Geocoder.ca
Quick start Forward Geoparse Premium functions Intersections Reverse Places (POIs) Street matching Output Errors Code

The Geocoder.ca API

One HTTPS endpoint — https://geocoder.ca/ — for forward & reverse geocoding, intersections, geoparsing, autocomplete and places. GET or POST, over SSL. XML by default; JSON, JSONP and CSV on request.

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'
1 successful lookup = 1 credit (regardless of response size). Credits never expire — $1 buys 200. Non-profit or need the free XML port? Use it here.

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.

ParameterReq.Description & values
locateyesThe location: street address, intersection, zip/postal, IP, or any combination. e.g. 330 metcalfe ottawa or metcalfe & wellington ottawa. Deprecated component params (addresst, stno, city…) still work for backwards compatibility.
geoityesOutput port/type: XML or CSV.
authpremiumYour token (≤30 bytes) for unthrottled service; tracks your lookup count.
json—JSON output. Value: 1.
jsonp / callback—JSONP output (jsonp=1) with your callback string.
standard—Return the standardized, properly-formatted address. Value: 1.
strict—Strict parsing of free-form input. Value: 1.
strictmode—Don't guess on ambiguous input (e.g. city with no state) — return a suggestion list instead. 0 or 1.
topmatches—For partial input, return up to this many best suggestions (positive integer).
showpostal—For an address/intersection, also return the postal code. Value: 1.
showcountry—Return the country code (US or CA). Value: 1.
showaddrspremiumFor a postal/ZIP, return all associated addresses. 1. Costs 1 credit per address — pair with limit (e.g. limit=100) and optionally street=. try ›
bounds—Bias to a bounding box: SWlat,SWlng,NElng — for scantext or locate.
country—Bias by country: country=usa or country=canada.
region—Limit to a region: 2-letter state/province (e.g. region=NY), or region=canada / region=usa.
decimal—Limit decimal places in coordinates (smaller = less precise).
utm—Also return UTM coordinates. Value: 1.
id—Your transaction id (≤15 bytes), echoed back in the response.
postaldep.(Deprecated) A Canadian postal code or US ZIP5 / ZIP+4, format ANANAN.
getpolygon—Return the postal-code boundary polygon. 1. try ›
boundarypremiumLook up a neighborhood boundary (CSV only): boundary=Name,City,lat,lng&geoit=csv.

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.

ParameterReq.Description & values
scantextyesFree-form text containing one or more locations. Output lists found locations in confidence order.
geoityesXML or CSV.
bounds / country / region—Bias the parse to a box, country, or 2-letter region (same as forward).

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.

FunctionCostDescription & example
autocompletesubAutocomplete Canadian postal addresses: autocomplete=1&locate=1435 prince&geoit=xml. xml › demo ›
showaddrs1/addrAll addresses for a postal/ZIP. Use limit and street to control volume.
batchpostal1/codeMultiple postal codes, pipe-separated: batchpostal=K2C1N5&geoit=xml.
postalinpolygon1/codeAll postal codes inside a polygon: postalinpolygon=lat,lng,lng|…&geoit=xml. Large polygons = many codes.
censusdatafromdauid1/itemCensus data for a Canadian dauid returned by a lookup: censusdatafromdauid=59350105&geoit=xml.
getpolygon—Postal-code boundary polygon (see Forward).

Intersection geocoding

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

ParameterReq.Description & values
street1yesFirst street name (≤220 bytes).
street2yesSecond street name (≤220 bytes).
cityyesCity name (≤220 bytes).
provyes2-letter province (AB,BC,MB,NB,NL,NS,NT,NU,ON,PE,QC,SK,YT) or US state.
crossyesIntersection mode flag. Value: 1.
geoityesValue: XML.
locate—Instead of street1/street2: we'll parse an address or intersection from this.
showpostal / decimal / id—As in forward geocoding.

