What is Qanto?

A three-layer weather intelligence platform that turns the world's weather data into actionable intelligence and financial protection — accessible to anyone, human or machine.

Weather data today is fragmented across dozens of sources, locked behind enterprise sales teams, and delivered in formats that machines can't easily consume. The intelligence layer — turning “wind will be 12 m/s” into “your wind farm output will drop 30%, hedge your contracts” — costs $50K–$500K/year and requires talking to a salesperson.

Qanto solves this with three layers:

Layer 1: Data

40+ weather sources unified into one pay-per-call API

Layer 2: Intelligence

AI-powered analysis, impact scoring, and natural language insights

Layer 3: Finance

Democratized parametric insurance and proactive weather hedging

The Jensen Huang Playbook

AI weather foundation models (NVIDIA Earth-2, GenCast, NeuralGCM) are the “GPU” — they exist and are increasingly open. Jensen didn't invent machine learning — he built the chips that made it practical. We don't build weather models. We build the intelligence and application layer that makes them useful.


Layer 1: Weather Data API

Every major free weather data source, unified into clean JSON, accessible via a single API key. Pay per call. No salesperson.

Today, a developer who needs comprehensive weather data must register for 5–10 different APIs, learn different authentication schemes, parse GRIB2/NetCDF/GeoJSON/CSV, handle different rate limits, and write their own normalization logic. We do all of that once. You make one API call.

The Flagship Endpoint

GET /v1/weather/{location}

Parameters:
  location   string   required   Lat,lon / city / ZIP / airport code
  hours      int      48         Hours of hourly forecast (max 384)
  days       int      7          Days of daily forecast (max 16)
  models     string   "best"     "best", "gfs", "ecmwf", "hrrr", "all"
  units      string   "metric"   "metric", "imperial", "si"
  fields     string   "standard" "standard", "all", or comma-separated

Example Response

{
  "location": {
    "lat": 40.7128, "lon": -74.006,
    "name": "New York, NY",
    "elevation_m": 10,
    "timezone": "America/New_York"
  },
  "current": {
    "time": "2026-03-14T15:00:00Z",
    "temperature_c": 12.3,
    "feels_like_c": 10.1,
    "humidity_pct": 65,
    "wind_speed_ms": 4.2,
    "wind_direction_deg": 270,
    "cloud_cover_pct": 40,
    "solar_irradiance_wm2": 310,
    "uv_index": 4,
    "weather_description": "Partly cloudy",
    "source": "nws_observation"
  },
  "hourly": [
    {
      "time": "2026-03-14T16:00:00Z",
      "temperature_c": 12.1,
      "wind_speed_ms": 4.5,
      "precipitation_probability_pct": 10,
      "solar_irradiance_wm2": 280,
      "source": "model_blend_gfs_ecmwf"
    }
  ],
  "daily": [
    {
      "date": "2026-03-15",
      "temperature_max_c": 14.2,
      "temperature_min_c": 5.8,
      "precipitation_sum_mm": 2.1,
      "heating_degree_days": 12.1,
      "cooling_degree_days": 0,
      "source": "model_blend_gfs_ecmwf"
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "credits_used": 1,
    "models_used": ["gfs", "ecmwf_ifs"],
    "generated_at": "2026-03-14T15:02:00Z"
  }
}

All Endpoints

GET
/v1/weather/{location}

Current + forecast + daily. The flagship.

GET
/v1/weather/{location}/history

Historical weather data (ERA5 reanalysis, 1940–present).

GET
/v1/alerts

Active weather alerts for monitored locations.

POST
/v1/alerts/rules

Create custom alert rules with webhook/Slack/email delivery.

GET
/v1/solar/{location}

Solar irradiance (GHI, DNI, DHI) + PV generation estimates.

GET
/v1/marine/{location}

Ocean conditions — wave height, swell, SST, currents.

GET
/v1/air-quality/{location}

AQ index, PM2.5, PM10, O3, NO2, SO2, CO.

GET
/v1/models

List available models, their status, accuracy, and coverage.

Design Principles

  • One call, all data — inspired by OpenWeatherMap's One Call and Visual Crossing's Timeline
  • JSON only — no GRIB, no NetCDF, no XML
  • Transparent sourcing — every data point includes its source
  • 5-minute onboarding — signup to first successful call in under 5 minutes

Data Sources

Every major free weather data source — government, satellite, radar, marine, air quality, and solar — aggregated and normalized.

