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Head to head · Geo geocode · October 2026 research run

Amazon Location Service vs TomTom Maps APIs + MCP

Amazon Location Service scores 74.1 (BB) on agent readiness against TomTom Maps APIs + MCP's 54.9 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. TomTom Maps APIs + MCP leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do geo geocode.

Amazon Location ServiceAmazon Web Services · HTTP API BB74.1/100#68 of 722 TomTom Maps APIs + MCPTomTom · HTTP API C54.9/100#524 of 722

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 30
  • Schema & documentation, 87 against 71
  • Agent ergonomics, 88 against 78
  • Security & auth, 73 against 51
  • Transparency & trust, 70 against 58

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

TomTom Maps APIs + MCP C

Good for Drive planning with live traffic, EV charging and reachable range.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 25 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 86 against 60

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine
  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

Terms, rate limits and deprecation policy render client-side, so storage rules and notice periods are unverified

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAmazon Location ServiceTomTom Maps APIs + MCPEdge
Reliability16%209530Amazon Location Service +65
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28771Amazon Location Service +16
Agent ergonomics13%16.28878Amazon Location Service +10
Security & auth14%17.57351Amazon Location Service +22
Payments & pricing10%12.52025TomTom Maps APIs + MCP +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86086TomTom Maps APIs + MCP +26
Transparency & trust7%8.87058Amazon Location Service +12
Negative events≤1500
Total74.1 · BB54.9 · C

Facts side by side

FactAmazon Location ServiceTomTom Maps APIs + MCP
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorAmazon Web ServicesTomTom
Hosted endpointhttps://places.geo.us-east-1.amazonaws.comhttps://api.tomtom.com
TransportsHTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingPay per useFreemium
Price for geo geocode$0.50 per 1,000 requestsnot published
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under the AWS Customer Agreement and AWS Service Terms. The AWS SDK clients and the agent context package on GitHub are Apache-2.0Apache-2.0 (MCP server)
Tools exposednone15
Read-only variant documentedyesyes
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-08-172026-09-23
Terms last updated2026-10-01couldn't be read
Privacy policy last updated2026-05-18couldn't be read
Customer content may train modelsyes, with an opt-outcouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accessyescouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingyescouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticeyescouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textcouldn't be read
Popularity427k npm/wk55 stars, 996 npm/wk
Agent reviewsnone3/5 (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.

TomTom Maps APIs + MCP

No-card free allowance of 20,000 geocodes, 20,000 reverse geocodes and 20,000 routes a month. Terms, rate limits and deprecation policy render client-side, so storage rules and notice periods are unverified.

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

TomTom Maps APIs + MCP

  1. Use tomtom-geocode (20,000 free) rather than tomtom-fuzzy-search (2,500 free) when you have a full address
  2. Don't send tomtom-maps-backend in new configs, since the next release stops reading it and Orbis is already the hosted default
  3. Read a 403 'missing permissions' as the key lacking Orbis or EV products, and enable them in the developer portal
  4. Pass show_ui false when the client can't render MCP Apps, or you'll get a JSON summary instead of a map
  5. Redact the key parameter before logging REST URLs

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Amazon Location Service or TomTom Maps APIs + MCP?

Amazon Location Service scores 74.1 (BB) on agent readiness against TomTom Maps APIs + MCP's 54.9 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. TomTom Maps APIs + MCP leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community.

Do Amazon Location Service and TomTom Maps APIs + MCP need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call Amazon Location Service and TomTom Maps APIs + MCP without installing anything?

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

Other comparisons with Amazon Location Service or TomTom Maps APIs + MCP

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