# Amazon Location Service vs Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP (slim)

> Amazon Location Service scores 74.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP's 68.2 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do geo geocode. Amazon Location Service is cheaper for geo geocode, $0.50 against $5 per 1,000 requests. Category…

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-google-maps-platform.md (~2,700 tokens) · this version ~780 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-google-maps-platform.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-google-maps-platform
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Amazon Location Service scores 74.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP's 68.2 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do geo geocode. Amazon Location Service is cheaper for geo geocode, $0.50 against $5 per 1,000 requests.

- Amazon Location Service: BB 74.1, rank #68 of 722 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-location.min.md
- Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP: B 68.2, rank #189 of 722 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-maps-platform.min.md
- Amazon Location Service, 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 85; Schema & documentation, 87 against 77; Security & auth, 73 against 67; Maintenance & community, 60 against 50. Also Cheaper for geo geocode, $0.50 against $5 per 1,000 requests; Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better.
- Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP, good for Best when the answer has to match what the user sees in Google Maps, for place details, opening hours and reviews.

| Category | Amazon Location Service | Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 95 | 85 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 87 | 77 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 88 | 85 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 73 | 67 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 60 | 50 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 70 | 72 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Amazon Location Service | Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | Google |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://places.geo.us-east-1.amazonaws.com` | `https://maps.googleapis.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Price for geo geocode | $0.50 per 1,000 requests | $5 per 1,000 requests |
| 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 | Apache-2.0 (client libraries) |
| Tools exposed | none | 5 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-08-17 | 2026-08-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-01 | 2026-08-26 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 427k npm/wk | 5k stars, 1.2M npm/wk, 748k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (2) |