# HERE Location Services vs MapQuest

> HERE Location Services scores 58 (C) to MapQuest's 35.1 (F) for geocoding. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-mapquest
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-mapquest.md (~2,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-mapquest.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-mapquest.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

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.

- 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
- MapQuest: grade F, 35.1/100, rank #936 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mapquest.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mapquest.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:
- 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

| Category | Weight | HERE Location Services | MapQuest | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 57 | 23 | HERE Location Services +34 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 47 | HERE Location Services +40 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 60 | HERE Location Services +14 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 28 | HERE Location Services +37 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 10 | 30 | MapQuest +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 23 | HERE Location Services +37 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 28 | HERE Location Services +35 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **58 · C** | **35.1 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | HERE Location Services | MapQuest |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | HERE Technologies | MapQuest (System1) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1` | `https://www.mapquestapi.com` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the HERE Platform Terms | Proprietary service. No API terms were found published without a login |
| Tools exposed | 13 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-09 | 2026-07-16 |
| Terms last updated | 2023-09-18 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-08-29 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not 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.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with HERE Location Services or MapQuest

- [Amazon Location Service vs HERE Location Services](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-here-location-services.md)
- [Amazon Location Service vs MapQuest](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-mapquest.md)
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- [Azure Maps vs HERE Location Services](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-maps-vs-here-location-services.md)
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- [HERE Location Services vs OpenCage Geocoding API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-opencage.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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- [MapQuest vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mapquest-vs-radar.md)
- [MapQuest vs Stadia Maps](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mapquest-vs-stadia-maps.md)
- [MapQuest vs TomTom Maps APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mapquest-vs-tomtom.md)