Nominatim
Nominatim is an open-source (BSD-2-Clause) search engine for OpenStreetMap data, supporting forward geocoding (address to coordinates), reverse geocoding (coordinates to address), and address lookup by OSM ID. The OpenStreetMap Foundation runs a free public instance at nominatim.openstreetmap.org under a published usage policy, and the project is also widely self-hosted and resold by commercial providers (MapTiler, LocationIQ, Geocode Earth).
Real signal across most facets with visible, nameable gaps — the contract exists but is thin, or the portal is good while governance and commercial terms are absent.
API Evangelist profiles Nominatim the way a machine reads it — 53 machine-readable artifacts across 7 APIs, pulled from the provider's own public surface and indexed so a developer, an analyst, or an AI agent can evaluate it against every other provider on the network.
Every provider in the network is reduced to the same set of machine-readable artifacts — OpenAPI contracts, event specifications, GraphQL schemas, runnable collections, pricing and rate-limit signals, security posture, OAuth scopes, and the agent surfaces (MCP servers and skills) that let software drive the API on its own. We profile them because the interface is the part of a company you can actually inspect: it is a truer signal of what a provider does than any marketing page. From those artifacts we compute the Kin Score — Nominatim scores 46.9/100 (developing), with a separate agent-readiness read of 39/100 (agent aware). The full breakdown is below, followed by every artifact we hold — each card links through to its machine-readable definition on apis.io.
Kin Score
This is the API Evangelist rating — a single, repeatable read computed from the artifacts on this page. Green fill is points earned; the red track is points possible, so every bar shows earned-versus-possible at a glance.
Kin Score
How this is scored →scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5
How we profile Nominatim
Each block below is one kind of artifact we hold for Nominatim. For each we say what it is and why it earns a place in the profile, then list every one we've indexed — capped at two rows, scroll within the panel for the rest.
APIs 7
Each API is captured as its own OpenAPI definition — every operation, parameter, and response. This is the single most useful machine-readable description of what an API does, and it's what lets us score, lint, mock, and generate against it without asking the provider for anything.
Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.
Nominatim Deletable API
Objects removed from OpenStreetMap but retained in Nominatim.
Nominatim Details API
Internal place details, intended for debugging.
Nominatim Lookup API
Look up address details for OSM objects by their OSM ID.
Nominatim Polygons API
Problematic polygon data detected by the system.
Nominatim Reverse API
Reverse geocoding — find the closest OSM object to a coordinate.
Nominatim Search API
Forward geocoding — search OSM objects by name or address.
Nominatim Status API
Service and database status reporting.
Scroll within the panel for all 7 ·
Open Collections 1
Open, tool-agnostic collections carry the same runnable value as Postman without locking you to one client — the portable, forkable form of the same exercise.
Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).
Nominatim API
OPEN COLLECTIONPricing Plans 1
Pricing is part of the interface. Machine-readable plans tell you what a tier costs and includes before you commit — one of the six things the Kin Score reads for commercial clarity.
Published pricing tiers and plan structures.
Rate Limits 1
Rate limits are the difference between a demo that works and a production integration that doesn't fall over. Publishing them is an operational-transparency signal — and a hard requirement for any agent that plans its own throughput.
Documented rate limits and quota policies.
Nominatim Rate Limits
RATE LIMITSFeatures 8
The notable capabilities this provider advertises, captured as structured features so they can be searched and compared instead of read one landing page at a time.
Notable capabilities this provider offers.
Forward Geocoding
Convert free-form or structured addresses into coordinates and full place metadata.
Reverse Geocoding
Identify the closest OSM feature to a coordinate at a chosen administrative zoom level.
OSM Object Lookup
Resolve up to 50 OSM nodes/ways/relations to detailed address breakdowns per call.
Multi-Format Output
Returns json, jsonv2, geojson, geocodejson, and xml from a single endpoint via `format`.
Polygon Geometry
Optional geometry output as GeoJSON, KML, SVG, or WKT with a simplification tolerance.
Country And Layer Filtering
Bias or restrict results by ISO country code, viewbox, layer (address/poi/etc.), or feature type.
Service Health
/status endpoint exposes data freshness, software version, and database version for monitoring.
