LocationIQ
Nominatim-compatible geocoding, reverse geocoding, and autocomplete with a real 5,000 requests/day free tier.
LocationIQ provides forward geocoding (address to coordinates), reverse geocoding (coordinates to address), and address autocomplete built on OpenStreetMap data, with a request/response shape compatible with Nominatim (place_id, lat, lon, display_name, plus structured address components). Unlike the OSM public Nominatim instance, LocationIQ explicitly permits autocomplete and production use within its quota, making it a clean drop-in when you outgrow the free OSM endpoints. It also offers maps tiles, routing, and matrix endpoints under the same key. The free Developer tier allows 5,000 requests/day at 2 requests/second.
Free tier
Free 'Developer' tier: 5,000 requests/day at 2 req/s, no card to start (commercial use allowed if you add a LocationIQ link). Paid plans (GeoCoding Lite ~$49/mo, Developer Plus ~$99/mo, Starter ~$200/mo) raise daily caps, QPS, and add SLA.Rate limits
Free tier: 5,000 requests/day at 2 requests/second (per LocationIQ pricing page).Auth
API keyBase URL
https://us1.locationiq.com/v1What you'd build with it
- Geocode user-entered addresses inside a Claude Skill that needs coordinates
- Reverse-geocode coordinates from a GPS/log feed into human-readable addresses
- Add address autocomplete to a form without Google billing
- Migrate off the rate-limited public Nominatim endpoint while keeping the same response shape
Key endpoints
- GET
/v1/searchForward geocoding: free-text query to ranked coordinate matches. - GET
/v1/reverseReverse geocoding: lat/lon to a structured address. - GET
/v1/autocompleteSearch-as-you-type address suggestions.
Members get the runnable recipe
Sign in free to copy the example request, see a sample response, and read the gotchas.