# Amazon Location Service vs LocationIQ

> Amazon Location Service scores 74.1 (BB) on agent readiness against LocationIQ's 60.3 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. LocationIQ leads on payments & pricing. Both do geo geocode. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-locationiq
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-locationiq.md (~2,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-locationiq.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-locationiq.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Amazon Location Service scores 74.1 (BB) on agent readiness against LocationIQ's 60.3 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. LocationIQ 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
- LocationIQ: grade C, 60.3/100, rank #405 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/locationiq.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/locationiq.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 83
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 78
- Agent ergonomics, 88 against 74
- Security & auth, 73 against 55
- Maintenance & community, 60 against 3
- Transparency & trust, 70 against 61

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

### LocationIQ (C)

Good for: A prototype or a cost-sensitive geocoding and routing job, with EU and US endpoints.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20

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

Watch for: No changelog, release notes or blog


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Amazon Location Service | LocationIQ | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 95 | 83 | Amazon Location Service +12 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 78 | Amazon Location Service +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 74 | Amazon Location Service +14 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 73 | 55 | Amazon Location Service +18 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 30 | LocationIQ +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 3 | Amazon Location Service +57 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 61 | Amazon Location Service +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **74.1 · BB** | **60.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amazon Location Service | LocationIQ |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | LocationIQ (Unwired Labs) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://places.geo.us-east-1.amazonaws.com` | `https://us1.locationiq.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | 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 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-08-17 | none |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-01 | 2026-03-31 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | 2020-05-22 |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 427k npm/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | none | 4.5/5 (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.

**LocationIQ.** 5,000 free requests a day with no card, commercial use allowed with a link back. No changelog, release notes or blog.

## 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

### LocationIQ

1. Use eu1.locationiq.com for European users or data
2. Add format=json and limit=1 to keep responses small
3. On 429 Rate Limited Second wait a second, on Rate Limited Day stop until the next day
4. Call /balance before a large batch to see what's left of the day's quota
5. Redact the key parameter before logging request URLs

## Questions

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

Amazon Location Service scores 74.1 (BB) on agent readiness against LocationIQ's 60.3 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. LocationIQ leads on payments & pricing.

### Do Amazon Location Service and LocationIQ need an API key?

Both need an API key.

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

Yes. Amazon Location Service has a hosted endpoint at https://places.geo.us-east-1.amazonaws.com and LocationIQ at https://us1.locationiq.com/v1.


## For agents

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

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