How to Get Latitude and Longitude from an Address

You have a postal address or place name and need its latitude and longitude—for example, to place it on a map, calculate a route, or store its location. The Geoapify Forward Geocoding API performs this address-to-coordinates conversion. This process is called forward geocoding.

Send the address either as one free-form string or as separate structured fields. The API returns matching locations with coordinates and normalized address information.

Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your Geoapify API key. You can also test requests in the Geocoding Playground.

Geocode a free-form address

Use text when the complete address is available as one string. This is the most convenient option for search fields, imported address lists, and user-provided text.

https://api.geoapify.com/v1/geocode/search?text=200%20Larkin%20Street%2C%20San%20Francisco%2C%20CA%2094102%2C%20United%20States&format=json&limit=1&apiKey=YOUR_API_KEY

The first result contains lat and lon.

Reduced response: This live response keeps the coordinates and normalized address fields. The full response also contains datasource, timezone, plus-code, and result-quality information.

{
  "results": [
    {
      "name": "Asian Art Museum of San Francisco",
      "housenumber": "200",
      "street": "Larkin Street",
      "city": "San Francisco",
      "state": "California",
      "state_code": "CA",
      "postcode": "94102",
      "country": "United States",
      "country_code": "us",
      "formatted": "Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 200 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102, United States of America",
      "address_line1": "Asian Art Museum of San Francisco",
      "address_line2": "200 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102, United States of America",
      "lat": 37.780315,
      "lon": -122.4159922,
      "result_type": "amenity"
    }
  ]
}

Geocode a structured address

Use structured parameters when the address already exists in separate form or database fields. Send one or more of name, housenumber, street, postcode, city, state, and country.

https://api.geoapify.com/v1/geocode/search?housenumber=200&street=Larkin%20Street&postcode=94102&city=San%20Francisco&state=California&country=United%20States&format=json&limit=1&apiKey=YOUR_API_KEY

Reduced response: This live response keeps the coordinates and normalized address fields. The full response also contains datasource, timezone, plus-code, and result-quality information.

{
  "results": [
    {
      "name": "Asian Art Museum of San Francisco",
      "housenumber": "200",
      "street": "Larkin Street",
      "city": "San Francisco",
      "state": "California",
      "state_code": "CA",
      "postcode": "94102",
      "country": "United States",
      "country_code": "us",
      "formatted": "Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 200 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102, United States of America",
      "address_line1": "Asian Art Museum of San Francisco",
      "address_line2": "200 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102, United States of America",
      "lat": 37.780315,
      "lon": -122.4159922,
      "result_type": "amenity"
    }
  ]
}

Free-form and structured inputs are alternatives. Do not combine text with structured address parameters in the same request.

Geocode an address in an application

Use this approach in a browser application or in Node.js 18 and later. It uses the built-in fetch() API to send the request and URLSearchParams to encode the address safely. It works well when coordinates are needed immediately after a form submission, address selection, or other user action.

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  text: "200 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102, United States",
  format: "json",
  limit: "1",
  apiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY"
});

const response = await fetch(
  `https://api.geoapify.com/v1/geocode/search?${params}`
);

if (!response.ok) {
  throw new Error(`Geocoding failed: ${response.status}`);
}

const data = await response.json();
const result = data.results[0];

console.log({ latitude: result.lat, longitude: result.lon });

In browser applications, restrict the API key to the application’s allowed origins.

Geocode an address in a script

Use this approach for backend services, data-processing jobs, command-line tools, or automation scripts. It uses Python’s standard-library urllib and json modules, so no third-party package is required.

import json
from urllib.parse import urlencode
from urllib.request import urlopen

params = urlencode({
    "text": "200 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102, United States",
    "format": "json",
    "limit": 1,
    "apiKey": "YOUR_API_KEY",
})

url = f"https://api.geoapify.com/v1/geocode/search?{params}"

with urlopen(url) as response:
    data = json.load(response)

result = data["results"][0]
print({"latitude": result["lat"], "longitude": result["lon"]})

Always check that results is not empty before using the first item in production code.