# Amazon Location Service vs Mapbox APIs + MCP

> Mapbox APIs + MCP and Amazon Location Service score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 75 (BB) and 74.1 (BB). Amazon Location Service leads on reliability. Both do geo geocode. Amazon Location Service is cheaper for geo geocode, $0.50 against $0.75 per 1,000…

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Mapbox APIs + MCP and Amazon Location Service score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 75 (BB) and 74.1 (BB). Amazon Location Service leads on reliability. Both do geo geocode. Amazon Location Service is cheaper for geo geocode, $0.50 against $0.75 per 1,000 requests.

- 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
- Mapbox APIs + MCP: grade BB, 75/100, rank #51 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mapbox.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mapbox.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 82

Also in its favour:
- Cheaper for geo geocode, $0.50 against $0.75 per 1,000 requests

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

### Mapbox APIs + MCP (BB)

Good for: An agent that needs search, routing, isochrones, map matching and route optimisation from one vendor with a hosted, OAuth-protected MCP.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 60
- Transparency & trust, 84 against 70

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: Storing geocodes needs the Permanent tier at $5 per 1,000, about 6.7 times the temporary rate


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Amazon Location Service | Mapbox APIs + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 95 | 82 | Amazon Location Service +13 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 85 | Amazon Location Service +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 88 | even |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 73 | 71 | Amazon Location Service +2 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 30 | Mapbox APIs + MCP +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 80 | Mapbox APIs + MCP +20 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 84 | Mapbox APIs + MCP +14 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **74.1 · BB** | **75 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amazon Location Service | Mapbox APIs + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | Mapbox |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://places.geo.us-east-1.amazonaws.com` | `https://api.mapbox.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Price for geo geocode | $0.50 per 1,000 requests | $0.75 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 | MIT (MCP server) |
| Tools exposed | none | 29 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.mapbox/mcp-server` |
| Last release | 2026-08-17 | 2026-07-30 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-01 | 2024-03-31 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | 2026-02-11 |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | yes |
| 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 | 353 stars, 2k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.6/5 (8) |

## 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.

**Mapbox APIs + MCP.** Official MCP server, hosted at mcp.mapbox.com with OAuth or run locally, listed in the MCP registry. Storing geocodes needs the Permanent tier at $5 per 1,000, about 6.7 times the temporary rate.

## 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

### Mapbox APIs + MCP

1. Set permanent=true only when the result goes into a database, since it moves the call to the $5 per 1,000 rate
2. Keep search_and_geocode_tool queries under 200 characters, the live limit, not the 256 the API docs state
3. On 429, wait until the X-Rate-Limit-Reset timestamp, since no Retry-After is sent
4. Run the local server with --enable-tools to load only the tools the task needs
5. Use category_search_tool for generic place types like coffee shops, not search_and_geocode_tool

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Amazon Location Service or Mapbox APIs + MCP?

Mapbox APIs + MCP and Amazon Location Service score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 75 (BB) and 74.1 (BB). Amazon Location Service leads on reliability.

### Which is cheaper for geo geocode, Amazon Location Service or Mapbox APIs + MCP?

Amazon Location Service, at $0.50 per 1,000 requests against $0.75 per 1,000 requests for Mapbox APIs + MCP. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

### Do Amazon Location Service and Mapbox APIs + MCP need an API key?

Amazon Location Service needs an API key. Mapbox APIs + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Amazon Location Service and Mapbox APIs + MCP without installing anything?

Yes. Amazon Location Service has a hosted endpoint at https://places.geo.us-east-1.amazonaws.com and Mapbox APIs + MCP at https://api.mapbox.com.


## For agents

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

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