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'
ParameterReq.Description & values
latt, longtyesThe point to reverse-geocode (decimals).
reverseyesInterface flag. Value: 1.
geoityesValue: XML.
allna—Search both USA & Canada — required for US reverse geocoding; near borders may return two results. 1.
corner—Also return the nearest street intersection. 1.
moreinfo—Add county and metro-area info. 1.
range—Limit the search radius (number).
exact—Attempt an exact (rooftop) match. 1.
nopostal—Ignore the postal code — street-level match only. 1.
strict—Perform a strict match. 1.
decimal / id—As in forward geocoding.
Reverse from a postal/ZIP too: ?postal=75704-2933&geoit=xml&standard=1&moreinfo=1 — accepts ZIP5, ZIP+4 or a Canadian postal code. US results come wrapped in <usa> tags; optional <intersection> and <major_intersection> blocks carry nearest corners.

Reverse place search — nearest POIs pois

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

ParameterReq.Description & values
poisyesEnable place search. Value: 1.
type—Place category, e.g. restaurant. Full lists for Canada / USA.
keyword—Search keyword, e.g. keyword=Subway. If sent, type is ignored.
radius—Search radius in metres. Omit to auto-size (denser areas → smaller radius, up to ~1.5 km).

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.

FieldMeaning
latt, longtLatitude / longitude (decimals).
confidenceAccuracy estimate 0–1 (1 = best). Results below 0.5 aren't returned (a suggestion may be) — except IP geocoding, where city-level approximations are allowed.
stnumber, staddress, city, prov, postalStandardized address components (with standard=1).
moreThe part of the input not used for the location — useful for extracting PO boxes, apt/unit numbers, etc.
Dissemination_Area (adauid, dauid)Canadian census dissemination-area IDs. Feed dauid to censusdatafromdauid.
TimeZoneTime zone code.
AreaCodeTelephone area code.
LSDAlberta Township System (ATS / DLS) legal subdivision, where applicable.
remaining_creditsCredits left (min −100 buffer; below that, lookups stop).
idYour transaction id, if supplied.
inlatt, inlongt, distance, NearRoad, NearRoadDistance, neighborhoodReverse-geocoding extras: input point, result distance, nearest road and the neighborhood the point falls in.

Error codes

CodeMeaning
001IP address not allowed to use this auth token (token IP-restricted).
002Auth token out of credits (more than 100 over balance).
003Auth token not found.
004Specify a valid Canadian province or US state 2-letter code.
005Postal code not in the proper format.
007Supply a valid query.
008No results — check spelling. May include <suggestion> tags.
009Latitude/longitude out of valid range (reverse geocoding).
010Intersection needs two streets + city + province.
101Ambiguous input — several cities match; response lists <possiblecity> options.
With topmatches, the most likely matches are returned for malformed input, e.g. ?locate=200+mutcalf,+ottawa+on&geoit=xml&topmatches=5.

Code samples

A minimal Perl client (forward). Other community libraries exist for PHP, Python, C/C++ and more.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use LWP::UserAgent;

# input data
my $street_number = '101';
my $street_name   = 'Wellington';
my $city          = 'Ottawa';
my $province      = 'ON';
my $id            = 'req10001';
my $auth          = 'YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN';

my $url = "https://geocoder.ca/?"
  . "stno=$street_number&addresst=$street_name"
  . "&city=$city&prov=$province&id=$id"
  . "&geoit=XML&auth=$auth";

my $ua  = LWP::UserAgent->new;
my $res = $ua->request(HTTP::Request->new(GET => $url));
if ($res->is_success) {
  my $r = $res->content;
  my ($latt) = $r =~ m{<latt>(.*?)</latt>};
  my ($longt)= $r =~ m{<longt>(.*?)</longt>};
  print "Lat $latt  Long $longt\n";
}

A reverse-geocoding client uses the same pattern with a POST to https://geocoder.ca sending latt, longt, reverse=1, allna=1, geoit=XML and auth. More examples: examples.html · AWS cloud guide · user-supplied docs.

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