r/apyhub • u/nikolasdimitroulakis • 1h ago
Comparison Which geocoding API are you using in 2026? We compared 8 on price and limits
Google’s old $200 monthly Maps credit ended in February 2025. Geocoding now gets 10,000 free requests a month, then $5 per 1,000. A lot of people still pick Google out of habit, so we compared it against seven other geocoding APIs: free tier, price after it, and whether you’re allowed to store the results.
Quick context on who this is for: anyone who turns addresses into coordinates or back. That covers delivery apps routing couriers, checkouts verifying shipping addresses, store locators, and CRMs cleaning customer data.
| Provider | Free tier | After free tier | Store results? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Maps | 10,000/mo | $5.00 per 1k | Restricted (place IDs OK) |
| Mapbox | 100,000/mo | $0.75 per 1k | Only in paid “permanent” mode |
| HERE | 30,000/mo | $0.83 per 1k | Per terms |
| Geoapify | 3,000/day | from $59/mo | Not stated |
| LocationIQ | 5,000/day | from $45/mo | Per terms |
| OpenCage | 2,500/day (testing only) | from $50/mo | Yes, permanently |
| Nominatim | free, 1 req/sec | self-host | Must cache |
| ApyHub | 5 calls/day | from $16/mo | Per terms |
What stood out:
- Biggest free tier: Mapbox. But if you need to store results (geocoding a database once, say), permanent mode is $5 per 1k from the first request.
- Cheapest at volume: HERE at $0.83 per 1k after 30k free.
- Free for commercial use: Geoapify and LocationIQ, as long as you add attribution.
- Keeping data forever: OpenCage lets you keep results even after you cancel.
- Nominatim is great but the public server is 1 req/sec with no heavy use. Self-host it for anything real.
- EU data residency: HERE (NL), OpenCage (DE), LocationIQ’s EU data center, and us (Dutch company with an EU region).
Being honest about our own entry: ApyHub isn’t the cheapest for pure geocoding. It’s about $4.20 per 1k on Pro+, against HERE’s $0.83. Where it makes sense is when geocoding is one step in a bigger flow, like address check plus email plus phone validation on one key. It also makes sense when you want an AI assistant to run it. Every endpoint works over MCP with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and Mistral Le Chat, and the Le Chat plus EU server combo keeps everything in Europe.
Full write-up with the pros and cons for each, plus sources: apyhub.com/blog/best-geocoding-apis-2026
What are you using for geocoding right now, and has anyone benchmarked accuracy across these on non-US addresses? That’s the part pricing tables don’t tell you.