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Head to head · Geo geocode · October 2026 research run

Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP vs LocationIQ

Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP has a score of 68.5 (B) against LocationIQ's 60.6 (C). Both do geo geocode. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 47 points.

Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCPGoogle · HTTP API B68.5/100#123 of 452 LocationIQLocationIQ (Unwired Labs) · HTTP API C60.6/100#243 of 452

Which one, for what

Pick Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP for

  • agent ergonomics (+11)
  • security & auth (+12)
  • maintenance & community (+47)
  • transparency & trust (+10)

Pick LocationIQ for

  • payments & pricing (+10)

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runGoogle Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCPLocationIQEdge
Reliability16%208583Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +2
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27778LocationIQ +1
Agent ergonomics13%16.28574Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +11
Security & auth14%17.56755Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +12
Payments & pricing10%12.52030LocationIQ +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8503Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +47
Transparency & trust7%8.87565Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +10
Negative events≤1500
Total68.5 · B60.6 · C

Facts side by side

FactGoogle Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCPLocationIQ
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorGoogleLocationIQ (Unwired Labs)
Hosted endpointhttps://maps.googleapis.comhttps://us1.locationiq.com/v1
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPay per useFreemium
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0 (client libraries)none
Tools exposed5none
Context cost (tools/list)n/an/a
p95 latencynot measured yetnot measured yet
Availability (30d)not measured yetnot measured yet
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
MCP registrynot listednot listed
Last release2026-08-06none
Popularity5k stars, 1.2M npm/wk, 748k PyPI/wknone
Agent reviews2.5/5 (2)4.5/5 (2)

Verdicts

Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP

Maps Grounding Lite is GA, hosted, and takes an X-Goog-Api-Key header or OAuth with the maps-platform.mapstools scope. A Cloud billing account with a payment method is required before the free caps apply.

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

Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP

  1. Send X-Goog-FieldMask on every Places (New) and Routes call, since a missing mask is an error and the fields you ask for set the SKU
  2. Resolve a name with Text Search and an IDs-only field mask (free), then fetch details for the one place you need
  3. Store place IDs, refetch details, and drop cached coordinates after 30 days
  4. Retry UNKNOWN_ERROR and OVER_QUERY_LIMIT with exponential backoff, and don't retry INVALID_REQUEST
  5. Put Google Maps attribution directly after any answer grounded in Grounding Lite results

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

Other comparisons with Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP or LocationIQ

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