Geocoding API Cost: 10 Vendors at 10K, 100K and 1M
Geocoding turns an address into latitude and longitude. We read 10 vendors' pricing pages on the same day and worked out the monthly bill at three volumes, so you can see which one is cheap for your traffic, and what the low price leaves out.
Among the 10 geocoding APIs we compared, the cheapest depends on how many addresses you send. On October 16, 2026, six of 10 forward geocoding APIs cost $0 at 10,000 requests a month. At 100,000, Mapbox Temporary Geocoding and LocationIQ's free plan still cost $0. At 1,000,000, the lowest list prices were sthan.io US Geocoding ($130), Geoapify ($179) and LocationIQ ($200). Google cost $3,550 at that volume.
Monthly cost at 10,000, 100,000 and 1,000,000 requests
Sorted by the cost at 1,000,000 requests a month. Each price comes from the vendor's own pricing page, read on October 16, 2026. The monthly totals are our arithmetic on those tier tables; see how we counted.
| API | Free allowance | 10,000 / month | 100,000 / month | 1,000,000 / month | Coverage stated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sthan.io US Geocoding | 3,000 a month (up to 100 a day), no card | $5 | $28 | $130 | US only |
| Geoapify | 3,000 credits a day, no card | $0 | $59 (API 10 plan) | $179 (API 50 plan) | Not stated on the pricing page |
| LocationIQ | 5,000 a day; commercial use needs a link back | $0 | $0 | $200 (Startup plan) | Worldwide |
| OpenCage | 2,500 a day trial, for testing only | $50 (X-Small plan) | $50 | $500 (Medium plan) | Worldwide |
| Radar | No free tier; annual commitment | $5 at the starting rate | $50 at the starting rate | $500 at the starting rate | Not stated on the pricing page |
| Mapbox (Temporary) | 100,000 a month | $0 | $0 | $600 | Not stated on the pricing page |
| HERE | 30,000 a month | €0 | €49 | €679 | Not stated on the pricing page |
| Geocodio | 2,500 a day, no card until you pass it | $0 | $25 | $925 pay as you go; $850 on the Flex 850 plan | US, Canada and Mexico (pay as you go) |
| Google Geocoding | 10,000 a month; billing must be enabled | $0 | $450 | $3,550 | Not stated on the pricing page |
| Mapbox (Permanent) | No free tier in its price table | $50 | $500 | $4,500 | Not stated on the pricing page |
| Smarty US Rooftop Geocoding | 1,000 lookups once, in a 42-day trial | $225 | $1,100 (170K plan) | Custom quote | US |
Three things stand out. Free tiers cover small projects almost everywhere. The order changes completely between 100,000 and 1,000,000 requests, so price your real volume, not the entry plan. And the two most expensive rows buy something extra: Mapbox Permanent lets you keep the results, and Smarty's Rooftop plan includes address verification with the coordinates.
How we counted
- List prices, monthly billing. No annual discounts, startup programs or sales quotes. Taxes are excluded.
- One request is one forward geocode. Geoapify charges 1 credit per geocoding request, and Geocodio 1 credit per address or coordinate lookup.
- Daily limits use an even 30-day month. 100,000 a month is about 3,333 a day and 1,000,000 is about 33,333 a day. We picked the cheapest public plan whose daily limit covers that. LocationIQ's Developer plan (25,000 a day) and OpenCage's Small plan (30,000 a day) fall short at 1,000,000.
- Tiered prices are added tier by tier. Google at 1,000,000: the first 10,000 free, 90,000 at $5.00, 400,000 at $4.00 and 500,000 at $3.00 per 1,000.
- Radar is a starting rate, not a monthly plan. Radar lists Core Maps, which includes forward and reverse geocoding, from $0.50 per 1,000 calls. It says all its plans are annual commitments, with a committed quota allotted each month, so its row is that rate times the volume, not a plan you can buy for one month.
- HERE is in euros. HERE says its prices are indicative estimates, not final quotes.
- Smarty has no 100,000 monthly plan. Its monthly tiers stop at 170,000 lookups ($1,100), the smallest that covers 100,000. Above that it sells custom plans.
Can you keep the results?
