Accuracy Types & Scores

For every result, Geocodio will give you an accuracy type and an accuracy score. We recommend using a combination of the accuracy score and accuracy type to evaluate and filter the returned results.

Accuracy types

Accuracy types for forward geocoding include:

• rooftop: on the exact parcel
• point: generally, in front of the parcel on the street
• range_interpolation: generally, in front of the parcel on the street
• nearest_rooftop_match: the nearest rooftop point if the exact point is unavailable
• intersection: An intersection between two streets
• street_center: A central point on the street
• place: zip code or city centroid
• county: county centroid
• state: state centroid

For reverse geocoding, the following accuracy types may be found as well:

• nearest_street: Nearest match for a specific street with estimated street number
• nearest_place: Closest city/town/place

Given a random sample of addresses evenly distributed across the US, you can expect 70% of results to be rooftop, 20% to be range interpolated, and 10% to be other accuracy types.

Accuracy scores

Accuracy scores are a reflection of the amount of differences between the input and the output. We generally recommend using results with an accuracy score above 0.8. Results below that threshold can indicate potential issues, such as formatting issues or incomplete addresses.

• 1: the exact input was returned
• 0.8: Very close to the input with minor changes made
• <0.6: More significant changes made; use these results with caution

Example: 47 N State St, Lake Oswego, OR 97034

• The full address
  • Accuracy type: rooftop
  • Accuracy score: 1
• Incomplete address (remove a digit from the ZIP code)
  • Accuracy type: still rooftop
  • Accuracy score: 0.9, reflecting that we had to change the ZIP input to arrive at the result
• Remove the street address and geocode just the city, state
  • Accuracy type: place (i.e., a centroid for the city)
  • Accuracy score: 1, as the city/state names were spelled correctly

See more about our data sources here.

Detailed accuracy explanations

Enterprise customers can optionally add the verbose parameter when using the API, which gives a more detailed breakdown of the reasoning behind the accuracy score and type. See more in our Enterprise API documentation.

Have an accuracy issue?

If you have an accuracy issue with a particular address, please submit an address issue report. This will put the address directly into our engineering queue for root-cause investigation, and you'll receive updates on our investigation.

You can submit an address report via your dashboard (requires login):

• Self-service address report submission
• Enterprise address report submission