All source data is free or open-licensed. NOAA data is US public domain. ECMWF went fully open (CC-BY-4.0) in October 2025. NVIDIA Earth-2 models are Apache 2.0. The moat is the intelligence layer, not the data.

Tier 1: Always On

SourceData TypeResolutionUpdateLicense
NOAA GFSGlobal forecast28 km6hPublic domain
ECMWF IFSGlobal forecast28 km6hCC-BY-4.0
ECMWF AIFSAI global forecast28 km6hCC-BY-4.0
NOAA HRRRUS high-res forecast3 km1hPublic domain
NWS APIUS forecasts + alerts2.5 km1–2hPublic domain
Open-MeteoMulti-model aggregation1–11 kmVariesCC-BY-4.0
ERA5Historical reanalysis (1940–present)31 km5-day lagCopernicus

Tier 2: Specialized

SourceData TypeResolutionUpdateLicense
NOAA AIGFSAI forecast (GraphCast-based)28 km12hPublic domain
GOES SatelliteImagery, cloud, lightning0.5–2 km5–10 minPublic domain
NEXRAD RadarReflectivity, velocity250 m5 minPublic domain
NDBC BuoysMarine observationsPointHourlyPublic domain
OpenAQAir qualityStationVariesOpen
NREL NSRDBSolar irradiance4 km30 minPublic domain

AI Weather Models

Qanto uses commercially-licensed AI models that outperform traditional physics-based forecasting while using 99.7% less compute.

Commercially Usable

ModelLicenseResolutionHorizonCost/RunKey Strength
NVIDIA Atlas (Earth-2)Apache 2.00.25°15 days~$0.05–0.30Best commercially usable AI model
NVIDIA FourCastNet3Apache 2.00.25°90 days~$0.0490-day forecast in 20 seconds on H100
NVIDIA StormScopeApache 2.0km-scale0–6 hoursGPU-secondsNowcasting, outperforms physics models
NeuralGCMApache 2.0~1.4°2–15 daysRuns on laptopHybrid physics+ML, also does climate
ECMWF AIFS outputCC-BY-4.00.25°15 daysFree (output)First operational AI weather model
NOAA AIGFS outputPublic domain0.25°16 daysFree (output)Based on GraphCast

Non-Commercial (Cannot Use in Product)

NC
GenCast (Google)

Beats ECMWF on 97.2% of targets. Non-commercial.

NC
GraphCast (Google)

Published in Science. Non-commercial.

NC
Pangu-Weather (Huawei)

Published in Nature. Non-commercial.

NC
FuXi (Fudan)

Best at >6 day forecasts. Non-commercial.

Why NVIDIA Earth-2 is the foundation

NVIDIA's Earth-2 family (Atlas, FourCastNet3, StormScope, CorrDiff) is the only commercially-usable AI weather model suite. Apache 2.0 license — no restrictions. Earth2Studio provides a unified inference pipeline. Inference costs $0.04–0.30 per forecast, making pay-per-call pricing viable.


Layer 2: Intelligence API

The data API returns "wind will be 12 m/s." The intelligence API returns "your wind farm output will drop 30% — hedge your forward contracts."

The industry explicitly distinguishes weather data (raw measurements) from weather intelligence (contextualized, actionable insight). Per Baron Weather: “A 40 mph wind forecast is just data until contextualized. Intelligence emerges when the data connects to specific operational consequences.”

Intelligence Endpoints

Natural Language Summarization

GET /v1/intelligence/summarize
$0.02–0.05/call

Raw weather data in, plain English analysis out — tailored to your vertical (energy trader, farmer, logistics manager).

How: LLM (Claude API) + weather data via tool use. Domain-specific prompts per audience.

Impact Scoring

GET /v1/intelligence/impact
$0.01–0.03/call

0–10 severity score for a specific operation at a location. Wind farm, construction site, outdoor event, shipping route.

How: Rules engine + ML model trained per vertical.

Energy Demand Prediction

GET /v1/intelligence/demand
$0.05–0.10/call

Predicted electricity demand change driven by weather for a given grid region.

How: LSTM/GRU models trained on historical weather + load data. Research shows 25% improvement over baselines.

Anomaly Detection

GET /v1/intelligence/anomalies
$0.01–0.02/call

Flags unusual weather patterns — temperature 8°C above 30-year average, unprecedented wind patterns, etc.

How: Statistical methods (z-scores vs ERA5 climatology) + ML (Isolation Forest, autoencoders).

