Apple Maps Server API vs Overture Maps Places for AI agents
Apple Maps Server API is Apple's REST API for geocoding, place and POI search, autocomplete, directions and ETAs, using Apple Maps data. Overture Maps Places is an open, monthly-released dataset of places (points of interest), downloadable as Parquet files. It is not an API.
The short answer
- Apple Maps Server API: Apps already in the Apple ecosystem that show results on an Apple map and fit within the free daily quota.
- Overture Maps Places: A free, permissively licensed global POI base you can store, index and serve yourself. Not live data, and with no hours, ratings or reviews.
Side by side
| Apple Maps Server API | Overture Maps Places | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | Places and points of interest by name or criteria, with POI category include/exclude filters and country limits. | Nothing to call. You download or query the files yourself, for example with DuckDB. It contains tens of millions of places such as schools, businesses, hospitals and landmarks. |
| Returns | JSON Place objects with name, formatted and structured address, coordinate, country code, display map region and a Place ID. | GeoParquet place records with names, addresses, taxonomy and basic_category (which replaced categories in September 2026), phones, websites, socials, a 0–1 confidence score and source info. |
| Before the first call | An Apple Developer account with a Maps ID and private key, which you use to sign JWTs. The API is governed by the Apple Developer Program License Agreement (the program costs 99 USD a year). | Nothing: no account or key. Read from public Amazon S3 or Azure Blob Storage. |
| Free | Up to 25,000 service calls a day per team, shared between the Apple Maps Server API and MapKit JS. | No key needed, and its pages state no price |
| Acting on a result | The Place object documentation lists no phone or website field. There is no way to message a business through the API. | Records can include phones, websites and social links. There is no messaging; it is static data. |
| Limits on keeping or showing results | Map Data may be cached or stored only on a temporary, limited basis. When Map Data is shown on a map it must be an Apple map, and surfaced results must show the corresponding Apple map. Building a substitute service is not allowed. | You can store and reuse it. Licensed CDLA Permissive 2.0 or Apache 2.0 depending on source (Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and others); some sources need their own attribution. Does not include OpenStreetMap data. |
| Coverage | Apple says the service may not be available in all countries, regions or languages. | Global. Release 2026-09-23.1, published monthly. |
| MCP server | No official server listed | No official server listed |
Where Openpath fits
If the agent needs a local business to message in Austin, Texas, Openpath returns the listings themselves, free and with no key. See Openpath vs Apple Maps Server API and Openpath vs Overture Maps Places.
Questions people ask
What do I need before I can use Apple Maps Server API?
An Apple Developer account with a Maps ID and private key, which you use to sign JWTs. The API is governed by the Apple Developer Program License Agreement (the program costs 99 USD a year).
Is Apple Maps Server API free?
Up to 25,000 service calls a day per team, shared between the Apple Maps Server API and MapKit JS.
What do I need before I can use Overture Maps Places?
Nothing: no account or key. Read from public Amazon S3 or Azure Blob Storage.
Is Overture Maps Places free?
No key needed, and its pages state no price.
Sources
Every line about another company comes from its own pages. Prices and terms change, so check the source before you rely on one.
Apple Maps Server API, read on October 15, 2026:
- developer.apple.com/documentation/applemapsserverapi: “The service provides up to 25,000 service calls per day per team between Apple Maps Server API and MapKit JS.”
- developer.apple.com/documentation/applemapsserverapi: “If your app requires a larger daily quota, submit a”
- developer.apple.com/documentation/applemapsserverapi: “It requires authorization using a JSON Web Token (JWT) for API calls.”
- developer.apple.com/documentation/applemapsserverapi: “You obtain a key for creating the token when you complete the setup in your Apple Developer account.”
- developer.apple.com/programs/whats-included: “The Apple Developer Program is 99 USD per membership year”
- developer.apple.com/documentation/applemapsserverapi/-v1-search: “Find places by name or by specific search criteria.”
- developer.apple.com/documentation/applemapsserverapi/place: “An object that describes a place in terms of a variety of spatial, administrative, and qualitative properties.”
- developer.apple.com/support/terms/apple-developer-program-license-agreement: “Map Data may not be cached, pre-fetched, or stored by You ... other than on a temporary and limited basis”
- developer.apple.com/support/terms/apple-developer-program-license-agreement: “when displaying it on a map, You agree that it will be displayed only on an Apple map”
- developer.apple.com/support/terms/apple-developer-program-license-agreement: “The Apple Maps Service may not be available in all countries, regions, or languages”
Overture Maps Places, read on October 15, 2026:
- docs.overturemaps.org/guides/places: “The Overture places theme contains tens of millions of point representations of real-world entities”
- docs.overturemaps.org/guides/places: “Places is published under the CDLA Permissive 2.0 and Apache 2.0 licenses, depending on the source.”
- docs.overturemaps.org/guides/places: “The theme does not include OpenStreetMap data.”
- docs.overturemaps.org/guides/places: “s3://overturemaps-us-west-2/release/2026-09-23.1/theme=places/type=place/*”
- docs.overturemaps.org/guides/places: “The categories property has been removed from the places schema as of the September 2026 release”
- docs.overturemaps.org/guides/places: “confidence , CAST ( websites AS JSON ) AS websites , CAST ( socials AS JSON ) AS socials”
- docs.overturemaps.org/attribution: “Some of the data sources we use in Overture datasets require their own attribution, according to their licenses.”
- docs.overturemaps.org/attribution: “Data from Meta . Available under CDLA Permissive 2.0 .”