Positionstack

"Free, Real-Time Geocoding & Maps API" - built to offer a straightforward and reliable solution for forward and reverse geocoding, covering more than 2 billion places and addresses worldwide. [1]

positionstack.com · By APILayer · Agent JSON · Suggest an edit · Last verified 2026-06-14 · Source confidence: high

Positionstack is a REST-based geocoding API covering more than 2 billion places worldwide, supporting forward geocoding, reverse geocoding, batch geocoding, and embeddable maps integration. It is self-serve with a free tier of 100 requests per month restricted to personal, non-commercial use, and paid subscription plans starting at $9.99 per month scaling up to 3 million monthly requests on the Business plan, with an enterprise option available. SDKs are published for seven languages including Python, Node.js, Go, and Java, and the service is GDPR-compliant.

Best for / Avoid if

Best for: Prototypes and side projects - free to start, no sales call; Cost-sensitive teams - low, transparent entry price

Avoid if: You have strict compliance requirements

Scores

  • 30 / 100
    Agent friendliness
  • 100 / 100
    Pricing transparency
  • 85 / 100
    Setup speed
  • 15 / 100
    Docs quality
  • 100 / 100
    Procurement ease
  • 15 / 100
    Trust readiness

Scores are computed deterministically from this profile's published, sourced fields (pricing, compliance, capabilities, docs and developer-surface signals) - not from reviews or paid placement. Each axis is 0-100; an unknown signal scores 0 for that axis. Procurement ease is the inverse of buying friction (higher = easier to adopt).

Pricing & procurement

Pricing model
Subscription [2]
Published pricing
Yes [3]
Free tier
Yes [4]
Free tier details
Free plan at $0/month includes 100 requests/month; personal license only; no commercial use; no support included. [5]
Self-serve signup
Yes [6]
Requires sales call
No
Enterprise plan
Yes [7]
Published prices
PlanItemPerAmountSource
Freegeocoding requestsmonth (100 requests included)$0source
Basic100,000 geocoding requestsmonth$9.99source
Basic (annual)100,000 geocoding requestsmonth$8.99source
Basicoverage geocoding requestrequest$0.0004source
Professional1,000,000 geocoding requestsmonth$49.99source
Professional (annual)1,000,000 geocoding requestsmonth$43.99source
Professionaloverage geocoding requestrequest$0.0002source
Business3,000,000 geocoding requestsmonth$99.99source
Business (annual)3,000,000 geocoding requestsmonth$84.99source
Businessoverage geocoding requestrequest$0.0001source
Enterprisecustom volume geocoding requestsmonth - source

Capabilities

  • Forward geocoding
  • Reverse geocoding
  • Batch / bulk
Supported actions
forward_geocode, reverse_geocode, batch_geocode [8]
Regions
global
Languages
multiple languages
Input types
free-form address, place name, lat/lon coordinates
Output types
JSON, XML, GeoJSON [9]
Webhooks
No [10]
Sandbox / test mode
No [11]
SDK languages
PHP, Python, Java, Node.js, Ruby, Go, JavaScript [12]
MCP server
No

Trust & compliance

SOC 2
Unknown [13]
HIPAA
Unknown [14]
GDPR
Yes [15]
ISO 27001
Unknown [16]
PCI DSS
Unknown [17]
Published SLA
No [18]
Rate limits
Monthly request quotas per plan (100 free; 100K Basic; 1M Professional; 3M Business); no per-second or per-minute rate documented. Response headers include X-RateLimit-Limit-Day and X-RateLimit-Limit-Month. Quota may be exceeded by up to 5% before access is disabled. [19]
Known restrictions
Free plan limited to personal (non-commercial) use only, Users cannot store, distribute, or otherwise exploit positionstack API data outside of their application(s), End users must use data strictly for their own personal use; commercial redistribution of data prohibited, Unused monthly quota does not carry over to the next month, API access key must be kept private; do not embed in client-side code, Attribution is optional but encouraged (link to positionstack.com), Quota may be exceeded by a maximum of 5%, after which API access is disabled, GitHub SDK repository archived (read-only) as of June 2024 [20]

Developer surface

Docs rendering: static

Integration

API style
rest
Base URL
https://api.positionstack.com/v1/
Version
v1
Versioning
url
Stability
ga
Auth methods
api_key
Idempotency keys
No
Error format
vendor-specific JSON: {code, message, context}

Adoption & maturity

Launched
2020-01-01

Other Geocoding APIs

  • Geocodio

    "The delightfully boring geocoder"

    Hybrid · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

  • Melissa

    Global data quality and enhancement solutions to profile, verify, clean, update, match, and integrate People data.

    Hybrid · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

  • Azure Maps (Search / Geocoding)

    "Azure Maps is a set of mapping and geospatial services that enable developers and organizations to build intelligent location-based experiences for applications across many different industries and use cases. Use the Azure Maps REST APIs and Web SDK to bring maps, geocoding, location search, routing, real-time traffic, geolocation, time zone information, and weather data into your web and mobile solutions."

    Usage · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

  • LocationIQ

    "Affordable Google Maps alternative for your website or app"

    Subscription · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

  • Google Geocoding API

    "The Geocoding API is a service that accepts a place as an address, latitude and longitude coordinates, or Place ID. It converts the address into latitude and longitude coordinates and a Place ID, or converts latitude and longitude coordinates or a Place ID into an address."

