# Amazon Location Service vs Radar

> Amazon Location Service scores 74.1 (BB) to Radar's 53.3 (D) for geocoding. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-radar
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-radar.md (~2,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-radar.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-radar.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: 2026-10-09

Amazon Location Service scores 74.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Radar's 53.3 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Radar leads on maintenance & community. Both do geocoding.

- Amazon Location Service: grade BB, 74.1/100, rank #77 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-location.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-location.json
- Radar: grade D, 53.3/100, rank #713 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/radar.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/radar.json
- Best maps, geocoding and places APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/maps/index.md
- All 78 maps comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/maps/index.md

## 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 70
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 50
- Agent ergonomics, 88 against 65
- Security & auth, 73 against 56
- Payments & pricing, 20 against 10
- Transparency & trust, 70 against 55

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

### Radar (D)

Good for: A company that already has a Radar contract, or wants geofencing and trip tracking with geocoding and routing on one key.

Ahead on:
- Maintenance & community, 77 against 60

Watch for: The pricing page says Radar has no free tier and every plan is an annual commitment set by quote


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Amazon Location Service | Radar | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 95 | 70 | Amazon Location Service +25 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 50 | Amazon Location Service +37 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 65 | Amazon Location Service +23 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 73 | 56 | Amazon Location Service +17 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 10 | Amazon Location Service +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 77 | Radar +17 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 55 | Amazon Location Service +15 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **74.1 · BB** | **53.3 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amazon Location Service | Radar |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | Radar Labs |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://places.geo.us-east-1.amazonaws.com` | `https://api.radar.io/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Paid |
| Price for geocoding | $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 | Proprietary service under Radar's Terms of Use. The web SDK in radarlabs/radar-sdk-js is Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-08-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-01 | 2023-05-24 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | 2025-05-13 |
| 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 | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 427k npm/wk | none |

## 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.

**Radar.** Radar documents 36 REST operations in Markdown with a rate limit on each, and its status feed shows two short API incidents in 90 days. Access is sales-led. The pricing page says there is no free tier, every plan is an annual commitment, and no OpenAPI description or API changelog was 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

### Radar

1. Send the key in the `Authorization` header with no `Bearer` prefix, and call `https://api.radar.io/v1`, not radar.com
2. Use a publishable key for geocoding, search and routing. Keep the secret key for users, trips, geofences and beacons
3. Call `/v1/search/autocomplete` for partial addresses and place names. `/v1/geocode/forward` is documented as best for complete addresses
4. Set `units=metric` on routing calls. The default is imperial, with distances in feet
5. Treat 429 as one of three things (rate limit, no state change or selective throttling) and 402 as usage exceeded. No Retry-After header is documented
6. Do not keep geocoding, autocomplete or place results for more than 30 days

## Questions

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

Amazon Location Service scores 74.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Radar's 53.3 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Radar leads on maintenance & community.

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

Both need an API key.

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

Yes. Amazon Location Service has a hosted endpoint at https://places.geo.us-east-1.amazonaws.com and Radar at https://api.radar.io/v1.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Amazon Location Service or Radar

- [Amazon Location Service vs ArcGIS Location Platform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-arcgis.md)
- [Amazon Location Service vs Azure Maps](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-azure-maps.md)
- [Amazon Location Service vs Geoapify Location Platform + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-geoapify.md)
- [Amazon Location Service vs Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-google-maps-platform.md)
- [Amazon Location Service vs HERE Location Services](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-here-location-services.md)
- [Amazon Location Service vs LocationIQ](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-locationiq.md)
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- [Azure Maps vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-maps-vs-radar.md)
- [Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-radar.md)
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- [HERE Location Services vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-radar.md)
- [LocationIQ vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/locationiq-vs-radar.md)
- [Mapbox APIs + MCP vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mapbox-vs-radar.md)
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- [OpenCage Geocoding API vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/opencage-vs-radar.md)
- [Radar vs Stadia Maps](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/radar-vs-stadia-maps.md)
- [Radar vs TomTom Maps APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/radar-vs-tomtom.md)