# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

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 MCP: grade B, 68.5/100, rank #123 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-maps-platform.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-maps-platform.json
- LocationIQ: grade C, 60.6/100, rank #243 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/locationiq.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/locationiq.json

## 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

| Category | Weight | Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP | LocationIQ | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 85 | 83 | Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +2 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 78 | LocationIQ +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 74 | Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 67 | 55 | Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +12 |
| 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) | 50 | 3 | Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +47 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 65 | Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **68.5 · B** | **60.6 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP | LocationIQ |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Google | LocationIQ (Unwired Labs) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://maps.googleapis.com` | `https://us1.locationiq.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (client libraries) | none |
| Tools exposed | 5 | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-08-06 | none |
| Popularity | 5k stars, 1.2M npm/wk, 748k PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (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

- [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 LocationIQ](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-locationiq.md)
- [Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP vs Mapbox APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-mapbox.md)
- [Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP vs OpenCage Geocoding API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-opencage.md)
- [Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP vs Stadia Maps](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-stadia-maps.md)
- [Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP vs TomTom Maps APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-tomtom.md)
- [LocationIQ vs Mapbox APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/locationiq-vs-mapbox.md)
- [LocationIQ vs OpenCage Geocoding API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/locationiq-vs-opencage.md)
- [LocationIQ vs Stadia Maps](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/locationiq-vs-stadia-maps.md)
- [LocationIQ vs TomTom Maps APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/locationiq-vs-tomtom.md)