# Amazon Location Service vs ArcGIS Location Platform

> Amazon Location Service scores 74.1 (BB) on agent readiness against ArcGIS Location Platform's 65.4 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. ArcGIS Location Platform leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do geo geocode. Category scores, facts, verdicts…

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- Updated: 2026-10-08

Amazon Location Service scores 74.1 (BB) on agent readiness against ArcGIS Location Platform's 65.4 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. ArcGIS Location Platform leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do geo geocode.

- Amazon Location Service: grade BB, 74.1/100, rank #68 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-location.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-location.json
- ArcGIS Location Platform: grade B, 65.4/100, rank #259 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/arcgis.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/arcgis.json

## Which one, for what

### Amazon Location Service (BB)

Good for: Operators already on AWS who want geocoding, places and routing inside IAM, CloudTrail and one bill, with HERE data and GrabMaps for Southeast Asia.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 95 against 65
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 61
- Agent ergonomics, 88 against 78
- Security & auth, 73 against 64

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: The API key is sent as the `key` query parameter, the only documented way to present it

### ArcGIS Location Platform (B)

Good for: Organisations already on Esri software, and work that needs demographic enrichment, service areas or fleet routing beside geocoding.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 60

Watch for: The agreement bars benchmarking availability, performance or functionality, and publishing benchmark results, without prior written permission from Esri and its licensors (sections 3.1.b.6 and 3.1.c.6.F).


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Amazon Location Service | ArcGIS Location Platform | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 95 | 65 | Amazon Location Service +30 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 61 | Amazon Location Service +26 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 78 | Amazon Location Service +10 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 73 | 64 | Amazon Location Service +9 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 40 | ArcGIS Location Platform +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 83 | ArcGIS Location Platform +23 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 72 | ArcGIS Location Platform +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **74.1 · BB** | **65.4 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amazon Location Service | ArcGIS Location Platform |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | Esri |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://places.geo.us-east-1.amazonaws.com` | `https://geocode-api.arcgis.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Price for geo geocode | $0.50 per 1,000 requests | $0.50 per 1,000 requests |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the AWS Customer Agreement and AWS Service Terms. The AWS SDK clients and the agent context package on GitHub are Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under the ArcGIS Location Platform Agreement. The ArcGIS REST JS client library is Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 8 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-08-17 | 2026-09-29 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-01 |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | 2026-07-31 |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text |  |
| Popularity | 427k npm/wk | 392 stars, 65k npm/wk, 33k PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**Amazon Location Service.** Places, Routes and Maps calls work over plain HTTPS with an API key limited to named actions, and every one of the 17 operations is read-only with typed inputs. Access starts with an AWS account a person opens, the key travels in the URL query string, and stored results cost eight times the single-use rate.

**ArcGIS Location Platform.** Per-unit prices are public for every service, with a monthly free tier of 20,000 geocodes and 20,000 routes, keys limited to chosen privileges and a 99.9 per cent SLA. No rate limits or OpenAPI description were found, results may not be stored unless the dearer stored geocode is bought, and the agreement bars benchmarking without written permission.

## Before you call either

### Amazon Location Service

1. Call the v2 endpoints (`places.geo.<region>.amazonaws.com/v2/geocode`, `routes.geo`, `maps.geo`). They need no resource creation, unlike the v1 place index and route calculator calls
2. Set `IntendedUse` to `Storage` before saving or caching any Places result. The default `SingleUse` results may not be stored under section 82.4 of the AWS Service Terms
3. Read `PricingBucket` in each response. Requesting `Contact`, `Access`, `TimeZone` or `Phonemes` in `AdditionalFeatures` moves a Places call from $0.50 to $1.50 per 1,000
4. Keep the API key out of logs and shared URLs, since it travels as `?key=`. Use SigV4 with an IAM role for server-side work, and for the Jobs API, which refuses API keys
5. Back off on HTTP 429 `ThrottlingException`. The burst allowance is 80 per cent of the per-second rate within any part of a second

### ArcGIS Location Platform

1. Send the token in an `X-Esri-Authorization: Bearer` or `Authorization` header. The docs' examples put it in a `token` parameter, which Esri's own best-practice page calls less secure.
2. Set `forStorage=true` on `findAddressCandidates` or `reverseGeocode` only when results will be kept. It needs pay-as-you-go and the Geocode (stored) privilege, and costs eight times the unstored rate.
3. Cap geocoding output with `maxLocations` (default and maximum 50) and `outFields`, because billing counts results returned and the default returns every field.
4. Page place searches with `pageSize` (maximum 20) and `offset`. A nearby or extent search costs $8 per 1,000 requests after 500 free a month.
5. Check the JSON body for an `error` object with `code`, `message` and `details`. Code 499 means the token is missing and 403 means it lacks the privilege.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Amazon Location Service or ArcGIS Location Platform?

Amazon Location Service scores 74.1 (BB) on agent readiness against ArcGIS Location Platform's 65.4 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. ArcGIS Location Platform leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community.

### Which is cheaper for geo geocode, Amazon Location Service or ArcGIS Location Platform?

They cost about the same, $0.50 per 1,000 requests for Amazon Location Service and $0.50 per 1,000 requests for ArcGIS Location Platform. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

### Do Amazon Location Service and ArcGIS Location Platform need an API key?

Amazon Location Service needs an API key. ArcGIS Location Platform takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Amazon Location Service and ArcGIS Location Platform without installing anything?

Yes. Amazon Location Service has a hosted endpoint at https://places.geo.us-east-1.amazonaws.com and ArcGIS Location Platform at https://geocode-api.arcgis.com.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-arcgis.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-arcgis.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "amazon-location", "b": "arcgis"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare amazon-location arcgis`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-location.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/arcgis.json

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