ECMWF products can be obtained directly through ECMWF or through ECMWF Member and Co-operating States. If you would like to obtain data through an ECMWF Member or Co-operating State, please contact the Catalogue Contact Point of that country. The information below is mainly for users acquiring data directly through ECMWF.

This page is organised by user type. Find the section that best describes your organisation to see the access pathways available to you, the licensing terms that apply, and any fee waivers or discounts for which you may be eligible.

Are you a National Meteorological or Hydrological Service of a WMO Member?

ECMWF offers a dedicated, tiered set of products and services for WMO Members — including free visualisation tools, open data, and a 50% discount on Service Agreement fees for non-commercial Official Duty use. See the ECMWF Products for WMO Members brochure below.

Find your pathway

If you are…	Go to
An NMHS of an ECMWF Member or Co-operating State	Section 1
An NMHS of a WMO Member (not an ECMWF Member State)	Section 2
A commercial user	Section 3
A research project user	Section 4
A humanitarian agency, NGO, or other organisation operating for societal benefit	Section 5

1. NMHS of an ECMWF Member or Co-operating State

NMHSs of ECMWF Member and Co-operating States and their authorised users:

Have full access to ECMWF products and services via their Computing Representative.
Must adhere to the Conditions of access.

For any other queries, please contact ECMWF Data Support via the ECMWF Support Portal.

2. NMHS of a WMO Member

ECMWF offers a structured, tiered set of products and services designed specifically for WMO Member NMHSs, supporting the principles of the WMO Unified Data Policy and global efforts such as Early Warnings for All (EW4All) and the Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF).

Free and open services

The following services are available to all WMO Members at no cost.

ECMWF Open Charts — web-based access to a curated selection of ECMWF forecast products, designed for rapid situational awareness and operational insight without the need for specialist infrastructure. Licence: CC BY 4.0.
ecCharts — an interactive visualisation environment for operational forecasters, allowing customised views, parameter overlays, model run comparison, and image download for operational use. Each WMO Member NMHS is entitled to one free ecCharts account for Official Duty activities related to the protection of life and property. Additional accounts may be purchased at €1,000 per year. Licence: CC BY 4.0.
ECMWF Open Data — programmatic access to IFS and AIFS model data at 25 km resolution, with 9 km native resolution available from 2026. Suitable for national modelling, verification, and early-warning research. Licence: CC BY 4.0.
WMO Support Dataset — a curated regional subset of ECMWF’s highest-resolution model output, designed to help NMHSs initialise limited area models such as WRF and ICON. Provided for Official Duty use only, and not for public redistribution.
Jupyter Notebook examples — ready-to-use notebook environments maintained by ECMWF experts, providing reproducible workflows for working with ECMWF Open Data and Copernicus datasets.

Service Agreements — with a 50% fee waiver

WMO Members requiring broader access than the open services provide — such as tailored data streams, custom products, lower latencies, or extended operational support — may sign a Real-time Service Agreement under the ECMWF Service Model.

WMO Member NMHSs are eligible for a 50% fee waiver on both Volume Band and Service Pack Charges associated with a Real-time Dissemination Service Agreement, provided that:

• No commercial activities are conducted, and

• Activities do not compete with the private sector, even if they form part of national governmental obligations.

In addition, access to Advanced Web Services is free for one access account per WMO Member NMHS; additional accounts will incur Service Charges.

Products can be configured from the ECMWF Real-time Catalogue.

Getting started

To discuss Official Duty data access, training opportunities, or general product guidance, please contact ECMWF Data Support via the ECMWF Support Portal.

Brochure: ECMWF Products for WMO Members

A printable brochure summarising the full WMO offering — including product descriptions, technical requirements, and access details — is available below.

ECMWF Products for WMO Members

A printable brochure summarising ECMWF’s structured, tiered offering for WMO Member NMHSs — including Open Charts, ecCharts, Open Data, the WMO Support Dataset, and Service Agreements with a 50% fee waiver for non-commercial Official Duty use.

WMO Products Brochure

3. Commercial users

Commercial users requiring more complex or tailored valid data than is provided through ECMWF Open Data, or who wish to have data sent to a delivery endpoint of their choosing, can either:

• Sign a Real-time Dissemination Service Agreement directly with ECMWF, or

• Obtain ECMWF data via the NMHS of a Member State, through a Catalogue Contact Point.

With a Real-time Service Agreement with ECMWF, there is no charge for the data itself; however, Volume Band and Service Pack Charges apply. Please refer to the ECMWF Service Charge Model for details on how fees for commercial data provision are calculated.

If not included with a Real-time Dissemination Service Package, access to the ECMWF Archive and Advanced Web Services requires a separate Service Agreement. Associated costs are listed on the ECMWF Data pricing page.

4. Research project users

In Member States or Co-operating States, research project users can apply for access to certain data through their Computing Representative.

For research project users acquiring data directly through ECMWF: if the valid data provided by ECMWF Open Data and the non-valid data available via other free and open datasets are insufficient, research project users are eligible to apply for a ‘Fee Waiver’ for time-limited research projects, provided the project fits the ECMWF definition of a Research Project as set out in the ECMWF Product Distribution Rules.

If approved, the Fee Waiver may provide a partial or full reduction of Service Charges associated with the service. All research project users acquiring data through ECMWF will be required to sign an ECMWF Service Agreement with Fee Waiver.

If you are interested in applying for a Fee Waiver as a research project user, please review the Research Guidelines before applying.

5. Humanitarian agencies, NGOs, and other societal-benefit organisations

Other organisations operating for societal benefit — including humanitarian agencies, NGOs, and research institutions outside the scope of Section 4 — may qualify for a Fee Waiver covering Service Charges associated with ECMWF’s data distribution services.

Eligible user groups include, but are not limited to:

• Research institutions

• Humanitarian agencies

• Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)

• Other organisations operating for societal benefit

If you are unsure whether your organisation qualifies, please contact ECMWF Data Support via the ECMWF Support Portal.

If your use case is not listed above

Please contact ECMWF Data Support via the ECMWF Support Portal for further guidance.