home automation and hobby communities discuss it often, and many libraries and integrations already exist for it.
👎 Watch out
−The One Call API 3.0 asks for a credit card at activation, according to a thread titled for that in r/homeassistant. Users in that thread discussed switching to other providers.
−A 2020 r/webdev thread titled 'LOL at openWeatherMap's pricing' shows the pricing structure has drawn complaints for years. I only read the title and excerpt, not the full thread.
−A poster in r/Unity3D claimed that a leaked API key can run up charges once calls pass the 1,000 per day limit on One Call. I could not confirm this beyond the poster's claim, so set usage caps and keep keys server-side.
−Prices are listed in pounds, and the page is not clear that paid subscriptions are billed monthly, so confirm the billing period and currency at checkout.
−Availability targets on paid plans start at 95% for Startup, which is low for production use. 99.5% starts at Developer and 99.9% at Expert.
−The ODbL licence requires attribution and share-alike on derived databases. If you redistribute weather data inside a product, read the licence before you ship.
−Special products such as solar irradiance at 0.1 pounds per call, road risk and bulk history are priced separately, some by quote, so costs can rise if you need more than basic weather.
The catch
There are two separate free allowances, and they work differently. The free plan covers Current Weather, the 3-hour forecast for 5 days, Air Pollution, Weather Maps and Geocoding at 60 calls per minute and 1,000,000 calls per month. The One Call API is not part of a subscription: it is pay-per-call, free for the first 1,000 calls each day and 0.0012 GBP per call after that.
One Call 3.0 reportedly asks for a credit card at activation, based on a Reddit thread title and discussion in r/homeassistant. I did not confirm this on the sign-up flow, so the card field is marked unknown. The same applies to commercial use on the free plan, which the pricing page text I read does not state.
Paid subscriptions are priced in pounds: Startup 30, Developer 140, Professional 370 and Expert 1,200, with 600, 3,000, 30,000 and 100,000 calls per minute and 10 million, 100 million, 1 billion and 3 billion calls per month. I read these as monthly prices, so check the billing period at checkout. Availability targets are 95%, 99.5%, 99.5% and 99.9% across those tiers. Data is licensed under ODbL.
What’s included
✓Current Weather
✓5-day forecast in 3-hour steps
✓Air Pollution data
✓Weather Maps with 15 layers
✓Geocoding
✓One Call API
✓Historical and statistical data on paid plans
✓Student bundle
✓ODbL data licence
Free tier value
Generosity
B
Estimated value
1,000,000 calls a month; One Call 1,000 calls a day free
Feature parity
Free: current weather, 5-day forecast, air pollution, maps. History and long forecasts cost extra.
Screenshots
HomepagePricing page
Paid plans
Startup, 30 pounds
600 calls per minute and 10 million calls per month, with a 95% availability target.
Developer, 140 pounds
3,000 calls per minute and 100 million calls per month, with a 99.5% availability target.
Professional, 370 pounds
30,000 calls per minute and 1 billion calls per month, with a 99.5% availability target.
Expert, 1,200 pounds
100,000 calls per minute and 3 billion calls per month, with a 99.9% availability target.
One Call API, pay per call
First 1,000 calls per day free, then 0.0012 pounds per call.
Common questions
Is OpenWeatherMap free?
Yes, for the basic weather products. The free plan gives 60 calls per minute and 1,000,000 calls per month.
What is free on the One Call API?
The first 1,000 calls each day. After that it costs 0.0012 pounds per call, with no subscription.
Does One Call need a credit card?
Users in r/homeassistant report that One Call 3.0 asks for one at activation. I did not confirm this on the sign-up flow.
Is there a student plan?
Yes. The page lists free access to Current, Forecast, History, Statistical, Accumulated, Hourly (4 days) and Daily (16 days) products for students.
What licence applies to the data?
The pricing page lists ODbL, which requires attribution and share-alike on derived databases.
Change history
Checked October 22, 2026
Pricing page shows the free plan at 60 calls per minute and 1,000,000 per month, One Call at 1,000 free calls a day then 0.0012 pounds, and four subscriptions from 30 to 1,200 pounds. Reddit threads in r/webdev, r/homeassistant and r/Unity3D were read as excerpts only.
