# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and…

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- Updated: 2026-10-08

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 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
- TomTom Maps APIs + MCP: grade C, 54.9/100, rank #524 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tomtom.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tomtom.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 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

| Category | Weight | Amazon Location Service | TomTom Maps APIs + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 95 | 30 | Amazon Location Service +65 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 71 | Amazon Location Service +16 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 78 | Amazon Location Service +10 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 73 | 51 | Amazon Location Service +22 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 25 | TomTom Maps APIs + MCP +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 86 | TomTom Maps APIs + MCP +26 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 58 | Amazon Location Service +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **74.1 · BB** | **54.9 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amazon Location Service | TomTom Maps APIs + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | TomTom |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://places.geo.us-east-1.amazonaws.com` | `https://api.tomtom.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| 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 | Apache-2.0 (MCP server) |
| Tools exposed | none | 15 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-08-17 | 2026-09-23 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-01 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 427k npm/wk | 55 stars, 996 npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (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.


## For agents

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

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