Best Geocoding Providers for France
France 🇫🇷 benefits from a mix of global geocoding services and local open-data solutions. In this article, we compare the top geocoding providers for France, focusing on address accuracy, coverage in urban/rural areas, POI coverage, pricing, and licensing.
Table of contents
Provider comparison summary
| Provider | Accuracy | Coverage | POI Coverage | Free Tier | Pricing for 1,000 requests | Storage Allowed | Key Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BAN (Official) |
⭐ Excellent (authoritative) |
⭐ Excellent (all France) |
None (addresses only) |
FREE | FREE |
✅ Yes (fully open) |
Official French data, free, no restrictions |
| Google Maps |
⭐ Excellent (rooftop) |
⭐ Excellent (urban & rural) |
🏆 Best (massive Places DB) |
~40k/month ($200 credit) |
$5.00 |
❌ No (30 days cache max) |
Most comprehensive POI data, handles messy queries |
| HERE |
⭐ Excellent (rooftop) |
⭐ Excellent (urban & rural) |
Very Good | 250k/month | $1.00 |
⚠️ Possible (enterprise only) |
High free tier, flexible map display |
| TomTom |
⭐ Excellent (rooftop) |
⭐ Excellent (urban & rural) |
Very Good | ~75k/month | $0.75 | ❌ No | Strong European data, competitive pricing |
| Mapbox | Very Good | Very Good |
Good (OSM-based) |
100k/month | $0.75-$5.00 |
⚠️ Possible (permanent plan only) |
Generous free tier, flexible usage |
| OpenCage |
Very Good (BAN + OSM) |
⭐ Excellent |
Good (OSM-based) |
75k/month | ~$0.17 | ✅ Yes | Best of open data, managed service, cheap |
| Nominatim (OSM) | Good | Very Good | Good |
FREE (1 req/sec) |
FREE (self-host) |
✅ Yes (fully open) |
Open data, community-driven, self-hostable |
Details
Base Adresse Nationale (BAN) – French Government API
adresse.data.gouv.fr
The Base Adresse Nationale (BAN) is France's official national address database containing over 25 million addresses compiled from local authority data. It's the gold standard for geocoding French addresses with maximum accuracy. Coverage includes every commune in France, overseas territories, and rural addresses including small localities (named hamlets). However, BAN only handles addresses, not POIs like business names or landmarks.
Pricing: Completely free via api-adresse.data.gouv.fr. No charge, no quotas. You can also download the entire database for free. (Source - October 2025)
Rate limits: 50 requests/second per IP.
Licensing: Fully open under Etalab Open License 2.0 (compatible with CC-BY). You can store, reuse, and redistribute the coordinates freely with attribution. No restrictions on map display or commercial use.
Why relevant for France: BAN is the authoritative source maintained by IGN and other French authorities. Since it's updated by local authorities, it has exact rooftop coordinates rather than interpolated guesses. Essential for applications requiring postal address validation or maximum trust in French address geocoding. Many French organizations use BAN to avoid commercial providers' costs and restrictions.
Google Geocoding API (Places API)
developers.google.com/maps
Google's geocoding is considered one of the best worldwide and it's true for France as well. It can parse addresses correctly even if they contain typo or are incomplete. Coverage is excellent in both cities and rural areas of France and it has an unmatched POI coverage for restaurants, landmarks, shops, etc. However this has a cost: pricing is relatively expensive for high volumes and license is restrictive.
Pricing: $5 per 1,000 requests after free tier. Free tier: 40,000 requests/month. Prices decrease as volume increases. (Source - October 2025)
Rate limits: 3,000 requests per minute in documentation, i.e. 50 requests per second. (October 2025)
Licensing: Google's terms are restrictive. Results cannot be stored permanently outside of Google's platform; you may cache them for up to 30 days for performance, but long-term storage or use in a database is disallowed. Results must also be displayed on a Google map.
Why relevant for France: Google's geocoder works well with French addresses (including handling accents and common abbreviations) and has the broadest POI search. However, its high cost and no-storage policy makes it not suitable for high volume projects, and open-source alternatives are more affordable.
Coverage, pricing, and more details about Google Maps Geocoding API
HERE Geocoding API (HERE WeGo)
developer.here.com
HERE's geocoding delivers excellent accuracy for France with rooftop-level precision across both cities and rural areas. It has a comprehensive POI database for landmarks and businesses, though slightly less extensive than Google's. Many navigation systems in France use HERE data, which speaks to its quality and reliability.
Pricing: $1 per 1,000 requests after free tier. Free tier: 30,000 requests/month. Prices decrease as volume increases. (Source - October 2025)
Rate limits: Not publicly disclosed.
Licensing: Standard plans don't allow permanent storage of results. An enterprise license is required to store geocoding results permanently. However, unlike Google, you can display results on any map platform.
Why relevant for France: HERE provides excellent European coverage with strong French data. It's a credible alternative to Google, offering comparable accuracy at 5x lower cost, though with similar storage restrictions.
TomTom Geocoding
developer.tomtom.com
TomTom delivers excellent geocoding accuracy for France with rooftop-level precision. Coverage extends to all cities and rural areas, including small roads and villages. TomTom's POI database is robust for navigation use-cases (fuel stations, restaurants, attractions), though less comprehensive than Google's user-generated content.
Pricing: $0.75 per 1,000 requests after free tier. Free tier: 2,500 requests/day (~75k/month).
Rate limits: 5 queries per second per API key.
Licensing: Long-term storage is prohibited without special arrangements. However, you can display results on any map platform, not just TomTom or Bing maps.
Why relevant for France: TomTom's data has strong French coverage thanks to its TeleAtlas heritage (a European company). It's a solid alternative to HERE at competitive pricing, especially if you're in the Azure ecosystem.
Mapbox Geocoding API
www.mapbox.com
Mapbox leverages OpenStreetMap data as well as its own data and delivers very good geocoding accuracy for France. In cities and large towns, it often resolves addresses to exact locations. POI coverage includes major landmarks and many businesses mapped in OSM, though not every establishment is covered. Mapbox differentiates itself from other commercial providers by offering a temporary storage plan and a permanent storage plan (store results permanently).
Pricing: Temporary geocoding: $0.75 per 1,000 requests after a free tier of 100,000 requests/month. Permanent geocoding: $5 per 1,000 requests, no free tier. Pricing is decreasing as volume increases for both plans. (Source - October 2025)
Rate limits: 1,000 requests/minute in documentation, i.e. 16 requests/second.
Licensing: the permanent geocoding API allows indefinite storage for your own use, but not the temporary geocoding API. You can display results on any map platform.
Why relevant for France: France's strong Open source ecosystem (BAN, OpenStreetMap) makes Mapbox a solid geocoding provider for residential addresses. It provides a good balance of cost and functionality for projects that don't require Google-level POI completeness.
OpenCage Geocoder
opencagedata.com
OpenCage combines multiple open data sources (OpenStreetMap, OpenAddresses, Geonames) into one API. For France, it leverages BAN through OpenAddresses for excellent address accuracy (usually rooftop level), plus OSM for POIs and Geonames for natural features. POI coverage matches OSM's breadth (landmarks, major venues) which is not as comprehensive as Google's.
Pricing: Starting at $0.15 per 1,000 requests on paid plans (which are subscription-based). Free tier is 2,500 requests/day (~75k/month). Pricing is decreasing as volume increases for the paid plans. (Source - October 2025)
Rate limits: No hard per-second limits on paid plans. ~15 requests/second on higher tiers.
Licensing: Permissive terms allow indefinite storage and caching of results with proper attribution. No requirement to display on a particular map. You get all benefits of open data without setting up your own servers. Explicitly allows building databases of geocoded addresses for commercial use.
