Lightning API · Pricing
Priced by the volt, not the vendor.
This isn't a demo. It's the same live feed every plan below draws from — see it, then pick how much of it you need.
lightning strikes recorded in the last 60 seconds
Real, live data over the Americas and Pacific right now. The exact same feed every tier below draws from.
See the full historical breakdown by state →Full Americas + Atlantic + Pacific coverage (incl. Canada, Mexico, Hawaii & Alaska) · bounding box filter · self-serve dashboard
Free
Non-comm.50,000 calls/month
- ✓1 storm alert zoneNew
- ✓15-min history window
- ✓No credit card required
Starter
Non-comm.250,000 calls/month · $252/yr billed annually
- ✓5 storm alert zonesNew
- ✓15-min history window
- ✓Email support
Pro
5,000,000 calls/month · $672/yr billed annually
- ✓25 storm alert zonesNew
- ✓6-hour history windowNew
- ✓Email support
Ultimate
25,000,000 calls/month · $1680/yr billed annually
- ✓100 storm alert zonesNew
- ✓24-hour history windowNew
- ✓Priority support
Enterprise
100,000,000+ calls/month, negotiated
- ✓Custom zone allowanceNew
- ✓Unlimited history window
- ✓Real-time WebSocket push
- ✓SLA guarantees
- ✓Priority, dedicated support
Annual plans billed once per year at 30% off. Monthly plans billed every month. Cancel any time. No setup fees. Questions? Contact us.
Monthly call limits assume typical query sizes. Quota scales with how many flashes a request returns (1 unit per 100 flashes, minimum 1 per call), so ordinary requests use exactly 1 call as shown here. See the docs for details.
How we compare
The only lightning data API with pricing you can actually see.
Nobody else sells lightning data as its own product. Every other provider bundles it into a full weather API, either as a steep pay-as-you-go multiplier (Vaisala Xweather) or a flat-rate tier (Weatherbit), and most won't quote you a price at all until you talk to sales.
Vaisala Xweather doesn't have a lightning-only plan either
Lightning API Pro, 5,000,000 calls/mo
$56/mo
Xweather, same 5,000,000 calls/mo
$29,991/mo
Roughly 536× cheaper for the exact same volume. That's 99.8% off what Xweather would charge.
Xweather bills lightning through their pay-as-you-go Weather API at a 10× cost multiplier. Standard endpoints cost $0.0006 per access. Lightning costs $0.006 per call, after a 15,000-access monthly free tier shared across every endpoint they offer.
Their own live cost calculator confirms it: at 1,000,000 lightning calls a month it quotes $5,991. Scaled up to 5,000,000 calls a month, the same volume as our Pro plan, that comes to $29,991/month.
Every Lightning API plan compared against the equivalent Xweather pay-as-you-go cost and Weatherbit's closest flat-rate tier, using the same billing toggle above.
| Tier | Lightning API | Xweather (equivalent) | Weatherbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter 250,000 calls/month | $21/mo | $1,491/mo 71× cheaper with Lightning API | $45/mo 53% cheaper, 25,000 calls/day cap |
| Pro 5,000,000 calls/month | $56/mo | $29,991/mo 536× cheaper with Lightning API | $195/mo 71% cheaper, 250,000 calls/day cap |
| Ultimate 25,000,000 calls/month | $140/mo | $149,991/mo 1071× cheaper with Lightning API | $475/mo 71% cheaper, 2,000,000 calls/day cap |
At these volumes, Xweather's own calculator recommends contacting their sales team for custom enterprise pricing instead of paying the list pay-as-you-go rate. The figures above use their published rate for a consistent comparison. A negotiated enterprise rate could be lower, but it also means going back to a sales conversation, which is exactly what a flat, published price avoids.
Everyone else makes you ask
Tomorrow.io
Lightning is a “premium parameter.” Reach out to their sales team for access.
OpenWeather
Lightning API isn’t on their public pricing page. It’s a separate, enterprise product.
Meteomatics
No published pricing for lightning data. It’s “tailored to individual needs.”
DTN
Enterprise weather data provider. Sales contact only.
The Weather Company (IBM)
Enterprise data hub access. Sales contact only.
Comparison based on publicly listed pricing at xweather.com's pay-as-you-go cost calculator and weatherbit.io/pricing, plus each other provider's own documentation, verified July 2026. Xweather figures are calculated from their published rate ($0.0006 base, 10x lightning multiplier, 15,000 free accesses) applied at each Lightning API tier's own monthly call volume, since their calculator only lets you model up to 1,000,000 calls directly (it quotes $5,991 at that volume). Weatherbit and Xweather plans include their full weather API, not lightning alone. Lightning API is lightning-only, which is why it's cheaper in absolute terms as well as per endpoint. Third-party pricing can change, so check current rates before deciding.