# OpenGeocoding

> Managed geocoding API on open data: forward geocoding, autocomplete, reverse geocoding and ISO 3166-2 region lookup, with no infrastructure to run. 50,000 free requests a month, no credit card.

OpenGeocoding is a hosted API on the source-available OpenGeocoding engine (PolyForm Shield licence, https://github.com/Mokto/opengeocoding). Its index merges Overture Maps, OpenStreetMap, OpenAddresses and GeoNames, is rebuilt on a regular schedule and has streets in 240+ countries and territories.

- **Forward geocoding**: messy, multilingual, typo-ridden free text in; structured address and coordinates out. `goodMatch: false` flags partial matches, so callers know when to ask the user instead of guessing.
- **Autocomplete**: suggestions from countries down to house numbers as people type. Suggestions carry no coordinates; retrieving the selected one returns them.
- **Reverse geocoding**: the nearest house, street and locality for a point, with ISO 3166-2 regions on every result.
- **Keep your results**: cache and store them permanently on every plan, with no 30-day deletion rule or storage surcharge. Data source attribution and license terms apply: https://opengeocoding.com/legal/attributions.
- **Claude & MCP**: a remote MCP server at https://opengeocoding.com/mcp with OAuth sign-in, sharing the account's plan with the API.
- **Self-hosting**: run the engine yourself from its repository, or license it with dedicated capacity and an SLA on Enterprise.

Pricing: each successful search, retrieve, reverse or resolve-region call costs one credit; autocomplete, region listing, errors and rejected calls are free. When credits run out, billable calls return 429 until the next period, so there are never overage charges. No daily limits.

- Free: $0/month, 50,000 requests, 2 requests/second. Prototypes and side projects. Commercial use allowed.
- Starter: $29/month, 300,000 requests, 5 requests/second. Small production apps.
- Growth: $99/month, 1,500,000 requests, 25 requests/second. Growing products and regular batch jobs.
- Enterprise: custom quote. Bulk geocoding at the speed of light: dedicated capacity, SLA, self-hosting.

Benchmark of OpenGeocoding 1.5.0 (test-corpus pass rates against official registries and public reference sources, not a global accuracy estimate; methodology: https://github.com/Mokto/opengeocoding/blob/af4624d165e00958e6ba5eac4f00c027632381c3/SCORECARD.md):

- Full test corpus (24,350 queries): OpenGeocoding 89.3%, Geoapify 78.0%, OpenCage 58.0%, geocode.maps.co 48.1%
- US/Canada subset (1,947 queries): OpenGeocoding 97.4%, Geocodio 89.3%, Geoapify 81.0%, OpenCage 50.8%, geocode.maps.co 38.7%

API base URL: https://api.opengeocoding.com. Send JSON POST requests with your API key in the `x-api-key` header. Search, autocomplete, retrieve and reverse also accept GET with the same fields as query parameters (`focus.lat` for nested fields); keys are never accepted in the URL. gRPC is also available.

## Guides

- [Quickstart](https://opengeocoding.com/docs)
- [Authentication](https://opengeocoding.com/docs/authentication)
- [Credits & rate limits](https://opengeocoding.com/docs/limits)
- [Errors](https://opengeocoding.com/docs/errors)
- [gRPC](https://opengeocoding.com/docs/protocols)
- [Claude & MCP (OAuth)](https://opengeocoding.com/docs/mcp)
- [MapLibre geocoder](https://opengeocoding.com/docs/maplibre)

## Endpoints

- [Search](https://opengeocoding.com/docs/search): `POST /v1/search`. Turn an address into coordinates.
- [Autocomplete](https://opengeocoding.com/docs/autocomplete): `POST /v1/autocomplete`. Suggest places as someone types.
- [Retrieve suggestion](https://opengeocoding.com/docs/retrieve): `POST /v1/retrieve`. Get coordinates for a selected suggestion.
- [Reverse geocoding](https://opengeocoding.com/docs/reverse): `POST /v1/reverse`. Find the addresses nearest a point.
- [List regions](https://opengeocoding.com/docs/regions): `POST /v1/regions`. List indexed countries and regions.
- [Resolve regions](https://opengeocoding.com/docs/resolve-region): `POST /v1/resolve-region`. Find the administrative regions at a point.
- [OpenAPI specification](https://opengeocoding.com/openapi.json)

## Blog

- [Blog](https://opengeocoding.com/blog)
- [A coding agent is only as good as its harness](https://opengeocoding.com/blog/a-coding-agent-is-only-as-good-as-its-harness): How every change to the OpenGeocoding engine is checked against official address data on a full world index, base against head, why a fast world build made that possible, and where the speed gate is still noisy.
- [Billing every API request exactly once, without a database on the request path](https://opengeocoding.com/blog/billing-without-a-database-on-the-request-path): How the OpenGeocoding API, running as several replicas on Kubernetes, checks keys, rate limits and credits from memory, writes usage to Postgres every 5 seconds without double billing, and what that trade-off costs.
- [Building a geocoder whose world index rebuilds in minutes](https://opengeocoding.com/blog/building-opengeocoding): Why I moved from Nominatim to a Rust geocoder on Tantivy and open data, how I measure it against official address registries, and where it is still weak.

## Optional

- [Pricing](https://opengeocoding.com/pricing)
- [Enterprise](https://opengeocoding.com/enterprise)
- [Reverse geocoding API](https://opengeocoding.com/reverse-geocoding-api)
- [Address autocomplete API](https://opengeocoding.com/address-autocomplete-api)
- [Bulk geocoding](https://opengeocoding.com/bulk-geocoding)
- [Node.js geocoding guide](https://opengeocoding.com/geocoding-nodejs)
- [All comparisons](https://opengeocoding.com/compare)
- [Nominatim alternative](https://opengeocoding.com/compare/nominatim)
- [Google Maps geocoding alternative](https://opengeocoding.com/compare/google-maps)
- [OpenCage alternative](https://opengeocoding.com/compare/opencage)
- [Geoapify alternative](https://opengeocoding.com/compare/geoapify)
- [Geocodio alternative](https://opengeocoding.com/compare/geocodio)
- [Google Maps API pricing](https://opengeocoding.com/google-maps-api-pricing)
- [Terms](https://opengeocoding.com/legal/terms)
- [Privacy](https://opengeocoding.com/legal/privacy)
- [Data attributions](https://opengeocoding.com/legal/attributions)