Geocoding without a key, a card, or a quota

The Google Maps geocoder is good until the bill shows up. For most jobs you don't need it: OpenStreetMap data, served through Komoot's Photon endpoint, covers forward and reverse geocoding for free, with no API key and no usage cap on our side.

The OpenStreetMap Geocoder wraps Photon so you get typed records instead of a raw API response.

// text to coordinates
{ "mode": "forward", "query": "Brandenburg Gate", "limit": 3 }

// coordinates to place
{ "mode": "reverse", "latitude": 48.8584, "longitude": 2.2945 }

Each result carries the display name, latitude/longitude, feature type, and the OSM identifiers that let you join back to raw OpenStreetMap data:

{
  "displayName": "Brandenburg Gate, Berlin",
  "lat": 52.5163, "lon": 13.3777,
  "type": "attraction",
  "osmType": "way", "osmId": 3276601,
  "licence": "Data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL)"
}

When to use it

Address autocomplete, coordinate lookups on a map, batch-geocoding a CSV of customer addresses, normalizing place names. The ODbL licence travels with the data, so the licence field stays attached when you republish.

The honest limit: Photon is a snapshot of OSM, refreshed on Komoot's schedule, not a real-time Google feed. For store locators and routing inputs it's more than enough. For sub-second navigation you're already on a paid tiles provider.