# HERE Location Services vs Radar

> HERE Location Services scores 58 (C) to Radar's 53.3 (D) for geocoding. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-radar
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-radar.md (~2,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-radar.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-radar.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 Radar's 53.3 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Radar leads on reliability 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
- Radar: grade D, 53.3/100, rank #713 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/radar.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/radar.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 50
- Agent ergonomics, 74 against 65
- Security & auth, 65 against 56
- Transparency & trust, 63 against 55

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

### Radar (D)

Good for: A company that already has a Radar contract, or wants geofencing and trip tracking with geocoding and routing on one key.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 70 against 57
- Maintenance & community, 77 against 60

Watch for: The pricing page says Radar has no free tier and every plan is an annual commitment set by quote


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | HERE Location Services | Radar | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 57 | 70 | Radar +13 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 50 | HERE Location Services +37 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 65 | HERE Location Services +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 56 | HERE Location Services +9 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 10 | 10 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 77 | Radar +17 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 55 | HERE Location Services +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **58 · C** | **53.3 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | HERE Location Services | Radar |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | HERE Technologies | Radar Labs |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1` | `https://api.radar.io/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the HERE Platform Terms | Proprietary service under Radar's Terms of Use. The web SDK in radarlabs/radar-sdk-js is Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 13 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-09 | 2026-09-14 |
| Terms last updated | 2023-09-18 | 2023-05-24 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-08-29 | 2025-05-13 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |

## 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.

**Radar.** Radar documents 36 REST operations in Markdown with a rate limit on each, and its status feed shows two short API incidents in 90 days. Access is sales-led. The pricing page says there is no free tier, every plan is an annual commitment, and no OpenAPI description or API changelog was found.

## 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`

### Radar

1. Send the key in the `Authorization` header with no `Bearer` prefix, and call `https://api.radar.io/v1`, not radar.com
2. Use a publishable key for geocoding, search and routing. Keep the secret key for users, trips, geofences and beacons
3. Call `/v1/search/autocomplete` for partial addresses and place names. `/v1/geocode/forward` is documented as best for complete addresses
4. Set `units=metric` on routing calls. The default is imperial, with distances in feet
5. Treat 429 as one of three things (rate limit, no state change or selective throttling) and 402 as usage exceeded. No Retry-After header is documented
6. Do not keep geocoding, autocomplete or place results for more than 30 days

## Questions

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

HERE Location Services scores 58 (C) on agent readiness against Radar's 53.3 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Radar leads on reliability and maintenance & community.

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

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

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

Yes. HERE Location Services has a hosted endpoint at https://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1 and Radar at https://api.radar.io/v1.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with HERE Location Services or Radar

- [Amazon Location Service vs HERE Location Services](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-here-location-services.md)
- [Amazon Location Service vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-radar.md)
- [ArcGIS Location Platform vs HERE Location Services](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcgis-vs-here-location-services.md)
- [ArcGIS Location Platform vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcgis-vs-radar.md)
- [Azure Maps vs HERE Location Services](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-maps-vs-here-location-services.md)
- [Azure Maps vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-maps-vs-radar.md)
- [Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs HERE Location Services](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-here-location-services.md)
- [Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-radar.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 Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-radar.md)
- [HERE Location Services vs LocationIQ](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-locationiq.md)
- [HERE Location Services vs Mapbox APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-mapbox.md)
- [HERE Location Services vs MapQuest](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-mapquest.md)
- [HERE Location Services vs OpenCage Geocoding API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-opencage.md)
- [HERE Location Services vs Stadia Maps](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-stadia-maps.md)
- [HERE Location Services vs TomTom Maps APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-tomtom.md)
- [LocationIQ vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/locationiq-vs-radar.md)
- [Mapbox APIs + MCP vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mapbox-vs-radar.md)
- [MapQuest vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mapquest-vs-radar.md)
- [OpenCage Geocoding API vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/opencage-vs-radar.md)
- [Radar vs Stadia Maps](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/radar-vs-stadia-maps.md)
- [Radar vs TomTom Maps APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/radar-vs-tomtom.md)