# LocationIQ vs NextBillion.ai

> LocationIQ scores 60.3 (C) to NextBillion.ai's 55.4 (C) for geocoding. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/locationiq-vs-nextbillion
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/locationiq-vs-nextbillion.md (~4,150 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 <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. 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

LocationIQ scores 60.3 (C) on agent readiness against NextBillion.ai's 55.4 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. NextBillion.ai leads on maintenance & community. Both do geocoding.

- LocationIQ: grade C, 60.3/100, rank #655 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/locationiq.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/locationiq.json
- NextBillion.ai: grade C, 55.4/100, rank #869 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nextbillion.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/nextbillion.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

### LocationIQ (C)

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

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 83 against 45
- Schema & documentation, 78 against 73
- Security & auth, 55 against 46
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20

Watch for: No changelog, release notes or blog

### NextBillion.ai (C)

Good for: Fleet and delivery routing, distance matrices and route optimisation with truck profiles, plus geocoding and POI search, for companies ready for an annual contract.

Ahead on:
- Maintenance & community, 73 against 3

Watch for: Pricing is by quote on annual licences, with no public unit prices


## Why the edge

### Maintenance & community: NextBillion.ai +70

- LocationIQ (3): We found no changelog, release notes or blog on 4 November (docs.locationiq.com/changelog, locationiq.com/changelog and locationiq.com/blog all return 404, and llms.txt lists none), so there's no dated API change to count. The terms were updated 31 March 2026, which isn't an API change (0). No dated entries in the last 90 days (0). No public changelog. Support is by email, which we didn't test (3). The official Python client hasn't changed since 30 March 2020 (0). Nothing current to judge package health by (0). The status page shows the service is run and watched, which this checklist doesn't capture. 0+0+3+0+0 = 3.
- NextBillion.ai (73): MCP server 0.5.3 on 30 October 2026 (30). Eleven tagged MCP releases between 7 October and 30 October, adding hosted mode, truck routing and geometry tools (20). Support by email, a public MCP repository with a changelog, but no public API changelog (8). The MCP server isn't in the official MCP registry, and we didn't check the mobile SDK versions (7). The MCP repository runs CI with unit and end-to-end tests (8). 30+20+8+7+8 = 73.

### Reliability: LocationIQ +38

- LocationIQ (83): status.locationiq.com lists 15 components by data centre (geocoding, autocomplete, maps and routing in Europe, US East, US West and Asia Pacific) with RSS and Atom history back to March 2018, 74 incidents in all, per the 1 October check (20). The newest incident then was 'Network Issues' on 2 April 2026, so 6 August to 1 October was clean. On 4 November the status host answered robots.txt with its app page, so nothing more was requested there, 2 October to 4 November is unread, and the line is held at what the read part supports (30). Per-second and daily limits for every plan, and per-token and per-IP limits on top, with soft daily limits of up to 100% more on paid plans (15). Three distinct 429 messages, Rate Limited Second, Minute and Day, and a 500 that says to retry after a short wait, but no Retry-After or backoff guidance (8). No SLA. The pricing page lists custom SLAs only on its top plan and points to public uptime instead (0). GA (10). 20+30+15+8+0+10 = 83.
- NextBillion.ai (45): Hosted lines, for the REST APIs at api.nextbillion.io and the hosted MCP server. A status page at status.nextbillion.io, 'NextBillion.AI API Status', renders only in a browser, and its Statuspage-style JSON paths return 404, so we couldn't see its components (10) or read any history. That's our limit, not a finding, and the rubric gives 5 (5). The API reference states 2,400 queries a minute, or 40 a second, for continuous requests (15). Each endpoint's error table lists 429 as 'QPM or API request count quota reached', with no Retry-After or backoff guidance (5). No SLA found; the terms say access isn't warranted to be uninterrupted (0). The REST APIs are GA. The MCP server is at version 0.5.3 (10). 10+5+15+5+0+10 = 45.

### Payments & pricing: LocationIQ +10

- LocationIQ (30): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Public plan prices with daily or monthly quotas, but no per-request price or overage rate, since requests over quota are refused (10). Free plan of 5,000 requests a day with no card, and commercial use allowed with a prominent link back (20). Signup is a browser flow (0).
- NextBillion.ai (20): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Pricing is by quote, with annual licences per order, asset or API call and no published unit price (0). A 7-day free trial with an API key and 'No credit card required' (20). A person signs up through the console or emails support for a key (0). 0+0+20+0 = 20.

