# LocationIQ vs Nominatim

> Nominatim scores 63.5 (B) to LocationIQ's 60.3 (C) for geocoding. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-11-07

Nominatim scores 63.5 (B) on agent readiness against LocationIQ's 60.3 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. LocationIQ leads on schema & documentation and security & auth. Both do geocoding.

- LocationIQ: grade C, 60.3/100, rank #658 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/locationiq.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/locationiq.json
- Nominatim: grade B, 63.5/100, rank #513 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nominatim.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/nominatim.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:
- Schema & documentation, 78 against 51
- Security & auth, 55 against 50

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No changelog, release notes or blog

### Nominatim (B)

Good for: Self-hosted worldwide geocoding from OpenStreetMap data with no per-call cost or storage limits beyond ODbL.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 60 against 3

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: No OpenAPI spec and no llms.txt


## Why the edge

### Maintenance & community: Nominatim +57

- 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.
- Nominatim (60): Release 5.3.3 on 14 October 2026, 23 days before this check (30). Only one release in the 90 days from 8 August, against 106 commits on the default branch; commits aren't counted as releases (0). Commits from the lead maintainer and seven or more contributors since August, but we couldn't read issue reply times (12). The nominatim-api Python library is current with the server (10). CI on every push, current PostgreSQL and Python versions (8). 30+0+12+10+8 = 60.

### Payments & pricing: Nominatim +30

- 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).
- Nominatim (60): Self-hosted rule. No payment protocol (0). Free software with nothing to buy (20 + 20 + 20). The public instance is also free and keyless, within its usage policy. 0+20+20+20 = 60.

### Schema & documentation: LocationIQ +27

- 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).
- Nominatim (51): No OpenAPI or machine-readable contract (0). nominatim.org/llms.txt returns 404, and the manual is HTML, though its Markdown sources sit in the repository's docs folder (0). The API reference explains each endpoint and parameter and when not to use one, such as the details endpoint being for debugging (14). Types, enums and limits are documented, such as format, layer and limit (at most 40), but there's no schema to validate against (12). Example queries and outputs per endpoint, with errors described in prose (10). A versioned manual per release, a ChangeLog and a migration guide (15). 0+0+14+12+10+15 = 51.

### Security & auth: LocationIQ +5

- 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).
- Nominatim (50): The server has no authentication of its own; an operator puts it behind their own proxy. The public instance takes no key and identifies callers by User-Agent or Referer (5). Every endpoint reads, so there's nothing to approve (18). Results are OpenStreetMap names and tags, community-edited text, with no prompt-injection guidance (7). Query logging to a file is available through NOMINATIM_LOG_FILE and off by default (8). SECURITY.md gives security@nominatim.org, an acknowledgement within 3 work days, a disclosure process and two years of security updates per release. No bug bounty (12). 5+18+7+8+12 = 50.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | LocationIQ | Nominatim | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 83 | 82 | LocationIQ +1 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 51 | LocationIQ +27 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 75 | Nominatim +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 50 | LocationIQ +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 60 | Nominatim +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 3 | 60 | Nominatim +57 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 59 | LocationIQ +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **60.3 · C** | **63.5 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | LocationIQ | Nominatim |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | LocationIQ (Unwired Labs) | Nominatim project (osm-search) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://us1.locationiq.com/v1` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-14 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-31 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2020-05-22 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| 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 |
| Popularity | none | 2.1k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4.5/5 (2) | none |

## How the scores have moved

### LocationIQ

- -0.3 on 8 October 2026: checklist

### Nominatim

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.

**Nominatim.** Nominatim is the open-source OpenStreetMap geocoder, free to run with a documented search, reverse and lookup API, tested releases and two years of security support per release. It has no OpenAPI spec, no built-in authentication, and the public instance allows one request a second and restricts LLM-suggested use, so agents at scale need their own server.

## 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

### Nominatim

1. Don't send bulk or repeated queries to nominatim.openstreetmap.org; keep to one request a second, cache results and set an identifying User-Agent
2. Tell the user about the OSMF usage policy before suggesting the public instance, as the policy requires
3. For regular or large jobs, run your own Nominatim or use a commercial provider listed on the Nominatim wiki
4. Pass format=jsonv2 or geojson and limit, since omitting format sends the request to the web UI
5. Attribute OpenStreetMap and respect the ODbL share-alike terms when storing results

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, LocationIQ or Nominatim?

Nominatim scores 63.5 (B) on agent readiness against LocationIQ's 60.3 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. LocationIQ leads on schema & documentation and security & auth.

### Do LocationIQ and Nominatim need an API key?

LocationIQ needs an API key. Nominatim needs no key.

### Can an agent call LocationIQ and Nominatim without installing anything?

LocationIQ has a hosted endpoint at https://us1.locationiq.com/v1. No hosted endpoint is listed for Nominatim.

### Are LocationIQ and Nominatim open source?

No open-source release is listed for LocationIQ. Nominatim is open source (GPL-3.0-or-later).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with LocationIQ or Nominatim

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

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