# Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs Nominatim

> Nominatim scores 63.5 (B) to Geoapify Location Platform's 58.1 (C) for geocoding. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-nominatim
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-nominatim.md (~5,000 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

Nominatim scores 63.5 (B) on agent readiness against Geoapify Location Platform + MCP's 58.1 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Geoapify Location Platform + MCP leads on schema & documentation, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do geocoding.

- Geoapify Location Platform + MCP: grade C, 58.1/100, rank #765 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/geoapify.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/geoapify.json
- Nominatim: grade B, 63.5/100, rank #513 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nominatim.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/nominatim.json
- Best maps, geocoding and places APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/maps/index.md
- All 153 maps comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/maps/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Geoapify Location Platform + MCP (C)

Good for: Cheap geocoding, category place search, routing and isolines on OpenStreetMap data, with commercial use on the free plan and EU hosting.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 84 against 51
- Maintenance & community, 69 against 60
- Transparency & trust, 67 against 59

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found

### Nominatim (B)

Good for: Self-hosted worldwide geocoding from OpenStreetMap data with no per-call cost or storage limits beyond ODbL.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 82 against 60
- Security & auth, 50 against 29
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: No OpenAPI spec and no llms.txt


## Why the edge

### Schema & documentation: Geoapify Location Platform + MCP +33

- Geoapify Location Platform + MCP (84): OpenAPI 3.1 specs for 22 APIs and a separate spec per MCP tool in geoapify/geoapify-openapi-specs, with documented 400, 401, 429 and 500 responses, and the repository added the Timezone API on 23 October 2026 (25). apidocs.geoapify.com/llms.txt still serves the HTML home page on 4 November, and we found no Markdown docs for agents (0). The MCP page's 12 tools each carry a 'when to use' line and name the sibling tool to use instead, for example calculate_route_matrix sends you to calculate_route for geometry (18). Typed parameters with limits such as limit at most 100, and enums for type and format (13). Error examples in the specs, such as '"limit" must be less than or equal to 100', and a playground per API (13). v1 and v2 paths, versioned specs, and a dated public changelog at www.geoapify.com/news-and-updates/ with entries back to September 2022 and an RSS feed, which the 1 October check missed (15, from 5). 25+0+18+13+13+15 = 84.
- Nominatim (51): No OpenAPI or machine-readable contract (0). nominatim.org/llms.txt returns 404, and the manual is HTML, though its Markdown sources sit in the repository's docs folder (0). The API reference explains each endpoint and parameter and when not to use one, such as the details endpoint being for debugging (14). Types, enums and limits are documented, such as format, layer and limit (at most 40), but there's no schema to validate against (12). Example queries and outputs per endpoint, with errors described in prose (10). A versioned manual per release, a ChangeLog and a migration guide (15). 0+0+14+12+10+15 = 51.

### Payments & pricing: Nominatim +30

- Geoapify Location Platform + MCP (30): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Public plan prices with credit costs per request (1 credit for a simple geocode, place search, route or timezone lookup), but no per-unit overage price, since limits are soft and Geoapify asks heavy users to upgrade (10). Free plan of 3,000 credits a day with 'No credit card required', and commercial use allowed with attribution (20). Signup is a browser flow (0). 0+10+20+0 = 30.
- Nominatim (60): Self-hosted rule. No payment protocol (0). Free software with nothing to buy (20 + 20 + 20). The public instance is also free and keyless, within its usage policy. 0+20+20+20 = 60.

### Reliability: Nominatim +22

- Geoapify Location Platform + MCP (60): status.geoapify.com redirects to an UptimeRobot page. On 4 November its HTML again showed only an error fetching the data, which the page loads from stats.uptimerobot.com/api/, a path that host's robots.txt closes, so no component or incident was read. The page keeps its first award of 15 of 20 while the UptimeRobot split stays open, and 5 for a history we couldn't read (our limit, not a finding against Geoapify). Per-plan rates are published, 5 requests a second on Free up to 30 on API 250 (15). 429 is in the OpenAPI specs as 'Rate limit or quota exceeded' with a JSON body, but there's no Retry-After or backoff guidance, and the pricing page says limits are soft and Geoapify doesn't throttle in general (7, an earlier partial kept). The terms say all paid plans include a default SLA of 99.5 per cent monthly availability, with a 10 per cent discount below it and 50 per cent below 99 per cent (10). The APIs are GA. The MCP page gives no launch stage (8, an earlier partial kept). 15+5+15+7+10+8 = 60.
- Nominatim (82): Read with the local-software lines, since the listing is the Nominatim server an operator runs. The public instance at nominatim.openstreetmap.org belongs to the OpenStreetMap Foundation and its usage policy caps it at one request a second, so it isn't graded as a hosted service. Official packages nominatim-db and nominatim-api on PyPI (5.3.3 on 14 October 2026, Python 3.9 or later) and installation guides for Ubuntu 22 and 24 (20). A public CI workflow runs unit and BDD tests on every push across Ubuntu 24 and 26 with PostgreSQL 13 to 18, and Windows unit tests. We couldn't see run results (20). Issue counts and reply times couldn't be read because the GitHub API was rate-limited for us; Sarah Hoffmann made 76 of the 106 commits since 8 August (12). A ChangeLog per release and semantic version numbers (15). Version 5.3.3 (15). 20+20+12+15+15 = 82.

