Azure Maps vs MapQuest

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 Place search exists only in Search 1.0, which the newer version has superseded, and the REST client libraries are all beta.

MapQuest

One account reaches geocoding, routing, place search and traffic through a REST API or a hosted MCP server with OAuth, at a published $0.0045 a transaction. No API terms, status page, changelog or product OpenAPI spec was found, and REST keys travel in the query string.

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.

MapQuest

1. Register an account and create an API key before connecting the MCP server. Every tool needs an active key, chosen by nickname on first use
2. Send REST calls to https://www.mapquestapi.com with key in the query string, and redact it from logged URLs
3. Read info.statuscode in geocoding and directions responses. 0 is success, and errors such as 610 (ambiguous location) arrive in the body
4. Set thumbMaps=false and maxResults on geocoding, and pageSize (1 to 50) on place search, to keep responses small
5. Do not store or cache geocodes on a monthly or pay-as-you-go plan