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Head to head · Geocoding · October 2026 research run

ArcGIS Location Platform vs HERE Location Services

ArcGIS Location Platform scores 65.4 (B) on agent readiness against HERE Location Services's 58 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. HERE Location Services leads on schema & documentation. Both do geocoding.

Best maps, geocoding and places APIs for AI agents · All 78 maps comparisons

ArcGIS Location PlatformEsri · HTTP API B65.4/100#320 of 950 HERE Location ServicesHERE Technologies · HTTP API C58/100#591 of 950

Which one, for what

ArcGIS Location Platform B

Good for Organisations already on Esri software, and work that needs demographic enrichment, service areas or fleet routing beside geocoding.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 65 against 57
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 10
  • Maintenance & community, 83 against 60
  • Transparency & trust, 72 against 63

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where HERE Location Services loses 3 points for them

Watch for

The agreement bars benchmarking availability, performance or functionality, and publishing benchmark results, without prior written permission from Esri and its licensors (sections 3.1.b.6 and 3.1.c.6.F).

HERE Location Services C

Good for Fleet and logistics work that needs truck routing, large matrices, isolines, traffic and transit from one vendor with an SLA.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 87 against 61

Watch for

Platform Terms section f forbids using HERE Materials in connection with a machine learning or AI system, generative AI included. This matters before any probe is run

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runArcGIS Location PlatformHERE Location ServicesEdge
Reliability16%206557ArcGIS Location Platform +8
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26187HERE Location Services +26
Agent ergonomics13%16.27874ArcGIS Location Platform +4
Security & auth14%17.56465HERE Location Services +1
Payments & pricing10%12.54010ArcGIS Location Platform +30
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88360ArcGIS Location Platform +23
Transparency & trust7%8.87263ArcGIS Location Platform +9
Negative events≤150-3
Total65.4 · B58 · C

Facts side by side

FactArcGIS Location PlatformHERE Location Services
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorEsriHERE Technologies
Hosted endpointhttps://geocode-api.arcgis.comhttps://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
Price for geocoding$0.50 per 1,000 requestsnot published
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under the ArcGIS Location Platform Agreement. The ArcGIS REST JS client library is Apache-2.0Proprietary service under the HERE Platform Terms
Tools exposed813
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-09-292026-09-09
Terms last updated2023-09-18
Privacy policy last updated2026-07-312024-08-29
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Popularity392 stars, 65k npm/wk, 33k PyPI/wknone

Verdicts

ArcGIS Location Platform

Per-unit prices are public for every service, with a monthly free tier of 20,000 geocodes and 20,000 routes, keys limited to chosen privileges and a 99.9 per cent SLA. No rate limits or OpenAPI description were found, results may not be stored unless the dearer stored geocode is bought, and the agreement bars benchmarking without written permission.

HERE Location Services

Each endpoint page carries an OpenAPI 3.0 definition as Markdown, and HERE publishes 99.9 per cent monthly availability targets and a six-month deprecation policy. The Platform Terms of September 2023 forbid using HERE Materials in connection with a machine learning or AI system, and the price table could not be read.

Before you call either

ArcGIS Location Platform

  1. Send the token in an X-Esri-Authorization: Bearer or Authorization header. The docs' examples put it in a token parameter, which Esri's own best-practice page calls less secure.
  2. Set forStorage=true on findAddressCandidates or reverseGeocode only when results will be kept. It needs pay-as-you-go and the Geocode (stored) privilege, and costs eight times the unstored rate.
  3. Cap geocoding output with maxLocations (default and maximum 50) and outFields, because billing counts results returned and the default returns every field.
  4. Page place searches with pageSize (maximum 20) and offset. A nearby or extent search costs $8 per 1,000 requests after 500 free a month.
  5. Check the JSON body for an error object with code, message and details. Code 499 means the token is missing and 403 means it lacks the privilege.

HERE Location Services

  1. Send Authorization: Bearer with an OAuth token where logs are kept. The apiKey query parameter puts the secret in every URL
  2. Do not store results for more than 30 days, and follow the HTTP caching headers on each response
  3. Treat 429 and 503 as throttling. HERE says a traffic surge can be throttled for about 10 minutes below the account's quota
  4. Read code, cause and action in the error body, and quote correlationId to support
  5. For Location Reasoning, send initialize, keep the Mcp-Session-Id header on later calls, and send a bearer token on tools/call

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, ArcGIS Location Platform or HERE Location Services?

ArcGIS Location Platform scores 65.4 (B) on agent readiness against HERE Location Services's 58 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. HERE Location Services leads on schema & documentation.

Do ArcGIS Location Platform and HERE Location Services need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call ArcGIS Location Platform and HERE Location Services without installing anything?

Yes. ArcGIS Location Platform has a hosted endpoint at https://geocode-api.arcgis.com and HERE Location Services at https://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1.

Other comparisons with ArcGIS Location Platform or HERE Location Services

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