AQICN Air Quality Index API
49
AI ReadinessFoundational (D+)49/100
Agent-ready OpenAPI document · curated by JenticData EnrichmentData TransformationapiKey5 EndpointsREST
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For Agents
Read real-time air quality index and pollutant data for any city, coordinate, or map region worldwide.
Use for: I need to check the current air quality in a specific city, Get the AQI at a given latitude and longitude, Find air quality stations near a place name, List all monitoring stations within a bounding box
Not supported: Does not handle weather forecasting, pollen data, or historical archives - use for real-time air quality index lookups only.
Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for AQICN Air Quality Index API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. AQICN provides real-time air quality index data for over 1,000 cities worldwide, including individual pollutant readings such as PM2.5, PM10, NO2, CO, SO2, and Ozone. The API supports city lookups by name, IP-based geolocation, latitude/longitude coordinates, station search, and bounding-box map queries. Authentication is via an API token passed as a query parameter.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the AQICN Air Quality Index API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the AQICN Air Quality Index API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
1
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Faqicn.org%2Faqicn" | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Faqicn.org%2Faqicn" | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with AQICN Air Quality Index API.
Look up the real-time AQI and pollutant breakdown for a named city
Resolve the AQI for the user's current location using IP geolocation
Fetch AQI for arbitrary latitude and longitude coordinates
Search the AQICN station directory by name or keyword
List monitoring stations and their AQI within a map bounding box
Use Cases
Patterns agents use AQICN Air Quality Index API for, with concrete tasks.
★ City-Level Air Quality Lookup
Fetch the current AQI for a named city and surface the dominant pollutant alongside the index value. Travel and outdoor-activity products use this to give users a one-glance read on whether to go outside, change plans, or take protective measures. The /feed/{city} endpoint returns a single JSON object with the city's AQI, dominant pollutant, and individual readings.
Call GET /feed/{city} for the requested city name and return the AQI value plus the dominant pollutant in plain English.
Coordinate-Based AQI for Mobile Apps
When a mobile app has the user's GPS coordinates, query AQICN by lat/lng to get the AQI from the closest monitoring station. Outdoor fitness and weather apps use this to show hyperlocal air quality without asking the user for their city. The /feed/geo:{lat};{lng} endpoint returns the nearest station's reading and identifies which station was used.
Call GET /feed/geo:{lat};{lng} with the user's coordinates and return the AQI, dominant pollutant, and the name of the nearest station.
Map Overlay of Stations
Render a map of monitoring stations and their AQI values inside a visible bounding box. Air quality dashboards and environmental research tools use this to show regional patterns without making one call per station. The /map/bounds endpoint returns all stations within a lat/lng box in a single response.
Call GET /map/bounds with the user's current map viewport coordinates and return the list of stations with their AQI values for rendering.
AI Agent Air Quality Briefings via Jentic
An assistant agent that drafts a daily morning briefing can call AQICN through Jentic to include today's air quality alongside weather and calendar context. The agent searches for the AQI lookup operation, loads the schema, and executes the city feed call without managing the API token. Jentic resolves the token from its credential vault.
Use Jentic search 'check the air quality in a city', load the schema for GET /feed/{city}, then execute with the user's home city and return the AQI for the briefing.
Key Endpoints
5 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for aqicn air quality index api, keeping it validated and agent-ready.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
GET
/feed/{city}
Get AQI for a city
GET
/feed/here
Get AQI for the IP geolocation
GET
/feed/geo:{lat};{lng}
Get AQI by coordinates
GET
/search
Search stations by name
GET
/map/bounds
List stations in a bounding box
GET
/feed/{city}
Get AQI for a city
GET
/feed/here
Get AQI for the IP geolocation
GET
/feed/geo:{lat};{lng}
Get AQI by coordinates
GET
/search
Search stations by name
GET
/map/bounds
List stations in a bounding box
Jentic AI Readiness Score
This API is usable in Jentic One now. Its AI-readiness score against Jentic's framework shows where it stands today and where improvements would make it even easier for agents to use.
A
AQICN Air Quality Index API
- Foundational (D+)49/100
100
Foundational Compliance63
Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility52
AI-Readiness & Agent Experience94
Agent Usability15
Security100
AI DiscoverabilityPowered by JenticScoring Framework 1.0.0 | Scoring Engine 0.4.0
Show dimension breakdown
100
Foundational Compliance
Base layer of spec validity and structural soundness.
