# Usage and billing

Using AccuWeather's MCP costs the same as using the REST API. Each tool call counts as one Core Weather call, and there is no separate MCP price or allowance.

## Free trial and Elite

The MCP server is included with both plans at no extra cost.

The free trial includes 500 Core Weather calls per day, and the count resets daily. Elite has no daily cap. Calls draw down your monthly allowance, and the published overage rate applies once you pass it.

The [pricing page](/pricing) has the current allowance and rate.

## Check your usage

Your [subscriptions page](/subscriptions) shows how many calls each subscription has used against its limit.

## Minimize call counts

Location keys do not change, so the lookup is the call worth eliminating. Store the key you get back from `search_locations` and reuse it for that location, rather than looking up the same place every time.

See [best practices](/documentation/best-practices) for caching and update-cadence guidance that applies to MCP and REST alike.

## What next?

- [Pricing](/pricing) — allowances and overage rates
- [Best practices](/documentation/best-practices) — caching, compression, and update cadence
- [Tools](/documentation/weather-mcp-tools) — what each tool returns