# Amazon Location Service (slim)

> Amazon Location Service is AWS's API for geocoding, place search, routing and map tiles, with geofences and device tracking. Agents call regional REST endpoints with an API key or IAM credentials, or through the AWS SDKs and CLI.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-location.md (~8,350 tokens) · this version ~2,030 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-location.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-location
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-08

**BB · 74.1/100 · rank #68 of 722 · #2 in Maps, geocoding & places · agent-ready · confidence high**


Assessment: Places, Routes and Maps calls work over plain HTTPS with an API key limited to named actions, and every one of the 17 operations is read-only with typed inputs. Access starts with an AWS account a person opens, the key travels in the URL query string, and stored results cost eight times the single-use rate.

## Facts

- Kind: HTTP API · vendor: Amazon Web Services · category: Maps, geocoding & places · legal entity: Amazon Web Services, Inc. · provenance 88/100
- Endpoint: `https://places.geo.us-east-1.amazonaws.com` (HTTP)
- Auth: API key · pricing: Pay per use · x402: no · licence: Proprietary service under the AWS Customer Agreement and AWS Service Terms. The AWS SDK clients and the agent context package on GitHub are Apache-2.0
- Probe metrics: not measured yet (probes haven't run)
- APIs: Places v2 (7 operations), Routes v2 (5), Maps v2 (5), plus the `location` API (64 operations) for API keys, geofences, trackers, jobs and the v1 resources. API version 2020-11-19
- Endpoints: `places.geo.<region>.amazonaws.com`, `routes.geo.<region>.amazonaws.com`, `maps.geo.<region>.amazonaws.com`, with dual-stack twins under `api.aws`
- Credentials: API keys for Maps, Places and Routes (allowed actions and resources, optional expiry, referrer or app restrictions), Amazon Cognito, or SigV4 with IAM for every API
- Default rates: 100 a second for each Places operation. 20 for `CalculateRoutes`, `CalculateIsolines` and `SnapToRoads`, 5 for `CalculateRouteMatrix` and `OptimizeWaypoints`. Burst 80 per cent of the rate. Self-service increase to twice the default
- Limits: 6 MB compressed response. `MaxResults` 1 to 100 and `QueryText` up to 200 characters on `Geocode`. 50 waypoints for `OptimizeWaypoints`, 5,000 trace points for `SnapToRoads`
- Storage rule: Results may be stored only with `IntendedUse` set to `Storage`, billed at the stored price. Autocomplete and Suggest results can't be stored. HERE data for Japan can't be stored or cached (Service Terms 82.4 and 82.5)
- Data providers: HERE, Esri, GrabMaps (eight Southeast Asian countries) and AWS open data maps built on Overture and OpenStreetMap
- Free allowance: Monthly for the first three months. 20,000 core Places requests, 10,000 label Autocomplete or Suggest requests, 10,000 routes, 500,000 map tiles, 5,000 static maps
- SLA: 99.9 per cent monthly uptime per region. Credits of 10 per cent below 99.9, 25 below 99.0 and 100 below 95.0 (last updated 5 May 2022)
- Retention: Device positions 30 days. Geofences until deleted. Queries have customer metadata removed before going to data providers, which may process them outside the request's region
- Audit: CloudTrail management events by default, data events on request. CloudWatch metrics by `ApiKeyName`
- Agent tooling: `aws-geospatial/amazon-location-agent-context` v1.2.0 (Apache-2.0), a Claude Code and Cursor plugin, Kiro power and Agent Skill. Its MCP config points at the AWS MCP Server, not a server specific to Amazon Location
- Address validation: Batch only, through the Jobs API with S3 input and output. United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia. $10.50 per 1,000 for the first 100,000 (core)
- Prices: Geocode, reverse geocode, place search (core) $0.50 per 1,000 requests; Geocode, reverse geocode, place search (advanced) $1.50 per 1,000 requests; Geocode, reverse geocode, place search (stored) $4 per 1,000 requests; Autocomplete and Suggest (label) $0.20 per 1,000 requests; Routes calculated (core) $0.50 per 1,000 requests; Routes with toll cost (premium) $4 per 1,000 requests; Dynamic map tiles $0.04 per 1,000 requests; Static map images $0.50 per 1,000 requests

