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Head to head · Geocoding · October 2026 research run

HERE Location Services vs MapQuest

HERE Location Services scores 58 (C) on agent readiness against MapQuest's 35.1 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. MapQuest leads on payments & pricing. Both do geocoding.

Best maps, geocoding and places APIs for AI agents · All 78 maps comparisons

HERE Location ServicesHERE Technologies · HTTP API C58/100#591 of 950 MapQuestMapQuest (System1) · HTTP API F35.1/100#936 of 950

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

  • Reliability, 57 against 23
  • Schema & documentation, 87 against 47
  • Agent ergonomics, 74 against 60
  • Security & auth, 65 against 28
  • Maintenance & community, 60 against 23
  • Transparency & trust, 63 against 28

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

MapQuest F

Good for An agent that needs US-centred geocoding, routing with truck profiles, traffic and place search behind one account, with an MCP server ready to connect.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 10

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where HERE Location Services loses 3 points for them

Watch for

No API terms of service found. The legal link leads to System1's 2021 website terms, which allow personal, non-commercial use only

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runHERE Location ServicesMapQuestEdge
Reliability16%205723HERE Location Services +34
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28747HERE Location Services +40
Agent ergonomics13%16.27460HERE Location Services +14
Security & auth14%17.56528HERE Location Services +37
Payments & pricing10%12.51030MapQuest +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86023HERE Location Services +37
Transparency & trust7%8.86328HERE Location Services +35
Negative events≤15-30
Total58 · C35.1 · F

Facts side by side

FactHERE Location ServicesMapQuest
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorHERE TechnologiesMapQuest (System1)
Hosted endpointhttps://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1https://www.mapquestapi.com
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under the HERE Platform TermsProprietary service. No API terms were found published without a login
Tools exposed13none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-09-092026-07-16
Terms last updated2023-09-18no document linked
Privacy policy last updated2024-08-29no document linked
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text

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.

MapQuest

One account reaches geocoding, routing, place search and traffic through a REST API or a hosted MCP server with OAuth, at a published $0.0045 a transaction. No API terms, status page, changelog or product OpenAPI spec was found, and REST keys travel in the query string.

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

MapQuest

  1. Register an account and create an API key before connecting the MCP server. Every tool needs an active key, chosen by nickname on first use
  2. Send REST calls to https://www.mapquestapi.com with key in the query string, and redact it from logged URLs
  3. Read info.statuscode in geocoding and directions responses. 0 is success, and errors such as 610 (ambiguous location) arrive in the body
  4. Set thumbMaps=false and maxResults on geocoding, and pageSize (1 to 50) on place search, to keep responses small
  5. Do not store or cache geocodes on a monthly or pay-as-you-go plan

Questions

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

HERE Location Services scores 58 (C) on agent readiness against MapQuest's 35.1 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. MapQuest leads on payments & pricing.

Do HERE Location Services and MapQuest need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

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

Yes. HERE Location Services has a hosted endpoint at https://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1 and MapQuest at https://www.mapquestapi.com.

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