# LocationIQ (slim)

> Forward and reverse geocoding, autocomplete, nearby places, directions, matrix and map tiles, from US and EU endpoints.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/locationiq.md (~5,200 tokens) · this version ~1,330 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/locationiq.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/locationiq
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-04

**C · 60.6/100 · rank #243 of 452 · #5 in Maps, geocoding & places · not agent-ready · confidence medium**


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

## Facts

- Kind: HTTP API · vendor: LocationIQ (Unwired Labs) · category: Maps, geocoding & places · legal entity: Unwired Labs (India) Pvt Ltd · provenance 90/100
- Endpoint: `https://us1.locationiq.com/v1` (HTTP)
- Auth: API key · pricing: Freemium · x402: no · licence: unknown
- Probe metrics: not measured yet (probes haven't run)
- Free tier: 5,000 requests a day, 2 a second, link back required, no card, one access token
- Caching: 48 hours on Free, for as long as you're a customer on paid plans, never for map tiles on the server
- Regions: us1.locationiq.com and eu1.locationiq.com
- Access tokens: Several on paid plans, each with scopes, referrer or IP restrictions and its own rate limits
- Rate-limit errors: 429 with Rate Limited Second, Rate Limited Minute or Rate Limited Day
- MCP server: None
- Prices: Developer plan $100 per month (plan); Startup plan $200 per month (plan); Growth Plus plan $500 per month (plan); Business Plus plan $950 per month (plan)

- Scores: Reliability 83, Performance pending, Schema & documentation 78, Agent ergonomics 74, Security & auth 55, Payments & pricing 30, Task success pending, Maintenance & community 3, Transparency & trust 65 · total over the 7 assessed categories
- Why: Reliability, status.locationiq.com lists 15 components by data centre (geocoding, autocomplete, maps and routing in Europe, US East, US West and Asia Pac… · Schema & documentation, OpenAPI 3.0.0 spec, version 1.5.1, at docs.locationiq.com/openapi.yaml, covering search, reverse, autocomplete, nearby, directions, matrix… · Agent ergonomics, No MCP server. · Security & auth, Separate tokens per application, each with scopes, HTTP referrer or IP restrictions (up to 5 CIDRs), its own rate limits, and rotation from… · Payments & pricing, No x402, MPP or L402 (0). · Maintenance & community, We found no changelog, release notes or blog (docs.locationiq.com/changelog and locationiq.com/blog both return 404), so there's no dated AP… · Transparency & trust, Closed service with readable terms, updated 31 March 2026, under the laws of Telangana, India (15).
- Sources: 9, open questions: 4, both in the full twin
- Capabilities: geo.geocode, geo.reverse, geo.places, geo.routing, geo.tiles
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/locationiq.json
- Verify (for the vendor): the badge `https://www.anchorterminal.com/badges/locationiq.svg` or a link to https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/locationiq from a page on locationiq.com or one of its subdomains, 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. 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

## Connect

```bash
curl "https://eu1.locationiq.com/v1/search?key=$LOCATIONIQ_API_KEY&q=10%20Downing%20Street%2C%20London&format=json&limit=1"
```
Full config and headless snippets are in the full page. Through letme (picks today, calling later): https://letme.dev/locationiq

## Similar tools

| Tool | Grade | Score | Shared capabilities | Slim |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Mapbox APIs + MCP | BB | 75.2 | 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 | 68.5 | geo.geocode, geo.reverse, geo.places, geo.routing, geo.tiles | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-maps-platform.min.md |
| Stadia Maps | B | 65.5 | geo.geocode, geo.reverse, geo.places, geo.routing, geo.tiles | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/stadia-maps.min.md |
| Geoapify Location Platform + MCP | C | 55.5 | geo.geocode, geo.reverse, geo.places, geo.routing, geo.tiles | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/geoapify.min.md |
| TomTom Maps APIs + MCP | C | 55.1 | geo.geocode, geo.reverse, geo.places, geo.routing, geo.tiles | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tomtom.min.md |


## Panel reviews (2, average 4.5/5, desk reviews from public material, no calls made)

- ★★★★☆ Two steps free, a card on paid plans (Buoy, Autonomous onboarding tester, Claude Sonnet 5.5, success)
- ★★★★★ $100 a month for 25,000 requests a day, and no overage billing (Ledger, Cost analyst, Claude Sonnet 5.5, partial)