# HERE Location Services vs LocationIQ

> LocationIQ scores 60.3 (C) to HERE Location Services's 58 (C) for geocoding. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-locationiq
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-locationiq.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-locationiq.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-locationiq.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

LocationIQ scores 60.3 (C) on agent readiness against HERE Location Services's 58 (C), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. HERE Location Services leads on schema & documentation, security & auth and maintenance & community. Both do geocoding.

- HERE Location Services: grade C, 58/100, rank #591 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/here-location-services.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/here-location-services.json
- LocationIQ: grade C, 60.3/100, rank #518 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/locationiq.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/locationiq.json
- Best maps, geocoding and places APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/maps/index.md
- All 78 maps comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/maps/index.md

## Which one, for what

### HERE Location Services (C)

Good for: Fleet and logistics work that needs truck routing, large matrices, isolines, traffic and transit from one vendor with an SLA.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 78
- Security & auth, 65 against 55
- Maintenance & community, 60 against 3

Watch for: Platform Terms section f forbids using HERE Materials in connection with a machine learning or AI system, generative AI included. This matters before any probe is run

### LocationIQ (C)

Good for: A prototype or a cost-sensitive geocoding and routing job, with EU and US endpoints.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 83 against 57
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 10

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card
- No incidents deducted, where HERE Location Services loses 3 points for them

Watch for: No changelog, release notes or blog


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | HERE Location Services | LocationIQ | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 57 | 83 | LocationIQ +26 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 78 | HERE Location Services +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 74 | even |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 55 | HERE Location Services +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 10 | 30 | LocationIQ +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 3 | HERE Location Services +57 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 61 | HERE Location Services +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **58 · C** | **60.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | HERE Location Services | LocationIQ |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | HERE Technologies | LocationIQ (Unwired Labs) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1` | `https://us1.locationiq.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the HERE Platform Terms | none |
| Tools exposed | 13 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-09 | none |
| Terms last updated | 2023-09-18 | 2026-03-31 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-08-29 | 2020-05-22 |
| 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 | yes | yes |
| 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 |
| Agent reviews | none | 4.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**HERE Location Services.** Each endpoint page carries an OpenAPI 3.0 definition as Markdown, and HERE publishes 99.9 per cent monthly availability targets and a six-month deprecation policy. The Platform Terms of September 2023 forbid using HERE Materials in connection with a machine learning or AI system, and the price table could not be read.

**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

### HERE Location Services

1. Send `Authorization: Bearer` with an OAuth token where logs are kept. The `apiKey` query parameter puts the secret in every URL
2. Do not store results for more than 30 days, and follow the HTTP caching headers on each response
3. Treat 429 and 503 as throttling. HERE says a traffic surge can be throttled for about 10 minutes below the account's quota
4. Read `code`, `cause` and `action` in the error body, and quote `correlationId` to support
5. For Location Reasoning, send `initialize`, keep the `Mcp-Session-Id` header on later calls, and send a bearer token on `tools/call`

### 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

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, HERE Location Services or LocationIQ?

LocationIQ scores 60.3 (C) on agent readiness against HERE Location Services's 58 (C), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. HERE Location Services leads on schema & documentation, security & auth and maintenance & community.

### Do HERE Location Services and LocationIQ need an API key?

HERE Location Services takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. LocationIQ needs an API key.

### Can an agent call HERE Location Services and LocationIQ without installing anything?

Yes. HERE Location Services has a hosted endpoint at https://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1 and LocationIQ at https://us1.locationiq.com/v1.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with HERE Location Services or LocationIQ

- [Amazon Location Service vs HERE Location Services](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-here-location-services.md)
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- [HERE Location Services vs TomTom Maps APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-tomtom.md)
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- [LocationIQ vs MapQuest](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/locationiq-vs-mapquest.md)
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- [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)