This page relates to the Open Data transition in 2025. Please direct any queries related to this to the ECMWF Support Portal and mark it for the attention of the Data Support Team. 


General Information 

The transition to Open Data will lead to the following changes: 

  1. The licence that governs the data use will change from the ECMWF Standard Licence Agreement to the permissive CC-BY-4.0 licence. 
  2. The Information Cost and High-Frequency Information Cost (data costs) will be set to €0.00. 
  3. If you continue to receive ECMWF Real-time Data directly from ECMWF, Service Charges (including Volume Charges) will still apply. 

There are no planned changes to the price or content of the ECMWF Service Packs or charges. 

The current 'free & open data' will remain at the current 0.25 resolution until January 2026. In January 2026, we anticipate increasing the resolution to the full 0.1 degrees with the current parameters and timesteps. 

Hourly data will not be available in the free and open dataset. 

Product Requirements Catalogue Updates

Later in May 2025, ECMWF will release an updated Product Requirements Catalogue that automatically removes Information Cost from 01 October 2025.  You will still be able to evaluate quotes based on past versions of ecQuote to evaluate the changes to your data costs. 

Next Steps for Existing Users

For users with licences directly with ECMWF

Until September 2025, if you already hold a licence, ECMWF will continue to operate as if the Information Cost will apply. 

  1. In September 2025, ECMWF will amend your current agreement to remove the Information Cost from 01 October 2025. 
  2. You will receive a document describing the reduction in Information Cost and any credit notes that may apply as a result. 
  3. In future, ECMWF will split your invoices and installments into two parts:  one invoice for Information Cost applicable up to 01 October 2025 and a second for Service Charges that apply to the full annual contract. 
  4. Amendments until September will still include Information Cost until we have done the automated reduction. 


For users with licences and delivery from an ECMWF Member or Co-operating State

Please contact your Licensor directly to discuss the process. ECMWF is unable to assist in these matters as we are not the Licensee. 






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The transition to Open Data will: 

  • remove the Information Cost associated with the data;
  • apply the CC-BY-4.0 licence to all Products in the ECMWF Real-time Catalogue;
  • continue to have full Service and Volume Charges applied if data is obtained from ECMWF directly.