Crop Yield Impact

GET /v1/intelligence/crop-impact
$0.05–0.10/call

Predicted yield impact from weather for a specific crop at a specific location.

How: AI models achieve 85–95% accuracy vs 60–70% traditional. Key factors: rainfall and temperature.

Historical Pattern Matching

GET /v1/intelligence/similar-periods
$0.05–0.10/call

"Current conditions match March 2018. In that period, UK power prices rose 12%."

How: TS-RAG — retrieves similar historical patterns from 80+ years of ERA5 data.

Natural Language Q&A

Via MCP Server
$0.05–0.10/call

Ask questions about weather in plain English. "Should I reschedule my outdoor event Saturday?"

How: MCP tool calling: fetch weather → fetch impact → LLM synthesizes response.


Layer 3: Weather Finance

The farmer doesn't buy insurance. The platform detects risk, analyzes impact, and hedges automatically.

To buy weather insurance today, you need a big insurance provider (Allianz, Swiss Re, Munich Re). Enterprise sales cycle. Minimum premiums in the thousands. A small farmer in California, a wedding planner in Florida, a food truck owner in Texas — they can't access parametric weather protection.

How It Works

1

Connect

Farmer connects their land (GPS coordinates + crop type)

2

Monitor

Platform monitors weather forecasts 24/7 using Layer 1 (data) + Layer 2 (intelligence)

3

Detect

"Frost risk in 5 days. 80% probability. Your almond crop is vulnerable. Estimated loss: $50,000."

4

Hedge

Platform automatically purchases parametric cover — via smart contracts, licensed insurers (Arbol, Descartes), or prediction markets (Kalshi)

5

Notify

"We've hedged your frost risk. Cost: $500. If frost hits, you receive $50,000 automatically."

6

Settle

If frost hits → automatic payout via smart contract or parametric trigger. No claims adjuster.

Market Context

Parametric Insurance Market

$21–24B (2025–2026), growing 12–13% annually. Weather-based insurance is the fastest-growing segment at 12.3% CAGR.

Weather Derivatives

$17.4B (2024), projected $39.6B by 2033. Trading volumes surged 260% in 2023 (CME Group).

Existing Players

Arbol ($60M raised, Chainlink oracles), Etherisc (17,000 Kenyan farmers), Lemonade Foundation (Avalanche DAO), Descartes Underwriting (400+ clients).

The Gap

No self-serve parametric insurance for individuals. No proactive hedging. No dynamic pricing based on real-time AI forecasts. SMBs are completely underserved.


Use Cases

Built for every weather-dependent decision.

Beachhead

Energy Trading

Weather drives energy price volatility. AI weather models produce intelligence 6–12 hours ahead of legacy providers. Your brother's trading desk is the first customer.

AI Agents

x402 micropayments ($0.005/call in USDC). MCP server for Claude/GPT. No account needed — agents pay per request autonomously. 30%+ of API demand growth will come from AI/LLM tools by 2026.

Drone Operations

HRRR 3km resolution for hyperlocal wind, precipitation, visibility. Pre-flight planning, in-flight monitoring. No professional weather MCP server exists for drones — wide open.

Agriculture

AI crop yield prediction (85–95% accuracy vs 60–70% traditional). Frost alerts. Field-level soil moisture. Proactive weather protection for farmers — the Layer 3 vision.

Parametric Insurance

Trusted, verifiable weather data at specific GPS coordinates triggers automatic payouts. Chainlink oracles, smart contract settlement. $21B market growing 12%+ annually.

Renewable Energy

Solar irradiance and wind generation forecasting at the individual turbine/panel level. Every wrong forecast = millions in trading PnL. Renewables are 30%+ of global power.


Pricing

Pay for what you use. No annual contracts. No salesperson.

Free

$0

10,000/mo

  • GFS model only
  • 3-day forecast
  • 2 calls/sec
  • Commercial use OK

Starter

$29/mo

100,000/mo

  • All models (GFS + ECMWF + HRRR)
  • 7-day forecast
  • Alerts
  • 10 calls/sec

Pro

$99/mo

500,000/mo

  • 16-day forecast
  • Historical (ERA5)
  • Solar + marine + AQ
  • 30 calls/sec

Business

$299/mo

2,000,000/mo

  • AI models (Earth-2)
  • Ensemble data
  • Priority queue
  • 100 calls/sec

Enterprise

Custom

Unlimited

  • SLA + dedicated support
  • Custom models
  • On-prem option
  • Bulk historical

Pay-as-you-go

$0.001/call (standard data) or $0.005/call (AI model). No commitment. No minimum.

x402 for AI Agents

$0.005/call in USDC on Base. No account needed. AI agents pay per request autonomously via HTTP 402.

vs. Incumbents

DTN and AG2 charge $50,000–$500,000/year for weather intelligence with mandatory sales conversations. Qanto starts at $0/month and scales to $299/month for full AI model access. 10–100x cheaper, self-serve, and the incumbents can't offer this without cannibalizing their enterprise revenue.


