The biggest differences between Geocodio and Google Maps are:

• Terms of use. Google's terms of use are extremely restrictive and don't let you store the data. Geocodio's terms are permissive.
• International. Geocodio supports US and Canada, whereas Google has global support.
• Routing. Geocodio does not support routing and navigation; Google does.

Does Google let you store geocodes?

No. Google does not allow you to store the geocodes. Google Maps has a lot of restrictions on how you use and store their results. With Google Maps, you cannot store the results, display them on anything except a Google Map, use them for advertising, fleet/asset tracking, or other use cases that they prohibit. If you're considering using Google Maps, you may want to have a lawyer review their Terms of Service first to make sure your use case is allowed.

Geocodio does. With Geocodio, you can store the results in a database, put them in your CRM, use them on any type of map, and even resell them if you want. See our Terms here.

How expensive is Google geocoding?

Google limits free geocoding to 40,000 per month and you must have a credit card on file to use their free tier. Extra lookups above that point are $4/1,000. Google does not make their high-volume prices transparent.

Geocodio is much more affordable. Geocodio offer the first 2,500 lookups are free per day with no credit card required. After that, they're $.0005 each, or $0.50/1,000. Our pricing is transparent and you can calculate how much it would cost you here. You can also purchase credits if you would like to lock-in a volume discount. Geocodio credits never expire.

For high volume, Geocodio has a simple, flat-rate, month-to-month Unlimited option with no annual contract required. This enables you to process up to 4.8M lookups per day (which is the capability of the hardware) with no rate limiting.

What is the Google Maps geocoding API rate limit?

The Google Maps Platform geocoding rate limit is limited to 50 calls per second.

Geocodio's single request API endpoint has a rate limit of 1,000 requests per minute on the pay-as-you-go plan. This is for individual API calls, so using our batch geocoding you will be able to process thousands of lookups without having to worry about a rate limit. Our Unlimited plan is not rate limited.

Can you geocode a spreadsheet of addresses with Google geocoding?

No. If you have a spreadsheet, you can't use Google geocoding. They only have an API. (Unless you are familiar with working with APIs in your spreadsheet and don't mind paying for geocoding every time you open your spreadsheet.)

Geocodio has both an API and a spreadsheet upload tool.

How do Geocodio's results compare to Google's?

Geocodio and Google use different data sources. Geocodio relies on official government datasets for our underlying data (mostly from local and state governments). Sometimes, Geocodio is more accurate, and sometimes, Google is more accurate.

Unfortunately, Google prohibits us from publishing benchmarking data. We encourage you to run a test of 1,000 cleaned addresses through both services to do your own comparison.

Can you get timezone data from the Google Maps API?

Google Maps allows you to append Timezones by using their separate Timezone API.

Geocodio lets you add additional data at the same time and in the same format as your coordinates or addresses, including:

• Timezones
• Congressional districts
• Congressional legislator contact information
• State legislative districts
• School districts, and
• Census data (including Census tracts, MSAs, FIPS codes, and so forth), and more.

Routing and Directions

Yes, Google Maps offers routing, directions, and transit options.

Geocodio does not.

This information is complete to the best of our knowledge. We believe competition is a good and necessary thing, and strive to accurately and fairly describe our competitors. See any mistakes? Please email us.