### Security & auth: Nominatim +21

- Geoapify Location Platform + MCP (29): Plain API keys per project, which earns 20. Less the checklist's fixed 10 because the specs call the apiKey query parameter 'Recommended authentication method for public APIs'. The x-api-key header works too and the spec warns that keys in URLs can be logged (10). The APIs only read (12). Results are OpenStreetMap names and addresses, community-edited text, with no prompt-injection guidance (7). We didn't find per-call logs we could read (0). www.geoapify.com/.well-known/security.txt returned 404 on 4 November, and we found no disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification (0). 10+12+7+0+0 = 29.
- Nominatim (50): The server has no authentication of its own; an operator puts it behind their own proxy. The public instance takes no key and identifies callers by User-Agent or Referer (5). Every endpoint reads, so there's nothing to approve (18). Results are OpenStreetMap names and tags, community-edited text, with no prompt-injection guidance (7). Query logging to a file is available through NOMINATIM_LOG_FILE and off by default (8). SECURITY.md gives security@nominatim.org, an acknowledgement within 3 work days, a disclosure process and two years of security updates per release. No bug bounty (12). 5+18+7+8+12 = 50.

### Maintenance & community: Geoapify Location Platform + MCP +9

- Geoapify Location Platform + MCP (69): The What's new page dates two API entries on 2 November 2026 (Marker Icon API and Static Maps API marker options), two days before this check (30). In the 90 days from 6 August it lists API or MCP changes on 6 August (MCP Places and Routing tools), 28 August (MCP geometry operations), 23 October (Timezone API and get_timezone tool) and 2 November (two), and the OpenAPI repository has commits on 1, 2 and 25 September and 16, 23 and 30 October (20, from 15). A public changelog with an RSS feed and email support on paid plans. We didn't test support response (8 of 15, from 5). The JavaScript libraries are current, with geocoder-autocomplete at v3.1.0 on 27 July 2026, and the official MCP isn't in the MCP registry (6). The autocomplete SDK carries Jest tests (5). 30+20+8+6+5 = 69.
- Nominatim (60): Release 5.3.3 on 14 October 2026, 23 days before this check (30). Only one release in the 90 days from 8 August, against 106 commits on the default branch; commits aren't counted as releases (0). Commits from the lead maintainer and seven or more contributors since August, but we couldn't read issue reply times (12). The nominatim-api Python library is current with the server (10). CI on every push, current PostgreSQL and Python versions (8). 30+0+12+10+8 = 60.

### Transparency & trust: Geoapify Location Platform + MCP +8

- Geoapify Location Platform + MCP (67): Editorial half only. Closed service with readable terms, still version 5 of 2 February 2024 on 4 November, under Cypriot law (15). The privacy policy says data for successful requests is held no longer than 24 hours and that servers are hosted by Hetzner, with custom DPAs on request (possibly at a cost). The docs say Places and Batch results can be cached or stored with no limits, while the terms say nothing on storage (22). No deprecation policy or dated deprecation notice on the What's new page, and the terms reserve the right to suspend, terminate or change the Service at any time without notice (0). Six processors named, including Hetzner (Germany), Cloudflare and Google Firebase, without locations for most (15). 15+22+0+15 = 52.
- Nominatim (59): Open source, GPL-3.0-or-later for the Python code, GPL-2.0 for other files and Apache-2.0 for the osm2pgsql Lua styles (30). A self-hosted server keeps data where the operator runs it. The public instance falls under the OSMF privacy policy and asks users not to send personal data. We didn't read the OSMF policy itself (20). SECURITY.md lists the end of security support for each release line with dates, and a migration guide covers each version (16). No telemetry found in the settings, and request logging is opt-in (15). 30+20+16+15 = 81.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Geoapify Location Platform + MCP | Nominatim | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 82 | Nominatim +22 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 51 | Geoapify Location Platform + MCP +33 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 75 | Nominatim +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 29 | 50 | Nominatim +21 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 60 | Nominatim +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 69 | 60 | Geoapify Location Platform + MCP +9 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 59 | Geoapify Location Platform + MCP +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **58.1 · C** | **63.5 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Geoapify Location Platform + MCP | Nominatim |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Geoapify | Nominatim project (osm-search) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.geoapify.com/v1` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Tools exposed | 12 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-14 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 2.1k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | none |

## How the scores have moved

### Geoapify Location Platform + MCP

- +2.8 on 4 November 2026: new evidence
- -0.2 on 8 October 2026: checklist

### Nominatim

No score change since it was listed.

