# Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP vs Nominatim > Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP scores 75.4 (BB) to Nominatim's 63.5 (B) for geocoding. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-nominatim - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-nominatim.md (~5,400 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 .grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.. and .vs.. 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 Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP scores 75.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Nominatim's 63.5 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Nominatim leads on payments & pricing. Both do geocoding. - Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP: grade BB, 75.4/100, rank #63 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-maps-platform.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-maps-platform.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 ### Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP (BB) Good for: Best when the answer has to match what the user sees in Google Maps, for place details, opening hours and reviews. Ahead on: - Reliability, 90 against 82 - Schema & documentation, 77 against 51 - Agent ergonomics, 85 against 75 - Security & auth, 73 against 50 - Maintenance & community, 80 against 60 - Transparency & trust, 72 against 59 Also in its favour: - Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better - A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install Watch for: Free monthly caps beyond the prototyping Demo Key need a Cloud billing account with a payment method ### Nominatim (B) Good for: Self-hosted worldwide geocoding from OpenStreetMap data with no per-call cost or storage limits beyond ODbL. Ahead on: - Payments & pricing, 60 against 40 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: Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +26 - Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP (77): No OpenAPI, but the Places v1, Routes v2, Geocode, Weather and Isochrones contracts are public protobuf definitions in googleapis/googleapis (25). developers.google.com/maps/llms.txt returns 404 and we found no Markdown docs for agents (0). The REST reference explains each field and which SKU a field triggers. We couldn't read the Grounding Lite tool definitions, since the server is closed (12). Enums, required fields and field masks in the protos (13). Request and response examples on each method page, and documented status codes for Geocoding (12). Versioned paths (places v1, routes v2), dated release notes and a deprecations page (15). - 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. ### Security & auth: Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +23 - Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP (73): API keys with API restrictions and IP restrictions, documented rotation with an overlap window, and OAuth 2.0 with per-method scopes (such as maps-platform.places.textsearch in the Places discovery document) and the maps-platform.mapstools scope for the agent tools, which earns 30. Less 10 because a credential can travel in the URL. Classic Geocoding and Static Maps take the key as the `key` query parameter, and on 1 November Places API (New) answered a made-up `?key=` with API_KEY_INVALID and a made-up `?access_token=` with 401 invalid credentials (not missing), with both listed as query parameters in its discovery document. That's one deduction, the same test and reading as google-weather-api and gmail-api (20). A key can be restricted to the APIs it needs, and no agent-facing call writes anything (16). Places and the agent tools return reviews and AI-generated place summaries, which are third-party text, and we found no prompt-injection guidance (5). Cloud Monitoring's Metrics Explorer shows usage per key and per API (12). google.com's security.txt is valid to 1 April 2030 and names the vulnerability reward programme, and the Maps Platform trust centre lists ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and 27017, SOC 2 and SOC 3, both read on 1 November. Read as Google's hosted APIs whose product a certification names are read in this run (gmail-api, google-drive-api, google-cloud-document-ai, google-model-armor, google-speech-to-text) (20). 20 + 16 + 5 + 12 + 20 = 73. - 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. ### Payments & pricing: Nominatim +20 - Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP (40): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-1,000 prices for every SKU published without login, re-read on 1 November (20). Monthly free caps per SKU (10,000 Essentials, 5,000 Pro, 1,000 Enterprise) need a Cloud billing account, but the Maps Demo Key lets a personal Google account prototype with Places API (New), Geocoding API v4, Compute Routes, Weather and the agent tools without billing information, within daily limits, so a trial with no card exists (20). A person still signs in to a Google account and accepts terms in a browser before the first key exists (0). 0 + 20 + 20 + 0 = 40. - 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. ### Maintenance & community: Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +20 - Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP (80): Newest dated API change is the Routes API note of 23 October 2026 on route tokens passed to the Navigation SDK, 9 days before this check (30). Three dated release-note entries in the 90 days from 3 August, Places API (New) on 6 August (entrances and navigation points), Geocoding API on 13 October (entrance display names and Experimental parking facilities) and Routes API on 23 October. The listed googlemaps Python client and Node services library tagged nothing in the window (20). Dated release notes, emailed change notices and a paid support route (12). Current generated clients such as @googlemaps/places, but the listed Python library googlemaps last tagged v4.10.0 on 26 January 2023 and its README now sends new APIs to the Cloud client libraries, and the Node services library last tagged v3.4.2 on 6 July 2025 (12). The generated clients are built in googleapis' CI. The older libraries say they sit outside the SLA and deprecation policy (6). 30 + 20 + 12 + 12 + 6 = 80. - 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: Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +13 - Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP (72): Closed service with long, specific terms that were last modified 26 August 2026, and Apache-2.0 client libraries (18). The service terms spell out caching (coordinates 30 days, place IDs exempt, a per-user geocode cache allowed) and Grounding Lite says Maps content isn't cached, stored or used to improve the model. The privacy policy is Google's general one (22). A 12-month deprecation policy and a deprecations page with dates, such as the Heatmap Layer deprecated May 2025 and gone May 2026 (20). Separate EEA terms and regional contracting entities are disclosed. A Maps Platform subprocessor list wasn't at the URL we tried (5). - 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. ### Agent ergonomics: Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +10 - Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP (85): Grounding Lite has three tools plus two experimental resolvers, and the REST APIs size their responses with X-Goog-FieldMask, which also sets the price (25). pageSize and pageToken on Text Search, includedTypes, locationBias and locationRestriction (20). google.rpc status codes with messages, and Geocoding's OK, UNKNOWN_ERROR, OVER_QUERY_LIMIT and INVALID_REQUEST split into retryable and not (16). Every agent-facing call is a read and the backoff guidance is explicit. We couldn't check MCP annotations on the closed server (14). Official generated clients in many languages, such as @googlemaps/places 3.0.1 on npm, but a missing field mask on Places (New) or Routes is an error rather than a default, which costs a turn (10). - Nominatim (75): API reading. limit, addressdetails, extratags, namedetails and the polygon options size responses, and geocodejson, geojson and jsonv2 formats are available (22). countrycodes, viewbox, bounded, layer, featureType and exclude_place_ids filter results, the last one standing in for pagination (18). Bad parameters return an error rather than a silent default in current versions, but there's no error code reference (12). Every endpoint reads and is safe to retry (15). Few required parameters, and the Python library exposes the same search API in-process, but there are no other official clients (8). 