API use on shared server and daily limit

[ludosevilla]

Hello,

I use this powerful and wonderful API on a shared server.

Today, when using the API, it returns error=1 and the message "Daily API request limit exceeded. Please try again tomorrow." , and it was the first request of the day...

I don't know how are counted the number of requests, but if it is per IP, I guess there could be an issue with shared server, as the one I am using, all the applications using the open-meteo API having the same IP, even if their owner are totally different.

I guess that an other service (not mine) have exceeded the requests limit...
In that case, what is the solution, except a paying plan, to keep using the API?
It is not very fair that an unfair use by another will penalize others..

My service is free, no ads (and source available on github) and make as a maximum of 10 or 20 requests / week..
So paying for the API is not a solution as the lowest price is 30 euros/month..

Is there a possibility to get a private API key to differenciate the users?
If not, maybe a possibility to credit an account, and for example each X request would cost 1 cent ?

Thanks

[rany2]

I made a different issue which I think is similar to what you're asking for: #843

I believe that the reason you're exhausting your quota is similar to what my users are facing.

[ludosevilla]

Yes, I think so. I hope there will be soon a solution... I would be sad to stop using open-meteo because of this (unfair) limitation.

[rany2]

It's not necessarily unfair, using Open-Meteo is a privilege not a right. We're not entitled to access.

At any rate, I've worked around this by self-hosting Open-Meteo. I needed around ~1.5TB of disk space and it's really straightforward. The docs are great.

[ludosevilla]

When I say "unfair", I don't mean that the limitation is inself unfair (as you said, it s a privilege, not a right), but unfair in the meaning that people that make a "fair" use of open-meteo will face the consequence of people makeing an "unfair" use of the system.

[FleetAdmiralJakob]

When I say "unfair", I don't mean that the limitation is inself unfair (as you said, it s a privilege, not a right), but unfair in the meaning that people that make a "fair" use of open-meteo will face the consequence of people makeing an "unfair" use of the system.

Hi, I'm hitting the rate limit too with using Vercel without any more requests from my side, see: #811

But I dont think that the people that are causing my issue do unfair stuff. It's just the nature of the current system in which someone will always hit the limit and this will break also other apps.

And (I dont have numbers here), but it also dont have to mean that some people are abusing the system. The problem can also be that too many people are using the same IP adress at the same time.

But I agree with you @ludosevilla and @rany2. Im really thankful that this project exists and that is offering a free plan thank you for that @patrick-zippenfenig.

To solve the problem: I have to admit that it's really hard to find a better option that is sustainable at the same time.

[ludosevilla]

When I say "unfair", I don't mean that the limitation is inself unfair (as you said, it s a privilege, not a right), but unfair in the meaning that people that make a "fair" use of open-meteo will face the consequence of people makeing an "unfair" use of the system.

Hi, I'm hitting the rate limit too with using Vercel without any more requests from my side, see: #811

But I dont think that the people that are causing my issue do unfair stuff. It's just the nature of the current system in which someone will always hit the limit and this will break also other apps.

And (I dont have numbers here), but it also dont have to mean that some people are abusing the system. The problem can also be that too many people are using the same IP adress at the same time.

But I agree with you @ludosevilla and @rany2. Im really thankful that this project exists and that is offering a free plan thank you for that @patrick-zippenfenig.

It's really hard to find a better option that is sustainable at the same time.

Well, you're right! Probably the word "unfair" is not the correct one! And thanks again to open-meteo for existing!

[patrick-zippenfenig]

Hi,
thanks for the report. Yes, in the recent weeks more and more people reported this issue for shared services like vercel, cf pages, etc.

Offering API keys for non-commercial use is an option, but also offers large potential for misuse. Getting multiple API keys and effectively circumventing any rate limit is easy. The existing IP limit can also be circumvented, but using multiple IP addresses is actually more complicated.

It would also require multiple days to develop the sign-up system, databases, synchronisation across multiple datacenters, etc. For paying customers that cross-finance the free API, I use different systems that would be unsustainable (= $$$ expensive) to offer for free. A simple solution would be to offer a "non-commercial" API key at low rates like $2-3 per month, but this can lead to more support effort and can be abused by commercial users.....

Other ideas? Any way to authenticate users more reliably to prevent multi-accounts? GitHub SSO only? Any software solutions out there to automate this setup (My favourite would be a SvelteKit based signup system on CF workers with a CF database)?

[FleetAdmiralJakob]

One, question, why is it so much harder and costs more to rate limit via api key instead of ip.

Dont you need for both a db in which the ip/api keys are stored?

[patrick-zippenfenig]

API keys require a signup-form, email verification, a central database with permanent storage and synchronisation with all API nodes. Limits by IP can be as simple as a hash-table in the application memory

[FleetAdmiralJakob]

I wonder if IPv6 can help here. Vercel probably reuses a lot of IPv4 adresses which cause the ratelimiting then. Maybe with checking IPv6 there are less such errors, but I'm not sure. Just an idea.

[FleetAdmiralJakob]

@patrick-zippenfenig And what about using a service like unkey? I dont know how many users open-meteo has but for me, it seems relatively cheap at the price of 25 bucks for 1m api keys

https://www.unkey.com/pricing

[SebSwan]

The free tiers is really generous. It look like a no-solution for a no-problem, if a client need more api call, he take a premium subscription or find a solution to handle a different IP for calling the api. Time and resources of @patrick-zippenfenig is limited, i prefer a focus on more valuable features.