## Verdicts

**Geoapify Location Platform + MCP.** Free plan allows commercial production use, 3,000 credits a day, no card, and a dated public changelog records API and MCP changes, most recently on 2 November 2026. No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification was found, and the specs recommend sending the key in the URL.

**Nominatim.** Nominatim is the open-source OpenStreetMap geocoder, free to run with a documented search, reverse and lookup API, tested releases and two years of security support per release. It has no OpenAPI spec, no built-in authentication, and the public instance allows one request a second and restricts LLM-suggested use, so agents at scale need their own server.

## Before you call either

### Geoapify Location Platform + MCP

1. Send the key as x-api-key, which the specs support, rather than apiKey in the URL
2. Use api-eu.geoapify.com when the data has to stay on EU infrastructure
3. Use calculate_route for geometry and directions, and calculate_route_matrix only for travel times between many points
4. Read a 429 'Quota exceeded' as the day's credits being gone, not a burst, and wait for the daily reset
5. Show OpenStreetMap attribution wherever you display results

### Nominatim

1. Don't send bulk or repeated queries to nominatim.openstreetmap.org; keep to one request a second, cache results and set an identifying User-Agent
2. Tell the user about the OSMF usage policy before suggesting the public instance, as the policy requires
3. For regular or large jobs, run your own Nominatim or use a commercial provider listed on the Nominatim wiki
4. Pass format=jsonv2 or geojson and limit, since omitting format sends the request to the web UI
5. Attribute OpenStreetMap and respect the ODbL share-alike terms when storing results

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Geoapify Location Platform + MCP or Nominatim?

Nominatim scores 63.5 (B) on agent readiness against Geoapify Location Platform + MCP's 58.1 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Geoapify Location Platform + MCP leads on schema & documentation, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

### Do Geoapify Location Platform + MCP and Nominatim need an API key?

Geoapify Location Platform + MCP needs an API key. Nominatim needs no key.

### Can an agent call Geoapify Location Platform + MCP and Nominatim without installing anything?

Geoapify Location Platform + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.geoapify.com/v1. No hosted endpoint is listed for Nominatim.

### Are Geoapify Location Platform + MCP and Nominatim open source?

No open-source release is listed for Geoapify Location Platform + MCP. Nominatim is open source (GPL-3.0-or-later).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Geoapify Location Platform + MCP or Nominatim

- [Amazon Location Service vs Geoapify Location Platform + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-geoapify.md)
- [Amazon Location Service vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-nominatim.md)
- [ArcGIS Location Platform vs Geoapify Location Platform + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcgis-vs-geoapify.md)
- [ArcGIS Location Platform vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcgis-vs-nominatim.md)
- [Azure Maps vs Geoapify Location Platform + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-maps-vs-geoapify.md)
- [Azure Maps vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-maps-vs-nominatim.md)
- [Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs Geocodio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-geocodio.md)
- [Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-google-maps-platform.md)
- [Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs HERE Location Services](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-here-location-services.md)
- [Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs LocationIQ](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-locationiq.md)
- [Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs Mapbox APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-mapbox.md)
- [Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs MapQuest](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-mapquest.md)
- [Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs MapTiler Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-maptiler.md)
- [Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs NextBillion.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-nextbillion.md)
- [Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs OpenCage Geocoding API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-opencage.md)
- [Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-radar.md)
- [Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs Stadia Maps](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-stadia-maps.md)
- [Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs TomTom Maps APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-tomtom.md)
- [Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs Woosmap](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-woosmap.md)
- [Geocodio vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geocodio-vs-nominatim.md)
- [Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-nominatim.md)
- [HERE Location Services vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-nominatim.md)
- [LocationIQ vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/locationiq-vs-nominatim.md)
- [Mapbox APIs + MCP vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mapbox-vs-nominatim.md)
- [MapQuest vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mapquest-vs-nominatim.md)
- [MapTiler Cloud vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/maptiler-vs-nominatim.md)
- [NextBillion.ai vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nextbillion-vs-nominatim.md)
- [Nominatim vs OpenCage Geocoding API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-opencage.md)
- [Nominatim vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-radar.md)
- [Nominatim vs Stadia Maps](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-stadia-maps.md)
- [Nominatim vs TomTom Maps APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-tomtom.md)
- [Nominatim vs Woosmap](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-woosmap.md)

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