# ArcGIS Location Platform vs HERE Location Services

> ArcGIS Location Platform scores 65.4 (B) to HERE Location Services's 58 (C) for geocoding. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcgis-vs-here-location-services
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcgis-vs-here-location-services.md (~2,750 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcgis-vs-here-location-services.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcgis-vs-here-location-services.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

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.

- ArcGIS Location Platform: grade B, 65.4/100, rank #320 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/arcgis.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/arcgis.json
- HERE Location Services: grade C, 58/100, rank #591 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/here-location-services.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/here-location-services.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

### 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

| Category | Weight | ArcGIS Location Platform | HERE Location Services | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 57 | ArcGIS Location Platform +8 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 61 | 87 | HERE Location Services +26 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 74 | ArcGIS Location Platform +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 64 | 65 | HERE Location Services +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 10 | ArcGIS Location Platform +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 60 | ArcGIS Location Platform +23 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 63 | ArcGIS Location Platform +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **65.4 · B** | **58 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ArcGIS Location Platform | HERE Location Services |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Esri | HERE Technologies |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://geocode-api.arcgis.com` | `https://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Price for geocoding | $0.50 per 1,000 requests | not published |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the ArcGIS Location Platform Agreement. The ArcGIS REST JS client library is Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under the HERE Platform Terms |
| Tools exposed | 8 | 13 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-09 |
| Terms last updated |  | 2023-09-18 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-07-31 | 2024-08-29 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 392 stars, 65k npm/wk, 33k PyPI/wk | none |

## 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.


## For agents

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

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