Photon (Komoot)
Open-source OSM geocoder with search-as-you-type, free and keyless on Komoot's public endpoint.
Photon is an open-source geocoder for OpenStreetMap data (built on OpenSearch/ElasticSearch) created and publicly hosted by Komoot. Unlike Nominatim's public instance, Photon is designed for and permits autocomplete / search-as-you-type, with multilingual support, typo tolerance, location bias, and both forward and reverse geocoding. The public demo endpoint at photon.komoot.io requires no API key and no registration, and is free for reasonable usage. It returns GeoJSON features with name, coordinates, OSM tags, and structured address properties. It is the go-to free option when you specifically need typeahead address search without paying, with the option to self-host for heavy or production traffic.
Free tier
Free, no account, on Komoot's public endpoint for reasonable usage. Open source under Apache 2.0 (self-host for heavy/production use).Rate limits
No published numeric quota; 'reasonable use' only. Extensive usage is throttled or banned. Run your own instance for high volume.Auth
No keyBase URL
https://photon.komoot.ioWhat you'd build with it
- Add free address autocomplete / typeahead to a form or skill (allowed here, unlike Nominatim)
- Multilingual place search where the user types partial queries
- Bias results toward a user's location with lat/lon parameters
- Self-host the open-source engine for a private, no-quota geocoder
Key endpoints
- GET
/apiForward geocoding / autocomplete: query text (q) plus optional lat,lon bias; returns GeoJSON. - GET
/reverseReverse geocoding: lat & lon to nearest place as GeoJSON.
Members get the runnable recipe
Sign in free to copy the example request, see a sample response, and read the gotchas.