API Playground

With the API Playground, you can explore Amazon Location Service APIs directly in the AWS Console. Try API operations, view example requests and responses, adjust parameters, and download code snippets for CLI, cURL, Python, JavaScript, and Ruby.

The following animation shows the API Playground workflow: selecting an API operation from the left panel, entering request parameters, viewing the example request and response, and downloading a code snippet.

Places APIs

The Places APIs provide the following operations:

• Geocode – Turns textual addresses or place names into geographic coordinates plus detailed address components, accepting both free-form and structured queries. Use it to enrich customer addresses with zip codes and coordinates, standardize address data in pipelines or batch jobs, or determine the time zone for a city or address for accurate travel, scheduling, and invoicing timestamps.

• ReverseGeocode – Converts geographic coordinates into a human-readable address or place, returning address components, place type, category, and street details. Use it to enrich raw position data with full addresses and zip codes, standardize position data in pipelines, or identify the time zone for a set of coordinates for travel, scheduling, and invoicing.

• SearchText – Queries location data from a single free-form text input, returning places with details like address, phone, category, and opening hours (and it can complete a Suggest QueryId). Use it for neighborhood search to find the closest address or attraction, business discovery by keyword ("Italian restaurant"), place search in travel apps ("hotels near Eiffel Tower"), or finding educational institutions like schools and universities.

• SearchNearby – Returns points of interest within a specified radius of a central coordinate, with optional filters for categories, business chains, and food types. Use it for real estate apps showing nearby schools and hospitals, local business discovery within a radius, travel apps surfacing nearby attractions and hotels, emergency apps locating the nearest hospital or pharmacy, and transportation use cases like finding gas stations, EV chargers, or transit stops.

• GetPlace – Retrieves detailed information about a place from its unique place identifier (PlaceId). It returns address, coordinates, business details, contacts, opening hours, and time zone. Use it to refresh stored place data so users always see current hours and contact details, and to fetch full details after a user selects an address or business from an autocomplete or suggestion result.

• Autocomplete – Returns complete addresses and address components from partial input as the user types (addresses only—never points of interest or geocodes), with filtering by area or place type. Use it to enhance e-commerce checkout with real-time address completion that reduces delivery errors, and to support customer service and emergency dispatch by giving representatives accurate address suggestions faster.

• Suggest – Returns predictions and refinements from partial, incomplete, or misspelled input, giving users a list of possible matches or follow-up queries to build a more accurate search. Use it for ride-hailing apps completing pick-up and drop-off addresses in real time, travel and navigation apps predicting locations even from typos ("Eifel" → "Eiffel Tower"), and restaurant search that anticipates nearby dining options.

Routes APIs

The Routes APIs provide the following operations:

• CalculateRoutes – Computes routes between two or more locations for car, truck, scooter, pedestrian, transit, and intermodal travel, with turn-by-turn navigation, avoidances, speed limits, and toll costs. Use it to display detailed route maps, provide turn-by-turn navigation on web and mobile, estimate toll costs upfront, keep drivers within speed limits, power freight and fleet routing, plan public transit journeys with stop times, and combine transport types with intermodal routing.

• CalculateRouteMatrix – Returns travel times or distances between multiple origins and destinations in a single matrix, with customizable travel modes and traffic conditions. Use it to optimize multi-stop delivery routes for logistics and e-commerce, match ride-sharing drivers to the closest passengers with real-time arrival estimates, and plan efficient routes across large fleets to cut fuel and travel time.

• CalculateIsolines – Determines the areas reachable within a set time or distance limit, accounting for road restrictions, traffic, and travel mode, and outlines them on a map. Use it to assess healthcare accessibility and find underserved areas, analyze retail market reach for expansion, define time-based delivery zones, plan tourism and lodging access, improve emergency response coverage, and analyze commuting patterns for workforce planning.

• OptimizeWaypoints – Calculates the most efficient order to visit a series of waypoints, minimizing total travel time or distance by solving the Traveling Salesman Problem across the road network and traffic conditions. Use it to analyze service area patterns and improve logistics efficiency for multi-stop routes.

• SnapToRoads – Aligns raw GPS coordinates to the nearest road segments, correcting inaccuracies from GPS drift or signal loss. Use it to enhance navigation accuracy with precise directions and real-time location updates, and to improve fleet management data by snapping vehicle positions to the closest roadways for accurate tracking.

Maps APIs

The Maps APIs provide the following operations:

• Dynamic Map – Dynamic (interactive) maps support gestures like zoom, pan, pitch, rotate, and bearing, with multi-language and political-view support, rendered via an engine such as MapLibre. Use them to analyze and visualize your data as spatial patterns for site selection and market analysis, enhance real estate listings with neighborhood context and directions, and build engaging travel experiences that highlight destinations, points of interest, and outdoor amenities.

• GetStaticMap – Static maps deliver a pre-rendered, non-interactive map image (JPEG or PNG) with optional overlays for markers, routes, and polygons, generated by GetStaticMap in Standard or Satellite styles. Use them to embed lightweight maps in web or mobile apps, show location context in emails such as pickup/drop-off points in delivery or ride summaries, and add visually appealing maps to marketing materials and printed documents.