Your questions,
answered

Swell is a beach conditions app that scores 4,900+ US beaches in real time. It turns surf reports, weather data, water temperature, wind, UV, and tides into a single 0–100 T-Score so you always know whether the beach is worth visiting — and what activities are best when you get there.

Open the Swell app and tap Near Me to see beaches sorted by today's T-Score from your current location. The top result is the best beach near you right now based on real-time conditions. You can also filter by a specific activity — surfing, swimming, snorkeling — to get a score tailored to what you want to do.

Yes — Swell is free to download on iOS and Android, and the web app at app.swellapphq.com is free with a free account. No subscription required to see real-time beach conditions and scores.

Yes. Swell is available on iOS (App Store) and Android (Google Play). There's also a full-featured web app at app.swellapphq.com that works on any device or browser.

Swell uses a T-Score — a 0–100 rating built from six real-time factors: air and water temperature, wind speed, precipitation, UV index, wave height, and daylight. Each factor applies a penalty using a multiplicative model: a single bad condition pulls the score down proportionally. See the full methodology on our How It Works page.

80–100 is excellent — ideal conditions across the board, worth the drive. 60–79 is a good day with minor imperfections. 40–59 is mixed — check the specifics before heading out. Below 40 means at least one factor is significantly bad, like strong wind, rain, or extreme temperatures.

Swell pulls weather and marine data from Open-Meteo — a leading free weather API with ~28km grid resolution — and tide predictions from NOAA CO-OPS, the official US tide authority. Scores are recomputed every 15 minutes. Accuracy is comparable to major weather apps but focused specifically on beach-relevant conditions like wave height, water temp, and UV.

T-Scores and conditions are recomputed every 15 minutes for every beach. 7-day forecasts are refreshed every 3 hours. Tide predictions from NOAA are deterministic (pre-calculated) and are cached for 3 hours. Historical climatology data is updated monthly.

Swell scores 16 activities separately — each with its own ideal-condition curve: surfing, swimming, snorkeling, paddleboarding, kayaking, kitesurfing, windsurfing, fishing, scuba diving, beach volleyball, sunbathing, running, dog walking, photography, birdwatching, and relaxing. Activity scores are shown as 0–5 shells in the app.

Yes. Every beach shows real-time wave height, wave period, wind speed and direction, and a dedicated surfing score. The 7-day forecast includes projected T-Scores with AM/PM condition breakdowns so you can plan your surf session in advance. To find the best surf near you, go to Activities → Surfing in the app.

In the Swell app, go to Activities and select Surfing. The beach list re-sorts in real time by surfing score. Enable location to automatically filter to beaches near you. You can do the same for any of the 16 scored activities.

Swell covers 4,900+ beaches across all US coastal states and territories — including Florida, California, Hawaii, New York, Texas, the Gulf Coast, New England, the Pacific Northwest, the Great Lakes, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. Browse all states on our Beaches page.

Email us at hello@swellapphq.com or visit the support page. We typically respond within one business day.