About Geocoder.ca

Geocoder.ca is a North American geocoding API and address-data provider that turns Canadian and U.S. addresses, postal codes and coordinates into validated, standardized and census-enriched location data for developers, data teams and businesses that need results they can keep.

Founded in Ottawa in 2005 by Ervin Ruci and operated by Geolytica Inc. since 2007, Geocoder.ca is one of the longest-running independent geocoders in North America.

What Geocoder.ca does

Forward and reverse geocoding API

Send an address, intersection, postal code or ZIP code and get back latitude and longitude, or send coordinates and get the nearest address and street corner. One HTTPS endpoint returns XML, JSON, JSONP or CSV, so most developers read their first result within minutes of signing up.

Address validation and standardization

Misspelled or incomplete addresses come back clean, deliverable and split into Canada Post- or USPS-style components, with coordinates and a confidence score. In Canada, "1 randoom street toronto" returns 1 Random St, Toronto ON M9B 2J3, with its census dissemination area; in the U.S., "751 FAIR OKS AVENUE PASADNA CA" returns 751 N Fair Oaks Ave, Pasadena CA 91103-3069. For Canadian forms, the autocomplete drop-in validates addresses as they are typed, so bad data never enters your system.

Postal code and ZIP+4 lookup

Full six-character Canadian postal code and U.S. ZIP+4 lookups, in both directions. Canadian results can include the Statistics Canada census dissemination area (DAUID), and Western Canadian Legal Subdivision (LSD) land descriptions are also supported.

Address autocomplete

As-you-type Canadian address suggestions delivered as a dependency-free JavaScript drop-in. Checkout and sign-up forms capture complete, correct addresses with fewer keystrokes. Try the demo.

Batch geocoding and geoparsing

Upload a file of thousands of addresses and get them all geocoded in one pass, or paste free text and have every location in it extracted and geocoded. Batch tool · Geoparser.

Licensed address and postal data

License the Canadian address and postal code database outright and run it on your own servers, with no per-call billing and no caching restrictions. Products include roughly 27 million rooftop-geocoded Canadian civic addresses and postal code boundary polygons covering all 1,643 forward sortation areas, available on AWS.

Self-hosted and managed servers

Launch the full geocoder as an AMI in your own AWS account, or have us run an unlimited, unthrottled dedicated server for you. Either way your queries never leave infrastructure you control.

What makes Geocoder.ca different

You can keep and cache the results

Geocoder.ca data licenses let you store every result permanently and display it on any map. By contrast, Google Maps Platform limits cached geocodes to 30 days and ties permanent storage to display on a Google map, and Mapbox charges a separate, higher "Permanent Geocoding" rate for results you intend to store.

A flat, cancel-anytime unlimited plan

Unlimited API access costs a flat $1,000 USD per month with no annual contract, and it stops the moment you cancel. Up to roughly 25,920,000 calls a month (unlimited credits with up to 10 requests per second cap) that beats per-request pricing, whereas Google Maps Platform bills every request and offers budget alerts but no hard spending cap.

Built for Canada, not bolted on

Canadian results can carry StatCan census dissemination area IDs, Alberta-style LSD land descriptions and postal-code boundary polygons for all 1,643 FSAs. Global providers like Google and Mapbox return coordinates but not census geography or postal polygons, and Canada Post AddressComplete validates addresses without these enrichments.

Simple pricing that doesn't expire on you

Pay-per-use is $0.005 USD per call at any volume, with no plan to predict or outgrow. Credits never expire.

Run it anywhere, from one vendor

The same geocoder is available as a hosted API, an AWS Marketplace AMI, a managed dedicated server or a licensed local database. Most competitors, including Google, Mapbox and Canada Post, offer only a hosted, metered API.

Twenty years of independent operation

The Geocoder.ca API launched on July 15, 2005, and the Internet Archive captured it 15 days later. That is almost a year before Google added geocoding to its Maps API in June 2006. It has run continuously ever since, founder-led and engineer-run, so customers talk directly to the people who build the geocoder.