Self-Hostable
Install on your own infrastructure from a planet.osm.pbf import; BSD-2-Clause licensed.
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Semantic Vocabularies 1
JSON-LD contexts give the data shared meaning across APIs. We profile them because semantics are what let a machine reconcile 'customer' here with 'customer' somewhere else.
JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.
Nominatim Context
JSON-LDSpectral Rules 2
Governance rulesets we run against this provider's specs — the automated checks behind parts of the score. Profiling them makes the quality bar explicit and re-runnable, not a matter of opinion.
Nominatim API Rules
SPECTRALNominatim API Rules
SPECTRALJSON Schema 4
Standalone JSON Schema definitions describe the data models behind the API. We profile them so the shapes are validatable on their own — useful long after a single request is forgotten.
Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.
JSON Structure 3
JSON Structure captures the data shapes in a form built for tooling — a complement to JSON Schema that keeps the model machine-legible.
JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.
Nominatim Address Structure
JSON STRUCTURENominatim Place Structure
JSON STRUCTURENominatim Status Structure
JSON STRUCTUREExamples 7
Real request and response payloads are what turn a spec from abstract into obvious — and they're one of the twelve things an agent needs to call an API correctly on the first try.
Example request and response payloads for these APIs.
Nominatim Address Example
EXAMPLENominatim Details Example
EXAMPLENominatim Lookup Example
EXAMPLENominatim Place Example
EXAMPLENominatim Reverse Example
EXAMPLENominatim Search Example
EXAMPLENominatim Status Example
EXAMPLEScroll within the panel for all 7 ·
Security Posture 1
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals — the evidence that a provider takes security seriously enough to document it. We profile it because you can't govern what you can't see.
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.
Agentic Access 1
An x-agentic-access contract marks which operations are safe for an agent to run on its own and which need a human in the loop. It is the difference between an API an agent can use and one it can use safely.
Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.
Use Cases 5
What developers actually build with this provider — captured so the catalogue answers 'what is this for', not just 'what does this expose'.
What developers build with this provider.
Map Search Box
Power "find a place" search boxes in OSM-based map applications.
Reverse Geocoding For Telemetry
Attach human-readable addresses to coordinates collected from devices, vehicles, or sensors.
Civic Tech And Open Data
Provide geocoding for public-interest tools where commercial pricing is a barrier.
Background Address Normalisation
When self-hosted, normalize address strings in pipelines without per-call costs.
AI Agents With Map Tools
Ground LLM agents in real-world places via an MCP server backed by Nominatim.
Integrations 8
Pre-built integrations with other platforms tell you where this provider already fits in a stack.
Pre-built integrations with other platforms and tools.
geopy
Python geocoding library shipping a built-in Nominatim adapter.
GeoDjango
Django GIS framework with Nominatim geocoder support.
Leaflet Control Geocoder
Leaflet plugin offering a Nominatim geocoder out of the box.
OpenLayers
Web mapping library frequently paired with Nominatim for search.
QGIS MMQGIS
Desktop GIS plugin that batch-geocodes via Nominatim.
MapTiler Cloud Geocoding
Commercial hosted Nominatim-style API from MapTiler.
LocationIQ
Commercial Nominatim-compatible geocoding/routing platform.
Geocode Earth
Commercial Pelias deployment (Nominatim-compatible workloads).
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Solutions 3
Packaged solutions the provider offers on top of the raw API surface.
Packaged solutions this provider offers.
OSMF Public Instance
Free hosted Nominatim under the OSMF Usage Policy (1 req/sec ceiling).
Self-Hosted Nominatim
BSD-2-Clause stack you import a planet dump into; no upstream rate limits.
Commercial Hosted Nominatim
Paid hosted offerings from MapTiler, LocationIQ, Geocode Earth and others.
Resources
Every other property we hold for Nominatim — documentation, portals, status pages, policies, and corporate surface — grouped by the job it does, following the integrator's arc from getting started to running in production.
Documentation 1
Reference material describing how the API behaves
Agent Surfaces 1
MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs
Design & Contract 2
Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events
Build 14
SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with
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Access & Security 1
Authentication, authorization, and security posture
Operate 1
Status, limits, changes, and where to get help
Commercial 2
Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use
Company 2
The organization behind the API
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