# Azure Maps vs LocationIQ

> Azure Maps scores 67.9 (B) on agent readiness against LocationIQ's 60.3 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. LocationIQ leads on payments & pricing. Both do geo geocode. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-maps-vs-locationiq
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-maps-vs-locationiq.md (~2,200 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-maps-vs-locationiq.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-maps-vs-locationiq.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: 2026-10-08

Azure Maps scores 67.9 (B) on agent readiness against LocationIQ's 60.3 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. LocationIQ leads on payments & pricing. Both do geo geocode.

- Azure Maps: grade B, 67.9/100, rank #196 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-maps.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/azure-maps.json
- LocationIQ: grade C, 60.3/100, rank #405 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/locationiq.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/locationiq.json

## Which one, for what

### Azure Maps (B)

Good for: Teams already on Azure that want geocoding and routing under Entra ID roles and one flat price.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 83 against 78
- Security & auth, 66 against 55
- Maintenance & community, 67 against 3
- Transparency & trust, 74 against 61

Watch for: Place and category search exist only in Search 1.0. Search 2026-01-01, which supersedes it, has geocoding, autocomplete, reverse geocoding and polygons

### LocationIQ (C)

Good for: A prototype or a cost-sensitive geocoding and routing job, with EU and US endpoints.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No changelog, release notes or blog


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Azure Maps | LocationIQ | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 81 | 83 | LocationIQ +2 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 78 | Azure Maps +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 74 | LocationIQ +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 66 | 55 | Azure Maps +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 30 | LocationIQ +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 3 | Azure Maps +64 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 61 | Azure Maps +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **67.9 · B** | **60.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Azure Maps | LocationIQ |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Microsoft Azure | LocationIQ (Unwired Labs) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://atlas.microsoft.com` | `https://us1.locationiq.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Price for geo geocode | $4.50 per 1,000 requests | not published |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Microsoft's Product Terms. The Azure SDK client libraries are MIT | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | none |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-03-31 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-01 | 2020-05-22 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 9.1k npm/wk, 25k PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | none | 4.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Azure Maps.** Azure Maps publishes OpenAPI documents for every service, per-service rate limits, a 99.9 per cent SLA and written rules on storing results, and Entra ID roles can limit a caller to one service. Place search exists only in Search 1.0, which the newer version has superseded, and the REST client libraries are all beta.

**LocationIQ.** 5,000 free requests a day with no card, commercial use allowed with a link back. No changelog, release notes or blog.

## Before you call either

### Azure Maps

1. Send the key in the `subscription-key` header, or use `Authorization: Bearer` with `x-ms-client-id`. The key also works as a URL parameter, which leaks into logs.
2. Call `GET /geocode?api-version=2026-01-01` for addresses. It can return 200 with no results, so check `confidence`, `matchCodes` and the entity type before use.
3. Use Search 1.0 (`/search/poi/json`, `/search/nearby/json`, `/search/fuzzy/json`) for places. The 2026-01-01 version has no place search.
4. Use `eu.atlas.microsoft.com` or `us.atlas.microsoft.com` to keep request data in that geography.
5. Don't store route or tile results beyond six months, and never for serving several users. The product terms allow keeping geocodes while the account is active.

### LocationIQ

1. Use eu1.locationiq.com for European users or data
2. Add format=json and limit=1 to keep responses small
3. On 429 Rate Limited Second wait a second, on Rate Limited Day stop until the next day
4. Call /balance before a large batch to see what's left of the day's quota
5. Redact the key parameter before logging request URLs

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Azure Maps or LocationIQ?

Azure Maps scores 67.9 (B) on agent readiness against LocationIQ's 60.3 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. LocationIQ leads on payments & pricing.

### Do Azure Maps and LocationIQ need an API key?

Azure Maps takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. LocationIQ needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Azure Maps and LocationIQ without installing anything?

Yes. Azure Maps has a hosted endpoint at https://atlas.microsoft.com and LocationIQ at https://us1.locationiq.com/v1.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Azure Maps or LocationIQ

- [Amazon Location Service vs Azure Maps](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-azure-maps.md)
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