Who uses Geocoder.ca

• E-commerce and checkout teams at Canadian retailers that need address autocomplete and validation to cut failed deliveries.
• Developers and product teams migrating off Google Maps Platform to reduce geocoding costs or escape caching limits.
• Logistics, delivery and field-service operators geocoding customer and route addresses across Canada and the U.S.
• Insurance, real estate and market-research analysts who append census dissemination areas and postal boundaries to address data.
• Data and GIS teams at location-data, mapping and consulting companies that license address and postal datasets for their own products.
• Government, municipal and public-sector GIS teams that need self-hosted geocoding inside their own infrastructure.
• Oil, gas, agriculture and land-management teams in Western Canada working with Legal Subdivision (LSD) descriptions.

The team behind Geocoder.ca

Ervin Ruci, Founder & CEO

Ervin launched Geocoder.ca on July 15, 2005. He has since built Geocode.xyz (worldwide geocoding and geoparsing, 2016), 3geonames.org (a Hilbert curve-based coordinate-to-place-name encoding, 2018) and poidata.xyz (a global point-of-interest dataset, 2021).

eruci.com · Ground Truth Weekly blog · LinkedIn

Origin story

Geocoder.ca started in 2005 because accurate, affordable geocoding for Canadian addresses simply wasn't available to independent developers. It was incorporated as Geolytica Inc. on November 15, 2007, and later added POIDATA.XYZ, LLC in Delaware as a U.S. subsidiary.

Team composition

Geolytica is a small, senior engineering team based in Ottawa, Ontario. There are no account managers between you and the engineers.

How Geocoder.ca works

Getting started

Create an API account, buy credits or subscribe, and start calling the endpoint right away. The free non-commercial tier (up to 2,500 calls a day) requires sign-up and whitelisting; data products can be bought self-service on AWS.

Who you'll work with

Technical questions, custom data requests and enterprise licensing are handled directly by either the founder or the CTO. You get answers from the people who wrote the code and built the datasets.

Communication channels

Reach us through the contact page. Product updates are posted on the development blog.

Response times

Most support emails are answered within one business day (Eastern Time).

Developer and AI-agent friendly

The API is documented with an OpenAPI 3.1 specification and machine-readable API catalog files, so developer tools and AI agents can discover and call it without custom integration work. Read the API docs.

Key facts

Frequently asked questions

Is Geocoder.ca free?

Non-commercial users can make up to 2,500 calls a day for free after signing up and being whitelisted. Commercial use starts at $0.005 USD per call, with no minimum commitment. Free Data is also provided subject to our terms.

How does Geocoder.ca compare to the Google Maps Geocoding API?

Per-call pricing is similar, but Geocoder.ca offers a flat unlimited plan and licensed data you can store permanently and show on any map. Google limits caching to 30 days and ties long-term storage to display on Google Maps.

Can I store and cache the results?

Yes. With a data license you own the dataset outright and can cache, store and redistribute results internally with no per-call billing.

Does Geocoder.ca cover countries outside Canada and the U.S.?

Geocoder.ca focuses on North America. For worldwide coverage, use our sister service Geocode.xyz, which uses the same account model.

Can I run Geocoder.ca on my own servers?

Yes. You can launch it as an AMI in your own AWS account, have us manage a dedicated server, or license the database and run it entirely in-house.

How accurate is Geocoder.ca?

Every result includes a confidence score from 0 to 1, so you can decide what to accept automatically and what to review. Canadian address data is rooftop-geocoded where available, covering roughly 27 million civic addresses. Over 300 million US data points power the USA version of the geocoder.

What output formats are supported?

The API returns XML, JSON, JSONP and CSV from a single HTTPS endpoint. Data products ship in formats including CSV, GeoJSON, GeoParquet, FlatGeobuf and ESRI Shapefile.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. The unlimited subscription is month-to-month and stops at cancellation, and pay-per-use has no contract at all.