- Scores: Reliability 95, Performance pending, Schema & documentation 87, Agent ergonomics 88, Security & auth 73, Payments & pricing 20, Task success pending, Maintenance & community 60, Transparency & trust 70 · total over the 7 assessed categories
- Why: Reliability, Hosted reading. · Schema & documentation, The Smithy service models for `geo-places`, `geo-routes`, `geo-maps` and `location` (API version 2020-11-19) are public in aws/api-models-aw… · Agent ergonomics, API reading of the checklist. · Security & auth, Three credential routes, SigV4 with IAM, Amazon Cognito, and API keys limited to named actions and resources with optional expiry and referr… · Payments & pricing, No x402, MPP or L402 (0). · Maintenance & community, Read as a closed service. · Transparency & trust, Closed service under the AWS Service Terms, whose section 82 sets out storage, caching and attribution rules in detail (15 of 30).
- Sources: 26, open questions: 6, both in the full twin
- Capabilities: geo.geocode, geo.reverse, geo.places, geo.routing, geo.tiles
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-location.json
- Verify (for the vendor): the badge `https://www.anchorterminal.com/badges/amazon-location.svg` or a link to https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-location from a page on amazon.com or one of its subdomains, or the README of github.com/aws-geospatial/amazon-location-agent-context, then `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/verify` `{"slug", "url"}` or `verify_listing` at /mcp; re-checked weekly, no effect on the grade. Snippets in the full twin.

## Before you call it

1. Call the v2 endpoints (`places.geo.<region>.amazonaws.com/v2/geocode`, `routes.geo`, `maps.geo`). They need no resource creation, unlike the v1 place index and route calculator calls
2. Set `IntendedUse` to `Storage` before saving or caching any Places result. The default `SingleUse` results may not be stored under section 82.4 of the AWS Service Terms
3. Read `PricingBucket` in each response. Requesting `Contact`, `Access`, `TimeZone` or `Phonemes` in `AdditionalFeatures` moves a Places call from $0.50 to $1.50 per 1,000
4. Keep the API key out of logs and shared URLs, since it travels as `?key=`. Use SigV4 with an IAM role for server-side work, and for the Jobs API, which refuses API keys
5. Back off on HTTP 429 `ThrottlingException`. The burst allowance is 80 per cent of the per-second rate within any part of a second

## Connect

```bash
pip install boto3   # or: npm i @aws-sdk/client-geo-places
```

```bash
curl --request POST \
  --url 'https://places.geo.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/v2/geocode?key=Your_Key' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{"QueryText": "510 W Georgia St, Vancouver, BC"}'
```

```bash
/plugin install amazon-location-service@claude-plugins-official
```
Full config and headless snippets are in the full page. Through letme (picks today, calling later): https://letme.dev/amazon-location

## Similar tools

| Tool | Grade | Score | Shared capabilities | Slim |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Mapbox APIs + MCP | BB | 75 | geo.geocode, geo.reverse, geo.places, geo.routing, geo.tiles | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mapbox.min.md |
| Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP | B | 68.2 | geo.geocode, geo.reverse, geo.places, geo.routing, geo.tiles | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-maps-platform.min.md |
| Azure Maps | B | 67.9 | geo.geocode, geo.reverse, geo.places, geo.routing, geo.tiles | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-maps.min.md |
| ArcGIS Location Platform | B | 65.4 | geo.geocode, geo.reverse, geo.places, geo.routing, geo.tiles | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/arcgis.min.md |
| Stadia Maps | B | 65.2 | geo.geocode, geo.reverse, geo.places, geo.routing, geo.tiles | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/stadia-maps.min.md |


## Panel reviews (0, desk reviews from public material, no calls made)