The Geocoder.ca API

Quick start

Shortcut form: https://geocoder.ca/some_location?desired_output. Sign up for an auth token to use the XML/JSON/CSV data port unthrottled.

curl -G 'https://geocoder.ca/' \\
  --data-urlencode 'locate=330 metcalfe ottawa on' \\
  --data 'geoit=XML' --data 'json=1' \\
  --data 'standard=1' \\
  --data 'auth=YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN'

JSON: add json=1. JSONP: add jsonp=1&callback=yourFn. CSV: use geoit=CSV instead of geoit=XML.

Forward geocoding

Send these to https://geocoder.ca/ via GET or POST. Put as much location detail as possible in locate — it parses addresses, intersections, postal/ZIP codes and IP addresses.

Geoparsing — extract locations from text scantext

Pass free-form text and get back every location found, ordered by confidence score. Great for mining addresses out of documents, emails or articles.

try: “This and That and the Other street in Porters Lake Nova Scotia” ›

Premium functions

Available to premium API subscribers. Several bill per returned data item — note the cost column.

Intersection geocoding

Find the coordinates where two streets cross. Send via GET or POST.

A failed request may return a <suggestion> with corrected street names, city and province.

Reverse geocoding

Supply a latitude/longitude pair; get the nearest civic address, postal/ZIP, nearest intersection, nearest major intersection, and the closest road — plus optional POIs.

curl -G 'https://geocoder.ca/' \\
  --data 'latt=45.4215' --data 'longt=-75.6972' \\
  --data 'reverse=1' --data 'geoit=XML' \\
  --data 'allna=1' --data 'auth=YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN'

Reverse place search — nearest POIs pois

Add pois=1 to a reverse lookup to also return nearby points of interest.

restaurants within 200 m › keyword “elgin” › all nearby (JSON) ›

Each poi returns: name, distance_km, main/second category, address, city, neighborhood, phone, location_id / area_id / small_area_id, lat/long, prov, postal, formatted_address, source_url, crawl_time and opening_hours.

Partial street-name matching

Match partial street names across Canada and the USA.

https://geocoder.ca/?cityname=Ottawa&provname=on&streetname=metcalfe&matchonly=1&geoit=xml

Required: cityname, provname, streetname, matchonly=1, geoit=xml. Or constrain with a box via bounds=SWlat,SWlng,NElng instead of city/prov.

Output fields

Responses (XML or JSON) may include the following. Empty latt/longt means no match.

Error codes

Code samples

Forward geocoding in a few popular languages. Every example hits the same endpoint — https://geocoder.ca/?locate=<address>&json=1&auth=<token> — and reads latt / longt from the JSON response. Swap locate for stno/addresst/city/prov components, or add &geoit=XML / &geoit=CSV for other formats.

# Forward geocode, JSON out
curl "https://geocoder.ca/?locate=101+Wellington+St,+Ottawa,+ON&json=1&auth=YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN"

# Reverse geocode (POST)
curl -X POST "https://geocoder.ca/" \
  -d latt=45.4215 -d longt=-75.6972 \
  -d geoit=XML -d reverse=1 -d auth=YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN

import requests

r = requests.get("https://geocoder.ca/", params={
    "locate": "101 Wellington St, Ottawa, ON",
    "json":   1,
    "auth":   "YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN",
})
data = r.json()
print(data["latt"], data["longt"])

// Node 18+ or browsers (fetch is built in)
const params = new URLSearchParams({
  locate: "101 Wellington St, Ottawa, ON",
  json:   "1",
  auth:   "YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN",
});
const res  = await fetch(`https://geocoder.ca/?${params}`);
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data.latt, data.longt);

<?php
$params = http_build_query([
    "locate" => "101 Wellington St, Ottawa, ON",
    "json"   => 1,
    "auth"   => "YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN",
]);
$data = json_decode(
    file_get_contents("https://geocoder.ca/?" . $params),
    true
);
echo $data["latt"] . ", " . $data["longt"];

package main

import (
    "encoding/json"
    "fmt"
    "net/http"
    "net/url"
)

func main() {
    q := url.Values{}
    q.Set("locate", "101 Wellington St, Ottawa, ON")
    q.Set("json", "1")
    q.Set("auth", "YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN")

    res, _ := http.Get("https://geocoder.ca/?" + q.Encode())
    defer res.Body.Close()

    var d struct{ Latt, Longt string }
    json.NewDecoder(res.Body).Decode(&d)
    fmt.Println(d.Latt, d.Longt)
}

require "net/http"
require "json"

uri = URI("https://geocoder.ca/")
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form(
  locate: "101 Wellington St, Ottawa, ON",
  json:   1,
  auth:   "YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN",
)
data = JSON.parse(Net::HTTP.get(uri))
puts "#{data['latt']}, #{data['longt']}"

use strict; use warnings;
use HTTP::Tiny;
use JSON::PP;
use URI::Escape;

my $addr = uri_escape("101 Wellington St, Ottawa, ON");
my $url  = "https://geocoder.ca/?locate=$addr&json=1&auth=YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN";

my $res = HTTP::Tiny->new->get($url);
my $d   = decode_json($res->{content});
print "$d->{latt}, $d->{longt}\n";

Reverse geocoding uses the same endpoint with a POST sending latt, longt, reverse=1 (add allna=1 for nearest address + corner), plus geoit and auth. More: live examples · AWS cloud guide · community libraries.