# Places APIs
<a name="places-choose-api"></a>

Places enable applications to search, find, and retrieve details about points of interest, addresses, and specific locations. These capabilities enhance location-based services by providing context and improving user experience in search functions. 
+ **Geocode**: Converts addresses or place names into geographic coordinates (longitude, latitude), supporting applications that require address-to-location transformation for mapping and spatial analysis. For more information, see [Reverse Geocode](reverse-geocode.md).
+ **Reverse Geocode**: Converts geographic coordinates to the nearest address or place name, providing context for a location. For more information, See [Reverse Geocode](reverse-geocode.md).
+ **Autocomplete**: Suggests potential completions for user-entered text, improving efficiency in search input. For more information, See [Autocomplete](autocomplete.md).
+ **GetPlace**: Retrieves detailed information about a specified place, including attributes like address, contact details, and opening hours. For more information, See [GetPlace](get-place.md).
+ **SearchNearby**: Finds places within a specified radius of a given geographic point, suitable for "near me" searches. For more information, See [Search Nearby](search-nearby.md).
+ **SearchText**: Allows text-based searching for places or points of interest based on a keyword or phrase, ideal for finding locations by name or description. For more information, See [Search Text](search-text.md).
+ **Suggest**: Provides search term suggestions as users type, enhancing search relevance and user experience. For more information, See [Suggest](suggest.md).

The following table presents a number of business use cases that are best solved with Places APIs.

## Places use cases
<a name="places-table"></a>

The following section presents a number of business use cases that are best solved with Places APIs.


| **Business need** | **Useful API** | **Examples** | 
| --- | --- | --- | 
| **Add a neighbourhood business information in an application**<br />Also returns business information, such as categories and food types. | `SearchNearBy` |  | 
| **Proximity Search for business chain**<br />Also returns business information, such as categories, food types, and access points. | Search Text Suggest  |  | 
| **Search by phone name **<br />Also returns business information, such as categories, food types, and access points. | Search Text Suggest  |  | 
| **Search by name of place, POI, category**<br />Also returns business information, such as categories, food types, and access points. | Search Text Suggest | [How to search for a place, POI, or business using a name](how-to-search-for-place-poi-business.md) | 
| **Predict suggestions as user key query**<br />Also returns business information, such as categories, food types, and access points. | Suggest | [How to predict suggestions based on input](how-to-predict-suggestions.md) | 
| **Autocomplete or suggest for autofill an address on checkout page**Normalizes and standardizes addresses. | Autocomplete, Suggest  | [How to complete an address](how-to-complete-address.md) | 
| **Convert a specific address to longitude and latitude coordinates**<br />Normalizes and standardizes addresses. | Geocode |  | 
| **Convert longitude and latitude coordinates into a corresponding address **<br />Normalizes and standardizes addresses. | Reverse Geocode | [How to reverse geocode for a position](how-to-reverse-geocode-position.md) | 
| **Get Timezone of a City **<br />Supports UTC offset and time zone name. | Geocode |  | 
| **Get Timezone for longitude and latitude **<br />Supports UTC offset and time zone name. | Reverse Geocode  |  | 
| **Get place by place id **<br />Returns business information, such as categories, contacts, opening hours, and access points. | Get Place | [How to get results for a PlaceId](how-to-get-place-by-id.md) | 
| **Get name, contacts, and opening hours of a point of interest **<br />Returns business information, such as categories, food types, and access points. | Search Text, Search Nearby, Suggestion |  | 
| Provide places type for a place name Supports pre-filtering. | Geocode Autocomplete |  | 
| Provide places type for a latitude/longitude coordinates Supports pre-filtering. | Reverse Geocode |  | 
| **Provide poi categories (such as hospital, store, museum and 500 more) for an address or POI**<br />Supports pre-filtering. | Search Text, Search Nearby, Suggestion |  | 
| **Add the type-ahead search behavior for completion or predictions**<br />Supports cost efficient, label-only, and address component. | Autocomplete Suggest | [How to predict suggestions based on input](how-to-predict-suggestions.md) | 
| **Visualize Places search and/or geocode result on a map **All APIs return geocoordinates, except autocomplete.  | GetTile and GetStyleDescriptor with rendering engine (MapLibre) with Places API |  | 
| **Enhance, clean, normalize and standardize your address database**Supports address label, components, timezone, and more.  | Geocode, Reverse Geocode  |  |