Grade: A+Signals: 4
99%
Lint Results
Aggregated quality score from linter diagnostics, weighted by severity.
100%
Resolution Completeness
Percentage of `$ref` references that resolve successfully.
100%
Specification Validity
Checks whether the API description parses successfully and conforms to its declared specification (e.g., OpenAPI).
100%
Structural Integrity
Structural correctness score based on schema issues using logarithmic dampening.
63
Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility
Clarity, completeness, and ingestion readiness for developers and tooling.
Grade: B-Signals: 4
0%
Example Density
How richly the API is illustrated with examples.
100%
Example Validity
Percentage of examples that conform to their schemas.
50%
Response Coverage
Percentage of operations with complete response definitions (success, client error, server error).
100%
Tooling Readiness
Health of API ingestion, bundling, and resolution within Jentic pipelines.
52
AI-Readiness & Agent Experience
Semantic breadth, depth, and agent comprehension for AI systems.
Grade: C-Signals: 4
59%
Description Coverage
Coverage of descriptions across API elements.
0%
Error Standardization
Coverage of RFC 9457 Problem Details for error responses.
100%
OperationId Quality
Coverage, uniqueness, and casing consistency of operationIds for AI inference.
50%
Summary Coverage
Coverage of summaries across operations/tags/info.
94
Agent Usability
Functional utility, complexity comfort, and AI orchestration readiness.
Grade: A+Signals: 1
94%
Complexity Comfort
Agent comfort level based on API operational and structural complexity.
15
Security
Trust, risk posture, and security compliance.
Grade: FSignals: 1
15%
Authentication Strength
Average quality of security schemes based on authentication method strength (weakest link for OAuth2).
100
AI Discoverability
Findability, semantic richness, and reasoning readiness.
Grade: A+Signals: 1
100%
Descriptive Richness
Clarity and depth of descriptions across API elements.
Score it yourself
Every API in the directory is allowlisted, so you can re-score it with no key required.
npx @jentic/api-scorecard-cli score <openapi-url>Why Jentic?
What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.
Setup
Wiring AQICN by hand means learning its token-as-query-parameter scheme against the api.waqi.info host and building its geo and city feed paths yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import the AQICN Air Quality Index API from the API Directory, store the token once, and your agent calls it.
Permission scoping
AQICN puts the city or coordinates in the URL path (/feed/{city}, /feed/geo:{lat};{lng}) and every operation here is read-only, so you limit the agent to the lookup operations it needs, such as reading a city feed or searching stations. You choose the operations it may call, so the agent only runs the read operations you have added.
Credential isolation
Your AQICN token is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and appended as the token query parameter at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'check the air quality in a city', and Jentic returns the matching AQICN operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing docs.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using AQICN Air Quality Index API through Jentic.
Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for AQICN Air Quality Index API?
AQICN does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call AQICN Air Quality Index API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.
What authentication does the AQICN API use?
AQICN uses an API token passed as a query parameter named token on every request. Tokens are issued free for non-commercial use at aqicn.org/data-platform/token. Through Jentic, the token is stored encrypted in the vault and never enters the agent's context.
Can I get historical air quality data with this API?
No. The endpoints in this spec return real-time and forecast values only. Historical archive access is offered separately by AQICN under their data platform - contact AQICN for bulk historical data.
What pollutants are included in the AQI response?
City and geo feeds return individual readings for PM2.5, PM10, NO2, CO, SO2, and Ozone where the station reports them, plus the dominant pollutant identifier and weather context such as temperature and humidity.
What are the rate limits for the AQICN API?
AQICN enforces a rate limit of around 1,000 requests per second per token in practice; the OpenAPI spec does not declare a fixed value. For heavy production use, contact AQICN to request a higher quota.
How do I check the AQI in a city through Jentic?
Install Jentic with pip install jentic, search for 'check the air quality in a city', load the schema for GET /feed/{city}, then execute with the city name. Jentic injects the token automatically.
Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the AQICN API?
Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, you decide which AQICN operations your agent may call, so you can add only the read lookups it needs, such as reading a city feed with GET /feed/{city} or searching stations with GET /search, and leave the rest out. Every AQICN operation here is read-only and takes the city or coordinates in the URL path, so an agent scoped to a single lookup cannot reach beyond retrieving air quality data. Your AQICN token is held by your own instance and added at execution time, so the agent never handles the credential directly.
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