22+18+12+15+8 = 75. ## Score by category | Category | Weight | Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP | Nominatim | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 90 | 82 | Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +8 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 51 | Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +26 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 75 | Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +10 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 73 | 50 | Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +23 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 60 | Nominatim +20 | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 60 | Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +20 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 59 | Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP +13 | | Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | | | **Total** | | **75.4 · BB** | **63.5 · B** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP | Nominatim | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API | | Vendor | Google | Nominatim project (osm-search) | | Hosted endpoint | `https://maps.googleapis.com` | no (local only) | | Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP | | Auth | OAuth or key | None | | Pricing | Pay per use | Free | | Price for geocoding | $5 per 1,000 requests | free | | x402 | no | no | | Licence | Apache-2.0 (client libraries) | GPL-3.0-or-later | | Tools exposed | 5 | none | | Read-only variant documented | no | no | | llms.txt | no | no | | Last release | 2026-10-23 | 2026-10-14 | | Terms last updated | 2026-08-26 | no date given | | Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-01 | no document linked | | Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text | | Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes | | Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text | | Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text | | Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text | | Popularity | 5k stars, 1.2M npm/wk, 748k PyPI/wk | 2.1k PyPI/wk | | Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none | ## How the scores have moved ### Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP - +7.2 on 1 November 2026 (B to BB): product, new evidence, time - -0.1 on 28 October 2026: correction - +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist ### Nominatim No score change since it was listed. ## Verdicts **Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP.** Field masks size every Places and Routes response, a 99.9 per cent SLA covers the core services, and a Maps Demo Key allows prototyping without billing. Production use needs a Cloud billing account set up by a person, classic Geocoding takes the key in the URL, and the terms bar storing coordinates beyond 30 days. **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 ### 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. Leave the agent tools' Pro options (`include_extended_details`, `page_size` above 5, traffic-aware routing) unset unless asked, since allowlisted projects pay $14 per 1,000 for them 5. Put Google Maps attribution directly after any answer grounded in the agent tools' 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, Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP or Nominatim? Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP scores 75.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Nominatim's 63.5 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Nominatim leads on payments & pricing. ### Which is cheaper for geocoding, Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP or Nominatim? Nominatim, at free against $5 per 1,000 requests for Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP. These are the vendors' published prices for the job. ### Do Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP and Nominatim need an API key? Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Nominatim needs no key. ### Can an agent call Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP and Nominatim without installing anything? Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://maps.googleapis.com. No hosted endpoint is listed for Nominatim. ### Are Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP and Nominatim open source? No open-source release is listed for Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP. Nominatim is open source (GPL-3.0-or-later). ## For agents - This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-nominatim.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-nominatim.min.md - Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "google-maps-platform", "b": "nominatim"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare google-maps-platform nominatim` - Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-maps-platform.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/nominatim.json ## Other comparisons with Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP or Nominatim - [Amazon Location Service vs Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-google-maps-platform.md) - [Amazon Location Service vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-nominatim.md) - [ArcGIS Location Platform vs Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcgis-vs-google-maps-platform.md) - [ArcGIS Location Platform vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcgis-vs-nominatim.md) - [Azure Maps vs Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-maps-vs-google-maps-platform.md) - [Azure Maps vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-maps-vs-nominatim.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 Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-nominatim.md) - [Geocodio vs Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geocodio-vs-google-maps-platform.md) - [Geocodio vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geocodio-vs-nominatim.md) - [Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP vs HERE Location Services](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-here-location-services.md) - [Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP vs LocationIQ](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-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 MapQuest](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-mapquest.md) - [Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP vs MapTiler Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-maptiler.md) - [Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP vs NextBillion.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-nextbillion.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 Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-radar.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) - [Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP vs Woosmap](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-woosmap.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) --- Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp