OpenWeatherMap API 2.5 to be closed this June 2024

I think this is going to impact a lot of project out there. I didn't get the email but a friend did and forwarded to me. OpenWeatherMap is discontinuing their 2.5 free API. The 3.0 API is the replacement but it requires an account with a credit card on file. You do get 1,000 API calls per day for free but if the app goes over that number you are charged per call.

The 3.0 API is not a direct replacement. For example you must use long.lat for your location, city and country code is not supported.

What concerns me is if there is a bug or someone mods your code you could go over the allotment.

I would like to know what other service is out there that has a real free API service that does not require a credit card on file. I looked at couple of services and the programming changes are extensive, it's not as easy as openweather made it or the documentation is flimsy I can't understand it.

From what you describe, it sounds acceptable to me as a free service.

At 1000 calls per day, they are not going to make money out of individual users like you & me. We don't need to make calls more than once every 90 seconds. Unless our code is faulty, in which case they are motivating us to fix it, or we share our API keys, which I guess we are warned not to do.

But I guess it creates a way for them to make money from corporate users who do need to make more than 1000 calls per day and are willing to pay for it. These corporate users could be selling standalone devices or a smartphone app that uses the API for example. That income stream will cover the charges for using the API and allow them to make a profit, and OpenWeatherMap get a share of that profit.

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Now I am wondering what API the "Wifi Study clock" I just bought uses. Most services that start as "open" or "free" don't remain so, for obvious reasons, it is just to collect a userbase. TNSTAAFL applies.

I agree but my issue is the code is on Github and Youtube, it's not just for my use. It's a popular morphing clock and weather project. I know some new users will be turned off if they have to provide a credit card to a company they don't know like Open Weather Map.

I am also concerned if the code were to have a bug and it ends up doing more than the alloted free calls for the day and then incurs charges on their credit card. They will blame me and that is a can of worms. They could also mod the code, create a bug and still blame me. I don't want that situation and will not use the new API from Open Weather Map.

I have a weather cube from Amazon, I know it uses the Open Weather Map, it has no source option. Like my code it stopped working last week, Open Weather Map even though they said June 2024 they changed the API and created a bug last week which broke the city, country option if your city had a space in the name. That's how I found out about the 2.5 API call being depreciated.

No I never include my API key in any of my projects.

This change is sad. As a hobbyist user, why should I provide credit card info when I know I will never come close to surpassing the free 1000 calls/day limit? It’s a security risk to keep providing financial info to companies who keep it on file, creating a fruitful opening for hackers.

Worse, openweather itself sang the praises of free weather info not that long ago: https://openweathermap.medium.com/why-weather-data-should-be-open-and-nearly-free-9c330fe031be

What do they stand to gain from this? If they want to charge for calls past the limit, then block those calls until payment info is provided. Why penalize the chronic free user with another security hole? Or will they change the terms later on, reducing the free limit to 10/day, and catch thousands of unsuspecting users with charges?

Like the OP I am now in search of a real free API to replace open weather, not one that costs me the risk of publicized financial info or sneaky tactics that cost me real money.

So far I have been able to get weatherapi.com and open-meteo.com working without many issues. Open Meteo requires NO account or API and offers 1 million calls per month for free! I have been using it for a few days and so far no issues.

WeatherAPI.com also works well, it requires an account/API key.

Weatherbit.io I gave up on, only 50 calls per day. My first day writing the code I popped the limit. That's basically 2 calls per hour. Kinda limiting.

Tomorrow.io does not work for me. Their documentation may look slick but when it comes down to getting the syntax of that "GET" it's not working for me. Support so far is waiting game. I think it may be HTTPS only which I'm not going to deal with on a ESP8266. But again they won't tell me their requirements.

Pirateweather.com looks ok, API call is easy enough but they have a bug. No matter what you put in the include query they send back the 'whole' whopping string - 34k worth! My code blows up with a string that long. They are aware of the bug and don't seem to anxious to fix it.

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Some real good info there. Thanks for the research you’ve already done and for sharing it here.

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