Air Quality API overview

The Air Quality API lets you request air quality data for a specific location, including over 70 air quality indexes (AQIs), pollutants, and health recommendations. It covers over 100 countries with a resolution of 500 x 500 meters.

Why use the Air Quality API

The API provides endpoints that let you query:

  • Current Conditions: Real-time hourly air quality information.
  • Hourly History: Air quality history for a specific location, for a given time range, up to a maximum of 30 days.
  • Heatmaps: Color coded tiles of various indexes and pollutants.
  • Hourly Forecast: Future air quality conditions for a specific location, up to 96 hours (4 days).

Features of the Air Quality API

  • Real-time air quality indexes and categories: The Air Quality API continuously calculates the value of various air quality indexes with 500 x 500 meters resolution.
  • Health recommendations: Hundreds of research-backed health recommendations for the general public and sensitivity groups including: children, elderly, pregnant women, athletes and those with asthma or heart conditions.
  • Pollutant details: In-depth information about different pollutants, highlighting the dominant pollutant, concentrations, sources and effects.
  • Hourly history: Air quality history for a specific location for a given time range. Each response potentially includes hourly air quality indexes, pollutant data, and health recommendations for a maximum of 720 hours (30 days).
  • Heatmaps: Heatmaps are a collection of AQ indexes and pollutants image tiles that can be displayed on top of a Google Map.
  • Hourly forecast: Future air quality conditions for a specific location, and for a given time range or for a particular hour in the future, up to 96 hours (4 days). Each response potentially includes hourly air quality forecast indexes, pollutant data and actionable recommendations.

How the Air Quality API works

The Air Quality API has the following methods:

  • currentConditions: The currentConditions endpoint provides current hourly air quality information.

  • history: The history endpoint provides historical hourly air quality information for a specific location, for a given time range, up to a maximum of 30 days.

  • heatmapTiles: The heatmapTiles endpoint provides air quality related heatmaps through a tile overlay.

  • forecast: The forecast endpoint provides hourly future air quality information for a specific location, for a given time range, up to a maximum of 96 hours (4 days).

Air Quality API country and region coverage

See Air Quality API supported countries and available AQIs for the latest coverage details, on a country-by-country basis, for which air quality information (AQI) and local air quality information (LAQI) is available.

How to use the Air Quality API

1 Get set up Start with Set up your Google Cloud project and complete the instructions that follow.
2 Get current hourly air quality information See Current conditions.
3 Get hourly air-quality history See History.
4 Get air quality related heatmaps through a tile overlay See Heatmaps.
5 Get hourly air quality forecast information See Forecast.

What's next