Why relevant for France: OpenCage provides managed access to France's open address data (BAN via OpenAddresses + OSM) at very low cost. While it handles queries better than raw Nominatim, it still requires relatively clean, well-formatted addresses to perform well. Best suited for projects with clean address data that need open data benefits and permanent storage rights without the complexity of self-hosting.
Nominatim (OpenStreetMap)
nominatim.openstreetmap.org
Nominatim (the OpenStreetMap geocoding service) delivers pretty good geocoding for France, altought performance is not the best. In well-mapped areas (most French cities and towns), it returns addresses at or near rooftop precision. Rural areas may be less precise depending on mapping completeness. Thanks to the BANO project integrating BAN data, OSM's French address coverage is high. POI coverage includes landmarks, restaurants, and popular businesses contributed by volunteers, though not as comprehensive as Google's.
Pricing: Public Nominatim API: Free (testing only). Self-hosting: Free software, but infrastructure costs apply.
Rate limits: Public API: ~1 request/second, max ~1,000/day. Self-hosting: Unlimited (will depend on your infrastructure).
Licensing: Highly permissive under ODbL license. You can store and use results freely with attribution ("© OpenStreetMap contributors"). Using coordinates internally is fine. Display on any map platform is allowed.
Why relevant for France: OSM is a success story in France with extremely detailed community mapping. Many BAN addresses were integrated through BANO, making OSM surprisingly good for French addresses plus POIs that official databases lack. Good all-around solution for addresses and POIs if Google-level completeness isn't critical. However, Nominatim's search algorithm require well-formatted addresses.
Coordable advice: Altough really appealing, self-hosting Nominatim is not an easy option. The infrastructure and the expertise to do it are highly underestimated. We recommend using other providers like Mapbox or OpenCage that provide similar or better results for a fair price.
How to choose your geocoding provider for France
Pricing is indeed a major factor to consider when choosing a geocoding provider, but it's not the only factor. Your geocoding success rates will also depend on the provider you choose.
Things to consider
Here are few things to consider:
- Cleanliness: are your addresses error-prone ? If yes, you should consider using a provider that can handle messy addresses. Commercial providers are usually better at this than open-source providers.
- Coverage: are your addresses mostly in cities ? If not, providers that are used in navigation systems (Google, HERE, TomTom) are good candidates.
- POI Coverage: do you need to geocode POIs ? If yes, Google Maps and HERE are the best candidates.
- Volume: do you have a lot of addresses to geocode ? If yes, you should consider using a provider that can handle large volumes (rate limits) with a low price, or open-source providers.
- Licensing: do you need to store the results permanently ? If yes, you need to choose a provider that allows you to do so.
Coordable advice: For french addresses, you should probably start geocoding with the BAN API. It's free and has a really good, up-to-date coverage. But it will fail easily if the addresses have small typos or are incomplete (unless you clean your addresses first with a tool like Coordable). Then, geocode the rest with commercial providers like HERE or Google Maps.
If you have a lot of addresses to geocode (> 1000) you should do a real comparison between the providers to find the one that performs the best on your data. You can use the Coordable platform to do this easily! ✅
Pricing comparison
Now that you have a clear understanding of each provider's strengths and weaknesses, let's compare their pricing side by side. You can modify the number of addresses to see the pricing estimation:
Note: Mapbox chart shows temporary geocoding pricing ($0.75/1k). Permanent geocoding costs $5/1k.
Conclusion
Ultimately, "best" depends on your needs: for a free and legal-to-store solution, go with BAN or an OSM-derived service; for comprehensive one-stop search including every POI, Google Maps API might be worth it despite the price. France is fortunate to have high-quality open address data, so non-commercial providers are an option here.
Each provider above has strengths: we've highlighted their accuracy, coverage (rural vs urban, addresses vs POI), pricing, and whether you can keep the results.
You can now choose the geocoding service that best fits your project's requirements and constraints. 🙂
If you need help to increase your geocoding success rates, the Coordable platform can help you with that! Contact us.