A cheap price can come with a rule against saving what you paid for. Here is what each vendor says, in its own words, where it says it.
| API | What the vendor says about storing results |
|---|---|
| Coordinates may be cached "for up to 30 consecutive calendar days". Coordinates and address values may be kept longer only "to support the direct, End User facing functionality" of the app that made the request, kept separate for each user and not used in place of a new call. Place IDs can be stored indefinitely. Results must not be used with a non-Google map. Check the agreement that applies to you. | |
| Mapbox | "Temporary results are not allowed to be cached, while Permanent results are allowed to be cached and stored indefinitely." Permanent needs a card on file or an enterprise contract. |
| LocationIQ | Free accounts can cache request-response pairs "for upto 48 hours"; customers "for as long as you're a customer". |
| OpenCage | Every plan, including the free trial, lists "store data permanently". |
| HERE | "Permanent Geocoding is not included in the Base Plan." |
| Smarty | You may use the addresses you geocode inside your organization "for as long as you're a Smarty geocoding customer". |
| sthan.io | Its terms of service did not mention caching or storing results on October 16, 2026. They do let you build the API into your own products. |
If you plan to geocode a customer list once and keep the coordinates in your database, this table matters more than the price table. At 1,000,000 requests, Mapbox's storable results cost $4,500 against $600 for the temporary kind.
What sthan.io returns for the price
Three live answers from the sthan.io US Geocoding API on October 16, 2026. The second address, an office building, was sent without a ZIP code. The third house number came back as an estimate along the street, and the answer says so.
| Address sent | Latitude, longitude | Accuracy type | Confidence | County | ZIP returned |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500 | 38.897675, -77.036547 | rooftop | 0.9 | District of Columbia | 20500-0005 |
| 1355 Market St, San Francisco, CA | 37.776740, -122.416422 | rooftop | 0.85 | San Francisco County | 94103-1307 |
| 1351 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94103 | 37.776912, -122.416811 | interpolated | 0.9 | San Francisco County | 94103 |
All three answers came back with longer coordinates, rounded here to six decimal places. Every answer also carried the county's FIPS code (a five-digit government code for the county) and the standardized street, city and state.
Which one is cheap for you
| You need | Look at |
|---|---|
| Under 100,000 a month, many countries, no spend | Mapbox Temporary (100,000 a month) or LocationIQ's free plan, if a link back is acceptable |
| Results you can store in your own database | OpenCage (all plans), Mapbox Permanent, or a paid LocationIQ plan |
| About 1,000,000 US addresses a month at the lowest list price of the 10 compared | sthan.io US Geocoding ($130) |
| Rooftop coordinates and address verification in one US lookup | Smarty US Rooftop Geocoding |
| US, Canada or Mexico with no monthly fee | Geocodio pay as you go |
| Maps already built on Google | Google Geocoding (10,000 free a month; its terms bar showing results on a non-Google map) |
A geocoder tells you where an address is on the map. It does not tell you whether mail can be delivered there; that is an address verification API, priced separately in how address verification APIs are priced. For coordinates back to an address, see the reverse geocoding API guide.
Where sthan.io fits. sthan.io US Geocoding returns latitude and longitude for a US address, with an accuracy type (rooftop when the exact point is on file, interpolated when it is estimated along the street), a confidence score from 0 to 1 and the county. The free tier is 3,000 requests a month (up to 100 a day) with no credit card. Paid plans start at $5 a month for 10,000, with $28 for 100,000 and $130 for 1,000,000. Forward and reverse geocoding share one plan. It covers US addresses only.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources
All read October 16, 2026: developers.google.com/maps billing-and-pricing pricing list, Geocoding API usage and billing, and Geocoding API policies; mapbox.com/pricing and docs.mapbox.com Geocoding API (storing results); here.com/get-started/pricing (Geocode and Reverse Geocode, "Pricing details" opened in a browser); cloud.google.com/maps-platform/terms/maps-service-terms (Geocoding API, section 6); geocod.io/pricing; locationiq.com/pricing and locationiq.com/reverse-geocoding; radar.com/pricing; geoapify.com/pricing and /pricing-details; opencagedata.com/pricing and opencagedata.com/api; smarty.com/pricing/us-rooftop-geocoding (each monthly tier selected on the page) and smarty.com/products/us-rooftop-geocoding; sthan.io/pricing/united-states, sthan.io/products/geocoding-usa and sthan.io/products/reverse-geocoding-usa and sthan.io/Home/Terms; three live calls to the sthan.io production API. Monthly totals are our arithmetic on those published tiers. Prices change; check the vendor page before you buy.
Geocode 3,000 US addresses a month, free
No credit card. Coordinates, accuracy type, confidence score and county with each match. Reverse geocoding is in the same plan.