Reverse Geocoding API: What It Returns and Costs
Send a latitude and longitude, get a place name back, often a street address. Here is what the answer contains, three live results that show how close it lands, what providers themselves say about precision, and what reverse geocoding costs.
A reverse geocoding API turns a latitude and longitude into a human-readable location. That may be a street address, a road or a broader area such as a city, and how precise it is depends on the provider and its data. In three live sthan.io calls on October 16, 2026, two city points matched street addresses 0.8 and 51.9 meters away, and a point in Wyoming returned only a road name.
What comes back
Google describes reverse geocoding as "translating a location on the map into a human-readable address". These are the fields sthan.io returned on October 16, 2026:
| Field | What it tells you |
|---|---|
formattedAddress | The nearest address as one line |
components | streetNumber, street, city, county, countyFips, state, zip, zip4 and country as separate fields |
distance | How far, in meters, the matched address is from your point |
confidence | A score from 0 to 1 |
accuracy.type | A label for the match: rooftop or approximate in our calls |
The request is a single GET with the two coordinates in the path:
curl "https://api.sthan.io/Geocoding/USA/Reverse/47.6205/-122.3493" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"Three live results
We sent three US coordinates to the sthan.io production API on October 16, 2026: two city points and one point in Teton County, Wyoming. The table shows exactly what came back.
| Coordinates sent | Address returned | Distance | Confidence | accuracy.type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47.6205, -122.3493 (Seattle, WA) | 400 Broad St, Seattle, WA 98109 (King County, ZIP+4 4607) | 0.8 m | 0.95 | rooftop |
| 38.5766, -121.4934 (Sacramento, CA) | 1315 11th St, Sacramento, CA 95814 (Sacramento County) | 51.9 m | 0.85 | approximate |
| 44.428, -110.5885 (Teton County, WY) | Grand Loop Road, Teton County, Wyoming, United States | 0 m | 0.70 | approximate |
The two city points matched full street addresses with a county, 0.8 and 51.9 meters away. Only the Seattle answer carried a ZIP+4, and it was labeled rooftop with a higher confidence. For the Wyoming point the answer was the road itself: streetNumber, city and zip all came back null, and there was no county field. Its distance of 0 m does not tell you where any house or entrance is, because no address was matched. Read the distance before you trust the street number. If you label a delivery stop or a check-in, decide how far is too far for your use and treat anything beyond it as "near" rather than "at".
What providers say about precision
Four providers describe the limits of their results in their own words:
- Geocodio: "Note that Geocodio does not guarantee to return a valid house number; it is our closest approximation." Its reverse endpoint can return up to 5 possible matches ranked by an accuracy score.
- Nominatim (OpenStreetMap): "It works by finding the closest suitable OSM object and returning its address information." And: "in dense city areas it may belong to a completely different street."
- Google: results "are not just postal addresses, but any way to geographically name a location", and one point can return several results. A ROOFTOP result is accurate "down to street address precision"; RANGE_INTERPOLATED is "an approximation (usually on a road) interpolated between two precise points".
- OpenCage: results carry distance_from_q, "the distance (in meters) to the coordinates in the request to the coordinates of the result".
The practical rule is the same everywhere: use the distance or accuracy field the API gives you, and do not treat a reverse geocoded house number as confirmed. To check that an address actually receives mail, run it through an address verification API afterwards; see what an address verification API returns.
Free tiers and prices for reverse geocoding
Read from each vendor's pricing page on October 16, 2026. Most vendors charge reverse requests the same as forward ones.
| API | Free allowance | After that | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mapbox (Temporary) | 100,000 a month | $0.75 per 1,000 up to 500,000 | Temporary results may not be cached |
| HERE | 30,000 a month | €0.70 per 1,000 up to 5,000,000 | One price for geocode and reverse geocode; indicative |
| 10,000 a month | $5.00 per 1,000 up to 100,000 | Billed on the Geocoding SKU; billing must be enabled | |
| LocationIQ | 5,000 a day | Developer plan, $100 a month for 25,000 a day | Free commercial use needs a link back |
| Geoapify | 3,000 credits a day | API 10 plan, $59 a month for 10,000 credits a day | 1 credit per reverse request |
| Geocodio | 2,500 a day | $1 per 1,000 | 1 credit per coordinate lookup; pay as you go covers US, Canada and Mexico |
| OpenCage | 2,500 a day trial, testing only | X-Small plan, $50 a month for 10,000 a day | Forward and reverse in one API |
| sthan.io | 3,000 a month (up to 100 a day), no card | $5 a month for 10,000 | Same plan as forward geocoding; US only |
| Smarty US Reverse Geocoding | 1,000 lookups once, in a 42-day trial | $54 a month for 25,000 | Sold as a separate API |
| Radar | No free tier | Core Maps from $0.50 per 1,000 | Annual commitment |
At about 1,000 points a day (30,000 a month), Mapbox, HERE, LocationIQ, Geoapify and Geocodio all stay free; Google's 10,000 a month is about 333 a day. The full cost at 10,000, 100,000 and 1,000,000 requests is in our geocoding API cost comparison.
Where sthan.io fits. sthan.io reverse geocoding returns the nearest US address for a latitude and longitude (in our Wyoming call, only a road name), with the distance in meters, a confidence score, an accuracy label and the address split into fields, including the county on full-address answers. It is included in the US Geocoding plan, so one subscription covers forward and reverse. 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources
All read October 16, 2026: sthan.io production API (calls to /Geocoding/USA/Reverse), sthan.io/docs (reverse geocoding endpoint and free plan limits), sthan.io/products/reverse-geocoding-usa and sthan.io/pricing/united-states; developers.google.com/maps Geocoding API reverse geocoding requests, usage and billing, and pricing list; nominatim.org reverse API documentation; geocod.io/docs (reverse geocoding) and geocod.io/pricing; opencagedata.com/api and /pricing; docs.mapbox.com Geocoding API and mapbox.com/pricing; here.com/get-started/pricing; locationiq.com/pricing; geoapify.com/pricing and /pricing-details; smarty.com/pricing/us-reverse-geocoding (monthly tier selected on the page); radar.com/pricing. Prices change; check the vendor page before you buy.
Turn coordinates into US addresses, free
3,000 requests a month, no credit card. Distance in meters and a confidence score on every result. Forward geocoding is in the same plan.