MapQuest Geocoding drop-in replacement

Both the licensed and the Open Data MapQuest geocoding endpoints answer at mapquest.mygeocode.com, with the info, options and results envelope and the adminArea1 to adminArea6 naming that MapQuest clients parse.

Change one hostname

Original host	`www.mapquestapi.com` `open.mapquestapi.com`
Use instead	`mapquest.mygeocode.com`
Key parameter	`key` (optional: any address gets 2,500 requests a day with no key; put your My Geocode key here for credit, packages and a usage history)

Before

curl "https://www.mapquestapi.com/geocoding/v1/address?key=YOUR_MAPQUEST_KEY&location=1600+Amphitheatre+Parkway,+Mountain+View,+CA"

After

curl "https://mapquest.mygeocode.com/geocoding/v1/address?key=YOUR_MYGEOCODE_KEY&location=1600+Amphitheatre+Parkway,+Mountain+View,+CA"

Why people move

MapQuest's free tier has shrunk over the years and its developer plans are monthly tiers. Here you get 2,500 a day free and per-request or flat pricing after that.

Same free allowance, key or not. Requests to mapquest.mygeocode.com count toward the same 2,500 free requests a day your address, or your key, gets on our own endpoints. Above that, prepaid credit at €0.0001 per request, or €50 a month for an Unlimited key. Signing up takes a name and an email address, and no card.

See pricing Get a free key

Endpoints

Path on mapquest.mygeocode.com	What it does	Backed by
`/geocoding/v1/address?location=...`	Forward geocoding	Forward geocoding
`/elevation/v1/profile?latLngCollection=lat,lng,lat,lng` (also `shapeFormat=cmp`/`cmp6`, `unit=m\|f`, POST JSON)	Elevation profile	Elevation lookup
`/geocoding/v1/reverse?location=lat,lng`	Reverse geocoding	Reverse geocoding
`/geocoding/v1/batch?location=...&location=...`	Batch geocoding	Forward geocoding

Example response

This is what the request above returns. Field names, nesting and types follow MapQuest. Only the data behind them is ours.

Response from mapquest.mygeocode.com

{
  "info": {
    "statuscode": 0,
    "copyright": {
      "text": "My Geocode",
      "imageUrl": "https://www.mygeocode.com/assets/img/logo.svg",
      "imageAltText": "My Geocode"
    },
    "messages": []
  },
  "options": {
    "maxResults": -1,
    "thumbMaps": false,
    "ignoreLatLngInput": false
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "providedLocation": {
        "location": "1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA"
      },
      "locations": [
        {
          "street": "1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy",
          "adminArea6": "",
          "adminArea6Type": "Neighborhood",
          "adminArea5": "Mountain View",
          "adminArea5Type": "City",
          "adminArea4": "",
          "adminArea4Type": "County",
          "adminArea3": "CA",
          "adminArea3Type": "State",
          "adminArea1": "US",
          "adminArea1Type": "Country",
          "postalCode": "94043",
          "geocodeQualityCode": "L1AAA",
          "geocodeQuality": "ADDRESS",
          "dragPoint": false,
          "sideOfStreet": "N",
          "linkId": "",
          "unknownInput": "",
          "type": "s",
          "latLng": {
            "lat": 37.423065,
            "lng": -122.083525
          },
          "displayLatLng": {
            "lat": 37.423065,
            "lng": -122.083525
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Details and differences

No key is needed for the first 2,500 requests a day. To use a My Geocode key, put it where your MapQuest key went: the key query parameter. The X-API-Key header, Authorization: Bearer and HTTP Basic authentication (the key as the user name) work on every host too, so client libraries that authenticate their own way keep working unchanged.

Copyright lines, licence names, terms and privacy links in the response are ours rather than the original provider’s. Everything else keeps the original shape.

The elevation profile takes latLngCollection as raw pairs or a cmp or cmp6 compressed path, in metres or feet, by GET or POST.
Batch geocoding works with repeated location= parameters or a posted locations list, and answers one entry per input.
A batch takes up to 100 locations and counts one request per location, as MapQuest does.
Points with no data report a height of -32768, as MapQuest does.
outFormat=xml answers in MapQuest’s XML, with the admin area types as attributes.
includeNearestIntersection=true and includeRoadMetadata=true add the nearest cross streets and the road’s speed limit, where OpenStreetMap has them.

If your client depends on a field or behaviour that is not listed here, tell us. Compatibility gaps get fixed quickly because they are usually small.

Other drop-in hosts

How the drop-ins work, the overview, and the JavaScript library drop-ins.