API Reference

Quick start — from zero to working integration in under 5 minutes.

Authentication

# All requests require a Bearer token
curl "https://api.qanto.com/v1/weather/london" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer qnt_live_YOUR_API_KEY"

# Or for AI agents via x402 (no API key needed):
# Agent sends request → receives HTTP 402 → pays USDC → retries with payment proof

Quick Start (Python)

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.qanto.com/v1/weather/40.71,-74.01",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer qnt_live_abc123"}
)

data = response.json()
print(f"Temperature: {data['current']['temperature_c']}°C")
print(f"Wind: {data['current']['wind_speed_ms']} m/s")

# Intelligence endpoint
impact = requests.get(
    "https://api.qanto.com/v1/intelligence/impact",
    params={"location": "51.5,-0.12", "operation": "wind_farm"},
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer qnt_live_abc123"}
)
print(f"Impact Score: {impact.json()['impact_score']}/10")

Alert Rules

# Create a custom weather alert
curl -X POST "https://api.qanto.com/v1/alerts/rules" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer qnt_live_abc123" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "North Sea Wind Drop",
    "location": { "lat": 55.0, "lon": 3.0 },
    "condition": "wind_speed_ms < 5",
    "forecast_window_hours": 48,
    "notify": {
      "webhook": "https://your-system.com/weather-hook",
      "slack": "#energy-desk"
    }
  }'

Built for Machines

AI agents, drones, robots, and autonomous systems are first-class consumers.

x402 Payments

AI agents pay $0.005 per call in USDC via the x402 protocol (Coinbase). No account, no API key — just HTTP 402 → pay → get data. Works on Base, Polygon, and Solana.

MCP Server

Professional-grade weather tools for Claude, GPT, and any MCP-compatible agent. Tools: get_forecast, get_impact, get_anomalies, get_demand. No demo-grade weather MCP server exists today — this would be the first.

Structured for Agents

Every response includes confidence scores, source attribution, cache TTL, and machine-parseable field names. Designed for automated decision-making, not human eyeballs.

x402 Flow

# AI agent requests weather data
GET /v1/weather/london HTTP/1.1

# Server responds with payment instructions
→ 402 Payment Required
  X-Payment-Amount: 0.005
  X-Payment-Currency: USDC
  X-Payment-Address: 0x...
  X-Payment-Network: base

# Agent signs USDC payment, retries with proof
GET /v1/weather/london HTTP/1.1
  Payment-Signature: 0x...

# Server verifies payment, returns data
→ 200 OK
  { "current": { "temperature_c": 12.3, ... } }

Research Foundation

The state-of-the-art AI weather models that Qanto builds on.

The field moved from “can AI match NWP?” (settled 2023) to “can AI replace the entire forecasting pipeline?” (answered yes by Aardvark, 2025) in three years. The models are commoditizing. The value is in the application layer.

2026

Atlas (NVIDIA Earth-2)

arXiv

SOTA probabilistic forecasting, outperforms GenCast. Fully open (Apache 2.0).

Read paper
2025

Aardvark Weather

Nature

Replaces entire NWP pipeline. Raw observations → forecasts. Runs on a desktop.

Read paper
2025

Aurora (Microsoft)

Nature

1.3B param foundation model. Weather + air quality + ocean waves. 5,000x faster than IFS.

2024

GenCast (Google DeepMind)

Nature

Probabilistic ensemble. Beats ECMWF on 97.2% of targets.

Read paper
2024

NeuralGCM (Google/MIT)

Nature

Hybrid physics+ML. Does both weather (15 days) and climate (40+ years).

Read paper
2024

ECMWF AIFS

arXiv / Operational

First ML model deployed operationally at a major weather center.

Read paper
2023

GraphCast (Google DeepMind)

Science

The inflection point. Beat ECMWF HRES on 90% of targets.

Read paper
2023

Pangu-Weather (Huawei)

Nature

First AI to surpass NWP accuracy. 10,000x speed improvement.