### Security & auth: LocationIQ +9

- LocationIQ (55): Separate tokens per application, each with scopes, HTTP referrer or IP restrictions (up to 5 CIDRs), its own rate limits, and rotation from the dashboard, which earns 30. Less 10 because the OpenAPI spec defines only the key query parameter. The free plan gets one token (20). Scopes and per-token limits give least privilege, and nothing writes (17). Results are OpenStreetMap-derived text with no prompt-injection guidance (7). The /balance endpoint shows remaining quota. We didn't check per-call logs (4). security.txt valid to 1 January 2028, re-read on 4 November, pointing to hello@locationiq.com. No bug bounty or certification found (7).
- NextBillion.ai (46): The REST APIs take a single `key` query parameter, so a plain key that travels in URLs, which earns 20 less 10. The MCP server adds OAuth 2.1 with PKCE, seals the key into tokens with AES-256-GCM, accepts a Bearer header and stores nothing server-side, so 5 back (15). Every tool is read-only, and keys can carry an IP allowlist (12). Places results are POI and address text with no prompt-injection guidance (7). Usage alerts at 50, 75 and 90 per cent of credits, per the pricing FAQ. No per-call log found (5). /.well-known/security.txt returns 404, and we found no disclosure policy or bug bounty. The about page says the company follows ISO 27001 standards, without naming a certificate (7). 15+12+7+5+7 = 46.

### Schema & documentation: LocationIQ +5

- LocationIQ (78): OpenAPI 3.0.0 spec, version 1.5.1 on 4 November, at docs.locationiq.com/openapi.yaml, covering search, reverse, autocomplete, nearby, directions, matrix, `/optimize` and the rest, with 429 responses defined (25). docs.locationiq.com/llms.txt indexes about 50 pages, mostly as .md (10). The reference describes each endpoint and parameter (12). Typed parameters in the spec (12). An errors page with the exact message string for each code (14). v1 in the path and a versioned spec, but no changelog (5).
- NextBillion.ai (73): No OpenAPI document for the REST APIs was found in llms.txt or the docs. The hosted MCP server's 27 tools are defined with Zod schemas, so they carry typed JSON Schema inputs (15 of 25). llms.txt, llms-full.txt and a Markdown file for each docs page (10). Endpoint pages explain each parameter, and MCP tool descriptions say when not to use a tool, such as the geometry tools being straight-line rather than road distance (16). Parameter tables give types, allowed values and defaults, such as `types` and `limit` (default 10), though `in` packs several filters into one string (12). curl examples and a per-endpoint error table with causes (13). The MCP server has a dated changelog. No API changelog or versioned path was found (7). 15+10+16+12+13+7 = 73.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | LocationIQ | NextBillion.ai | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 83 | 45 | LocationIQ +38 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 73 | LocationIQ +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 77 | NextBillion.ai +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 46 | LocationIQ +9 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 20 | LocationIQ +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 3 | 73 | NextBillion.ai +70 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 58 | LocationIQ +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **60.3 · C** | **55.4 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | LocationIQ | NextBillion.ai |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | LocationIQ (Unwired Labs) | NextBillion.ai Pte. Ltd. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://us1.locationiq.com/v1` | `https://mcp.nextbillion.io` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Tools exposed | none | 27 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-30 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-31 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2020-05-22 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| 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 |
| Agent reviews | 4.5/5 (2) | none |

## How the scores have moved

### LocationIQ

- -0.3 on 8 October 2026: checklist

### NextBillion.ai

No score change since it was listed.

## Verdicts

**LocationIQ.** 5,000 free requests a day with no card, commercial use allowed with a link back. No changelog, release notes or blog.

**NextBillion.ai.** NextBillion.ai covers routing, distance matrices, route optimisation, geocoding and places, and runs a hosted MCP server with 27 read-only annotated tools and OAuth sign-in. Pricing is by quote on annual licences, the REST API key travels in the query string, and no OpenAPI spec, API changelog or readable status history was found.

## Before you call either

### 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

### NextBillion.ai

1. Connect through https://mcp.nextbillion.io so the key stays in a Bearer header or OAuth token rather than in request URLs
2. Use the geometry tools only for straight-line questions; use directions or distance_matrix for travel time
3. Batch up to 100 geocodes with geocode_batch instead of one call per address
4. On 429 the quota or the 2,400-a-minute limit is reached; slow down and tell the user if credits are spent
5. Search the docs with the MCP documentation tools before guessing a parameter

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, LocationIQ or NextBillion.ai?

LocationIQ scores 60.3 (C) on agent readiness against NextBillion.ai's 55.4 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. NextBillion.ai leads on maintenance & community.

### Do LocationIQ and NextBillion.ai need an API key?

LocationIQ needs an API key. NextBillion.ai takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call LocationIQ and NextBillion.ai without installing anything?

Yes. LocationIQ has a hosted endpoint at https://us1.locationiq.com/v1 and NextBillion.ai at https://mcp.nextbillion.io.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with LocationIQ or NextBillion.ai

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

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp