Head to head · Geocoding · October 2026 research run
Geocodio vs Stadia Maps
Geocodio scores 72.2 (BB) on agent readiness against Stadia Maps's 65.2 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do geocoding.
Best maps, geocoding and places APIs for AI agents · All 153 maps comparisons
Which one, for what
Geocodio BB
Best for Batch geocoding and district or census enrichment of addresses in the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, where results must be stored.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 70 against 63
- Schema & documentation, 92 against 86
- Security & auth, 58 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 86 against 80
- Transparency & trust, 87 against 76
Also in its favour
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
Watch for
Covers only the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and UK needs a Flex or Unlimited plan
Best for Cost-sensitive geocoding, routing and tiles on OpenStreetMap data, with traffic-influenced routing since April 2026.
Also in its favour
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine
Watch for
Free plan is for development, testing and demos only
Why the edge
Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.
Security & auth Geocodio +18
Geocodio 58
Revocable keys, five on pay-as-you-go, each with permissions (Lists and Distance off by default), which earns 25. Less 10 because the docs say 'All requests require &api_key=YOUR_API_KEY' and the OpenAPI spec defines only the query scheme, though an Authorization header has worked since March 2025 (15). Per-key permissions limit what a key can reach. DELETE on lists and distance jobs needs no confirmation (13). Results are addresses and government district, census and legislator data rather than user-written text. No prompt-injection guidance found (9). Usage per API key in the dashboard, downloadable as CSV, and billable-lookup headers on every response (8). Valid security.txt to 30 January 2030 with a PGP key and a responsible disclosure policy. SOC 2 Type II and annual penetration tests apply to the Enterprise platform only. No bug bounty found (13). 15+13+9+8+13 = 58.
Stadia Maps 40
Revocable keys per property with rotation through the Account Management API and a header option (Authorization: Stadia-Auth), which earns 25. Less 10 because api_key in the query string is a documented option (the authentication page re-read on 2 November calls it the simplest) and the OpenAPI document defines only that scheme (15). The APIs only read, but keys aren't scoped to particular APIs (12). Results carry OpenStreetMap names, websites and opening hours, which are community-edited text, and we found no prompt-injection guidance (7). Dashboard usage and billing threshold alerts added on 20 August 2026 (6). stadiamaps.com/.well-known/security.txt still answers 404 on 2 November, and we found no disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification (0). 15+12+7+6+0 = 40.
Transparency & trust Geocodio +11
Geocodio 87
Editorial half only. Closed service with clear, dated terms under Virginia law, and libraries and CLI under MIT (20). The privacy policy says API and spreadsheet input and results are deleted within 45 days, error logs kept 90 days, and customer data isn't used to train AI models. A separate data retention policy and llms.txt put Lists API data at 72 hours. Results may be stored permanently by the customer (27). Replaced API versions are guaranteed for at least 12 months, breaking changes come only with a new version, and the changelog marks each one 'Breaking' (18). The privacy policy names its processors, such as Sentry and Laravel Nightwatch, and the security page says self-serve is hosted in Europe (15). 20+27+18+15 = 80.
Stadia Maps 76
Closed service with clear terms, last updated 18 March 2026, a BSD-3-Clause MCP server and open-source SDKs (20). Server logs kept about 7 to 14 days, account data deleted within 30 days of closure, a DPA, and per-plan storage rules spelt out. The privacy policy was updated 1 October 2026 (28). No deprecation policy. The terms promise 30 days' notice for fee increases and reasonable efforts for other material changes (6). Third-party processors listed with locations in the privacy policy, and hosting described as primarily US (18). 20+28+6+18 = 72.
Reliability Geocodio +7
Geocodio 70
Hosted lines. incident.io status page at status.geocod.io with five components (Geocodio API, Dashboard, Enterprise API, Enterprise Dashboard, Website) and an incidents feed at /api/v2/incidents.json (20). In the 90 days to 6 November 2026 the feed lists one incident marked major, 'Spreadsheet geocoding jobs are failing' on 27 October from 12:35 to 15:15 UTC, and a PHP security patch on 21 October marked no impact, so one major outage of a core feature (10). 1,000 requests a minute on single geocoding for pay-as-you-go and Flex, 100 on Enterprise Flex (15). 429 carries X-RateLimit-Remaining, -Limit and -Period, and llms.txt and AGENTS.md give a retry rule per status code with capped backoff, plus client-side idempotency guidance for the non-idempotent list and batch writes (15). The pricing page lists custom SLAs as an add-on on Unlimited and Enterprise plans, with no published terms, so no SLA (0). GA (10). 20+10+15+15+0+10 = 70.
Stadia Maps 63
Instatus page with 27 components across maps, routing, geocoding and data APIs, plus RSS and Atom history back to April 2025 (20). One incident in the 90 days to 2 November (history feed re-read on 2 November), on 25 September 2026, when a software update on edge nodes caused elevated request errors "in the initial deployment regions" across 24 listed components from 10:20 to 10:22 UTC before it was rolled back. Limited to some regions and two minutes, so minor (20). The FAQ says there's no fixed requests-a-second limit and the cap is the monthly credit pool, with credits per call published (12). A 429 is what you get when credits run out until the next cycle, with no Retry-After and no backoff guidance, so an agent can't tell a spent month from a burst (3). No SLA. The terms say the service is provided as is (0). The APIs are GA, but the MCP server has no release (8). 20+20+12+3+0+8 = 63.
Schema & documentation Geocodio +6
Geocodio 92
OpenAPI 3.0.1 spec, version 2.1.0, with 11 paths (25). llms.txt and an AGENTS.md written for agents (10). llms.txt and AGENTS.md say when to use each endpoint and when not to, such as the Lists API over looping single calls, the upload tool for a one-off spreadsheet and straightline over driving distance unless road distance is needed (19). Typed parameters with country values, component fields and documented limits, though fields is a comma-separated string (12). Error table with retry guidance, examples throughout, but the spec documents 200, 400, 403, 404, 422 and 424 and not 429 or 500 (11). Versioned paths from v1 to v2.1 and a dated public changelog with entries back to 2024 (15). 25+10+19+12+11+15 = 92.
Stadia Maps 86
Public OpenAPI 3.1.0 document at api.stadiamaps.com/openapi.yaml, version 11.1.0 (re-read on 2 November), from which the TypeScript and Python SDKs are generated (25). llms.txt at docs.stadiamaps.com, re-read on 2 November (10). The MCP's six tool descriptions say when not to use a tool, for example bulk-geocode warns against POI names (14). Zod inputs with minimums such as at least two route locations, but some fields are loose strings (12). Docs examples per endpoint. We didn't read an error reference (10). A dated public changelog with 14 entries between 12 August and 26 October 2026 and a Keep a Changelog file in each SDK (15). 25+10+14+12+10+15 = 86.
Maintenance & community Geocodio +6
Geocodio 86
API v2.1 released 3 November 2026 (Australia and New Zealand), and PHP library 3.4.1 on 4 November (30). Dated changelog entries on 8 September, 1, 8, 9, 19, 22 and 31 October and 3 November 2026, plus library releases in October (20). Public changelog, support by email and a team-staffed help desk named on the pricing page. We didn't read GitHub issue reply times (12). Official Python 1.6.0 and Node 2.3.0 from 12 October and PHP 3.4.1 from 4 November are current (15). Each library and the CLI run CI on GitHub Actions; we didn't check whether the runs pass (9). 30+20+12+15+9 = 86.
Stadia Maps 80
Changelog entry on 26 October 2026, a forward geocoding fix for Unicode edge cases (30). 14 dated changelog entries between 12 August and 26 October 2026, among them the 20 October Static Maps rebuild and the 17 October geocoding data release (20). A public changelog and support desk, but the MCP repo's last commit is still 29 July 2025 on 2 November (10). Official TypeScript SDK v9.1.0 and Python SDK v8.1.0, both tagged 27 April 2026 and still the newest tags (15). SDK CI runs integration tests against the live API, but the MCP server has no CI, no tagged release, no npm package and no registry entry (5). 30+20+10+15+5 = 80.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Geocodio | Stadia Maps | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 70 | 63 | Geocodio +7 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 92 | 86 | Geocodio +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 80 | 80 | even |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 58 | 40 | Geocodio +18 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 86 | 80 | Geocodio +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 87 | 76 | Geocodio +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | BB 72.2/100 | B 65.2/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Geocodio | Stadia Maps |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Dotsquare LLC | Stadia Maps |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | https://api.stadiamaps.com |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Price for geocoding | $1600 per month (plan) | $0.40 per 1,000 requests |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | BSD-3-Clause (MCP server) |
| Tools exposed | none | 6 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-26 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-03-18 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2018-05-25 | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 21k npm/wk, 921 PyPI/wk | 23 stars, 6.1k npm/wk, 192 PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |
How the scores have moved
Geocodio
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
Geocodio
Geocodio publishes llms.txt, an AGENTS.md on cost and retries, an OpenAPI spec and a dated changelog, and its results may be stored permanently. Coverage stops at six countries, there's no MCP server or published SLA for self-serve plans, and the docs still put the key in the query string by default.
Stadia Maps
Public OpenAPI spec (11.1.0) with generated TypeScript and Python SDKs. Free plan is for development, testing and demos only.
Before you call either
Geocodio
- Always set
country, because an address with none falls back to the US and is billed even when it's wrong - Send the key as
Authorization: Bearer, not in the query string, so it stays out of logs - Use batch POST /geocode (up to 10,000 lookups) or the Lists API rather than looping single requests
- Treat accuracy_type place, county or state as not found, and check
_warningsfor appends that were billed but skipped - Don't retry 403 or 422. On 429 read X-RateLimit headers and back off, and never re-upload a list sitting in ENQUEUED
Stadia Maps
- Send the key as
Authorization: Stadia-Auth <key>rather than in the URL - Try Autocomplete v2 (1 credit) before a full geocode (20 credits) when a name is enough
- Check the dashboard's credit balance before retrying a 429, since it may mean the month is spent
- Don't write geocodes to a database on Free or Starter
- Use bulk-geocode for addresses only, not POI names
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Geocodio or Stadia Maps?
Geocodio scores 72.2 (BB) on agent readiness against Stadia Maps's 65.2 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.
Do Geocodio and Stadia Maps need an API key?
Both need an API key.
Can an agent call Geocodio and Stadia Maps without installing anything?
No hosted endpoint is listed for Geocodio. Stadia Maps has a hosted endpoint at https://api.stadiamaps.com.
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/geocodio-vs-stadia-maps.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/geocodio.json·/api/v1/tools/stadia-maps.json - From a terminal
anchor compare geocodio stadia-maps(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "geocodio", "b": "stadia-maps"}at/mcp, no key