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OpenWeather API Documentation

This guide was written for anyone who has never used an API before and wants to retrieve real, live weather data without needing a coding background.

The official OpenWeather documentation is written for developers. This guide is written for everyone else — if you can use a web browser, you can follow this guide.

What You Will Learn

  • How to create an OpenWeather account and get an API key
  • How to make your first API request using Postman
  • How to read and understand the response data
  • How to recognise and fix common errors

What You Need

  • A web browser
  • A free OpenWeather account
  • A free Postman account
  • No coding experience required

Quick Start

Get the current weather for London:

GET https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather
  ?q=London
  &appid=YOUR_API_KEY
  &units=metric

A successful response looks like this:

{
    "name": "London",
    "main": {
        "temp": 7.69,
        "feels_like": 5.1,
        "humidity": 93
    },
    "weather": [{ "description": "overcast clouds" }],
    "cod": 200
}

How This Guide Is Organised

Section What It Covers
Authentication How to get and use your API key
Endpoints The URL structure and available parameters
Reading the Response What each field in the response means
Error Handling What goes wrong and how to fix it
Quick Reference A one-page summary of everything

Tip

Never used an API before? Start with the Authentication page — it takes less than 5 minutes to set up.