Oikolab
- Free allowance
- Pay As You Go plan with 1,500 data units a month free, then USD 0.01 a unit; a data unit is 1 location x 1 parameter x 1 month; up to 2,500 units per call, historical data from 1940, global forecast models and an air quality forecast; sign-up without credit card.
- Verdict
- caveatusable, with a named limit or an unprobed read path
- Cost
- free tier
- Identity
- emailno card, no phone
- Binding limit
- volume-quota1,500 data units a month free on Pay As You Go
- Evidence
- documented16 sources; a first-party page was read and the sentence quoted
- Freshness
- stale on 2026-12-03checked 2026-11-02 (live); stale on 2026-12-03
| Free tier | Pay As You Go plan with 1,500 data units a month free, then USD 0.01 a unit; a data unit is 1 location x 1 parameter x 1 month; up to 2,500 units per call, historical data from 1940, global forecast models and an air quality forecast; sign-up without credit card. unit mixed; metered on object-count; The true unit is a data unit (one location, one parameter, one month of time series, or 1 degree x 1 degree x 1 month for NetCDF), which the unit vocabulary lacks. Ten years of two parameters for ten locations cost 2,400 units. Bulk path: multi-location calls (the Business plan allows 10 locations a call) and JSON, CSV or NetCDF answers; gridded NetCDF is listed under Enterprise. ERA5 history lags by 5 days and recent days are filled from forecasts. Next plan: Business at USD 150 a month with 50,000 units. |
|---|---|
| Price | none stated |
| Limits | |
| Binding | volume-quota 1,500 free units a month is met before the 2,500 units per call cap. |
| Identity | email An account is needed for an API key (the key is on the profile page after login); the pricing page says sign-up needs no credit card; the sign-up is a hosted login page that no reader could render, so its fields are unverified. |
| Egress | not applicable: answers are metered in data units |
| Per-object cap | up to 2,500 units per call on Pay As You Go; 5,000 units or 10 locations on Business |
| Retention | not applicable: the unit is a data unit |
| Interface | rest REST over HTTPS at api.oikolab.com (/weather, /archivedforecast, /airquality, /epw, /datasets, /account) with the key in the api-key header; JSON, CSV or NetCDF answers endpoint: https://api.oikolab.com/weather |
| Tooling | any HTTP client; Python and R examples in the docs |
| Composes with | A history-heavy source: decades of hourly ERA5 for many locations in one call; the free units cover 125 location-years of one parameter. |
| Reliability | The most recent 5 days of history are filled from forecasts and overwritten when ERA5 arrives. |
| Notes | Derived: 1,500 units / 12 months = 125 location-years of one parameter. Bulk path: multi-location calls and NetCDF area requests. |
| Evidence note | documented Plan and metering are read from the first-party pricing and docs pages; a call with no key answered HTTP 401, so a keyed call was not exercised. |
| Parsed numbers |
|
Evidence 16
| date | source | what it proved |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-11-02 | oikolab.com/ | 1,500 data units a month are free |
| 2026-11-02 | oikolab.com/ | the Pay As You Go price is USD 0.01 a unit |
| 2026-11-02 | oikolab.com/ | the text of Limits, above |
| 2026-11-02 | oikolab.com/ | sign-up needs no credit card |
| 2026-11-02 | oikolab.com/ | part of the text of Free tier, above |
| 2026-11-02 | oikolab.com/ | the metering definition |
| 2026-11-02 | oikolab.com/ | the Business plan is USD 150 a month |
| 2026-11-02 | oikolab.com/ | gridded NetCDF is listed under Enterprise |
| 2026-11-02 | docs.oikolab.com/authentication/ | every request needs an API key |
| 2026-11-02 | docs.oikolab.com/authentication/ | the key is on the profile page after login |
| 2026-11-02 | docs.oikolab.com/references/ | archived GFS forecasts for 3 years |
| 2026-11-02 | docs.oikolab.com/datasets/ | ERA5 from 1940 with a 5-day delay |
| 2026-11-02 | docs.oikolab.com/ | JSON, CSV and NetCDF answers |
| 2026-11-02 | probe: https://api.oikolab.com/weather | a call with no key answered 401 |
| 2026-11-02 | probe: https://api.oikolab.com/weather | the call answered HTTP 401 |
| 2026-11-02 | raw.githubusercontent.com/public-apis/public-apis/master/REA | listed under Weather in public-apis with apiKey |