Apple’s season for developers: How much does it cost to access

Apple offers developers a new way to get weather data. With the new operating system versions this fall (iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS 13, tvOS 16 and watchOS 9) the programming interface WeatherKit will be introduced, which makes this possible. The data can also be accessed for websites and other platforms through the REST API. Apple has now announced how much the recovery will cost.

The good news is that 500,000 views per month are free for registered developers. If you have an Apple Developer Program subscription, which is required to publish apps to the App Store, you need to include this number of API calls, It says in an article in the developer portal, Above this value, views can be subscribed at different prices.

tier package for developers

If you plan on making more than a million calls per month, you pay just under US$50. The cost of 2 million calls is around US$100, 5 million hits is US$250 and up to 10 million calls per month is around US$500. The highest tariffs for up to 20 million calls cost just under US$1000 per month. According to Apple, the call level can be changed at any time.

Apple sees its weather service as contributing to greater data security. When launched at the WWDC developer conference, it was emphasized that location data used to retrieve local weather would not be used or sold for any other purpose.

Access via Swift and REST API

Weather data can be retrieved very easily using the Swift programming language and the new WeatherKit API. In addition to the current weather, hourly and daily forecasts, there is also an option to call up past time weather data. The data package is broken down into several details, including information on sunrise and sunset, phases of the moon, barometric pressure, and more. For websites and apps outside the Apple platform, the REST API is available for retrieval via the web.

Apple’s new weather service predates its Dark Sky purchase. The app with the associated weather service for developers was acquired by Apple two years ago, in 2020. The Android version and the Dark Sky API were soon discontinued or phased out.

(MKI)