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Nominatim vs Photon: catalog facts
Nominatim	Photon
Best for: Adding address search and reverse geocoding backed by OpenStreetMap	Best for: Developers adding OpenStreetMap place search to a map or app
Free Free and open source; the public API is free for occasional use under a usage policy.	Free Free and open source; the public API is free for fair use.
Web, Self-hosted	Web, Self-hosted
Forward and reverse geocoding on OpenStreetMap data Scales from one city to the whole planet All 4 strengths for Nominatim Forward and reverse geocoding on OpenStreetMap data Scales from one city to the whole planet Minutely updates keep data current Structured queries for bulk address geocoding	Typeahead search with typo tolerance Multilingual results and reverse geocoding All 4 strengths for Photon Typeahead search with typo tolerance Multilingual results and reverse geocoding Simple HTTP API returning GeoJSON Public API available for light use
Public API is limited to occasional use A full planet import needs a large server	Public API is throttled under heavy use and has no availability guarantee Self-hosting requires running OpenSearch with OSM data
Self-hosted, Hosted service	Self-hosted, Hosted service
Open source	Open source
License not stated	License not stated
No account needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Nominatim nominatim.org Catalog checked September 23, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Photon photon.komoot.io Catalog checked September 23, 2026

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