# Amazon Location Service vs Geoapify Location Platform + MCP

> Amazon Location Service scores 74.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Geoapify Location Platform + MCP's 55.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Geoapify Location Platform + MCP leads on payments & pricing. Both do geo geocode. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent…

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- Updated: 2026-10-08

Amazon Location Service scores 74.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Geoapify Location Platform + MCP's 55.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Geoapify Location Platform + MCP leads on payments & pricing. 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
- Geoapify Location Platform + MCP: grade C, 55.3/100, rank #510 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/geoapify.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/geoapify.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 60
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 74
- Agent ergonomics, 88 against 72
- Security & auth, 73 against 29
- Transparency & trust, 70 against 62

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

### Geoapify Location Platform + MCP (C)

Good for: Cheap geocoding, category place search, routing and isolines on OpenStreetMap data, with commercial use on the free plan and EU hosting.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Amazon Location Service | Geoapify Location Platform + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 95 | 60 | Amazon Location Service +35 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 74 | Amazon Location Service +13 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 72 | Amazon Location Service +16 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 73 | 29 | Amazon Location Service +44 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 30 | Geoapify Location Platform + MCP +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 61 | Geoapify Location Platform + MCP +1 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 62 | Amazon Location Service +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **74.1 · BB** | **55.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amazon Location Service | Geoapify Location Platform + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | Geoapify |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://places.geo.us-east-1.amazonaws.com` | `https://api.geoapify.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Price for geo geocode | $0.50 per 1,000 requests | not published |
| 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 | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 11 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-08-17 | none |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-01 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 427k npm/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | none | 4/5 (2) |

## 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.

**Geoapify Location Platform + MCP.** Free plan allows commercial production use, 3,000 credits a day, no card. No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found.

## 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

### Geoapify Location Platform + MCP

1. Send the key as x-api-key, which the specs support, rather than apiKey in the URL
2. Use api-eu.geoapify.com when the data has to stay on EU infrastructure
3. Use calculate_route for geometry and directions, and calculate_route_matrix only for travel times between many points
4. Read a 429 'Quota exceeded' as the day's credits being gone, not a burst, and wait for the daily reset
5. Show OpenStreetMap attribution wherever you display results

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Amazon Location Service or Geoapify Location Platform + MCP?

Amazon Location Service scores 74.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Geoapify Location Platform + MCP's 55.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Geoapify Location Platform + MCP leads on payments & pricing.

### Do Amazon Location Service and Geoapify Location Platform + MCP need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Amazon Location Service and Geoapify Location Platform + MCP without installing anything?

Yes. Amazon Location Service has a hosted endpoint at https://places.geo.us-east-1.amazonaws.com and Geoapify Location Platform + MCP at https://api.geoapify.com/v1.


## For agents

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

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