    Hybrid · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

  • Radar Geocoding API

    "Use Radar's geocoding APIs to convert addresses to latitude and longitude coordinates, or vice versa."

    Hybrid · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

Positionstack alternatives · Positionstack vs Geocodio · All Geocoding APIs APIs

References

Each field above carries a numbered source - hover for a preview, click to jump here.

  1. Description: positionstack.com · github.com
  2. Pricing model: positionstack.com
  3. Published pricing: positionstack.com
  4. Free tier: positionstack.com · positionstack.com
  5. Free tier details: positionstack.com
  6. Self-serve signup: positionstack.com
  7. Enterprise plan: positionstack.com
  8. Supported actions: positionstack.com · positionstack.com
  9. Output types: positionstack.com
  10. Webhooks: positionstack.com
  11. Sandbox: positionstack.com
  12. SDK languages: github.com
  13. SOC 2: ideracorp.com
  14. HIPAA: ideracorp.com
  15. GDPR: positionstack.com
  16. ISO 27001: ideracorp.com
  17. PCI DSS: ideracorp.com
  18. Published SLA: positionstack.com · positionstack.com
  19. Rate limits: positionstack.com · marketplace.apilayer.com
  20. Known restrictions: positionstack.com · github.com

Change history

Every field change, who made it, and when - from our audited data pipeline and editors.

  1. 2026-06-15 Score Agent Friendliness: 1030
  2. 2026-06-15 Score Docs Quality: 015
  3. 2026-06-14 Docs URL: (none)https://docs.apilayer.com/positionstack/docs/api-documentation?utm_source=Posit…
  4. 2026-06-14 Robots Allows Agents: (none)Yes
  5. 2026-06-14 Has Structured Data: (none)Yes
  6. 2026-06-14 Capabilities: {}{"batch":true,"forward":true,"reverse":true}
  7. 2026-06-14 Summary Md: (none)Positionstack is a REST-based geocoding API covering more than 2 billion places…
  8. 2026-06-14 Llms Txt Present: (none)No
  9. 2026-06-14 Rendering: (none)static
  10. 2026-06-14 Status Page URL: (none)https://status.positionstack.com
  11. 2026-06-14 Score Setup Speed: (none)85
  12. 2026-06-14 Score Pricing Transparency: (none)100
  13. 2026-06-14 Avoid If: (none)You have strict compliance requirements
  14. 2026-06-14 Best For: (none)Prototypes and side projects - free to start, no sales call, Cost-sensitive tea…
  15. 2026-06-14 Score Trust Readiness: (none)15
  16. 2026-06-14 Score Procurement Friction: (none)100
  17. 2026-06-14 Score Docs Quality: (none)0
  18. 2026-06-14 Scoring Methodology: (none)Scores are computed deterministically from this profile's published, sourced fi…
  19. 2026-06-14 Score Agent Friendliness: (none)10
  20. 2026-06-14 Free Tier Details: set to Free plan at $0/month includes 100 requests/month; personal license only; no co…
  21. 2026-06-14 Self Serve Signup: set to Yes
  22. 2026-06-14 Requires Sales Call: set to No
  23. 2026-06-14 Enterprise Plan Available: set to Yes
  24. 2026-06-14 GDPR: set to Yes
  25. 2026-06-14 SLA Published: set to No
  26. 2026-06-14 Data Retention Policy URL: set to https://positionstack.com/privacy
  27. 2026-06-14 Documented Rate Limits: set to Monthly request quotas per plan (100 free; 100K Basic; 1M Professional; 3M Busi…
  28. 2026-06-14 Known Restrictions: set to Free plan limited to personal (non-commercial) use only, Users cannot store, di…
  29. 2026-06-14 Auth Methods: set to api_key
  30. 2026-06-14 Auth Docs URL: set to https://positionstack.com/documentation
  31. 2026-06-14 API Style: set to rest
  32. 2026-06-14 Base URL: set to https://api.positionstack.com/v1/
  33. 2026-06-14 API Version: set to v1
  34. 2026-06-14 Versioning Scheme: set to url
  35. 2026-06-14 Stability: set to ga
  36. 2026-06-14 Quickstart URL: set to https://docs.apilayer.com/positionstack/docs/getting-started
  37. 2026-06-14 Idempotency Supported: set to No
  38. 2026-06-14 Error Format: set to vendor-specific JSON: {code, message, context}
  39. 2026-06-14 Requires Verification: set to No
  40. 2026-06-14 Starting Price Usd: set to 9.99
  41. 2026-06-14 Price Basis: set to month
  42. 2026-06-14 Free Tier Limit: set to 100 requests/month
  43. 2026-06-14 Slug: set to positionstack
  44. 2026-06-14 Notable Customers: set to (none)
  45. 2026-06-14 Fields Not Found: set to documented_rate_limits per-second/per-minute (not published), soc2, hipaa, iso_…
  46. 2026-06-14 Source Confidence: set to high
  47. 2026-06-14 Extractor: set to claude-subagent:sonnet
  48. 2026-06-14 Last Verified At: set to 2026-06-14T00:00:00.000Z
  49. 2026-06-14 Status: set to published
  50. 2026-06-14 Launched At: set to 2020-01-01

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