Foursquare Places API vs HERE Geocoding & Search for AI agents
Foursquare Places API is Foursquare's pay-as-you-go API for searching and reading point-of-interest data from its global places database. HERE Geocoding & Search is HERE's location search API family (Discover/Search, Autosuggest, Geocode, Reverse Geocode) for finding addresses and places/POIs.
The short answer
- Foursquare Places API: A low-cost global POI API with phone, website and email at the cheaper Pro tier. Good for place lookup and matching where Google-style display rules are too tight.
- HERE Geocoding & Search: Cheap per-call POI and address search with a free monthly tier. Good when results stay inside an app and are not fed to AI systems.
Side by side
| Foursquare Places API | HERE Geocoding & Search | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | POIs worldwide: Place Search, Place Details, Autocomplete, Place Match, Tips and Photos. | Addresses, places/POIs, EV charge points and third-party data such as Tripadvisor, searchable by free text or along routes. |
| Returns | JSON place records. Pro fields include fsq_place_id, name, coordinates, address, categories, chains, tel, website, email and social handles. Premium fields add hours, rating, price, photos, tips and popularity. | JSON with an items array. Only title, id, resultType and position are guaranteed. Place results can add address, categories, contacts (phone, www, email) and openingHours. |
| Before the first call | A Foursquare developer account and a Service API key. Usage beyond the free calls is paid through credits or a card on file. | A HERE platform account on the Base Plan, which requires entering a payment method at sign-up (since 2025), plus an app ID and API key. |
| Free | 500 free Pro calls a month since June 1, 2026, by its docs; the pricing page also says “up to 10,000 free calls on Pro endpoints” | 5,000 Discover/Search transactions a month on the Base Plan (30,000 for Geocode and Autocomplete). |
| Paid | Pro endpoints: $15.00 per 1,000 calls (501 to 100,000), falling to $9.00 at volume. Premium endpoints: $18.75 per 1,000 (up to 100,000). Ask endpoints: $30 (Pro) or $36 (Premium) per 1,000. | Discover/Search: EUR 2.33 per 1,000 (5,001 to 200,000), then EUR 1.87 per 1,000 up to 1,000,000. |
| Acting on a result | Phone (tel), website and email are Pro fields. There is no way to message a business through the API. | Place results can include phone, website and email contacts. There is no way to message a business through the API. |
| Limits on keeping or showing results | The Developer Master Terms forbid creating derivative works of the service or its underlying data. They also treat place data as Foursquare Confidential Information, even where the facts are public. No specific cache period was found. | The Platform Terms bar caching or storing Results outside the Platform for more than 30 days (24 hours for Japan and Positioning). The Base Plan also excludes asset-tracking use cases. |
| AI in its terms | The terms forbid accessing the service "to develop or improve any point-of-interest or venue dataset, algorithm, or machine learning operation(s)." The product page markets the API for AI agents through MCP. | Restrictive. Unless your plan or a separate agreement allows it, the Platform Terms (6.3 f) forbid using HERE Materials "in connection with a machine learning or artificial intelligence (“AI”) system," including generative AI. |
| Coverage | Foursquare says 100M+ POI across 200+ countries. | Not stated on the pages read. Searches can be limited to countries by ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code. |
| MCP server | foursquare/foursquare-places-mcp on GitHub (https://github.com/foursquare/foursquare-places-mcp). The README says MCP is currently supported for local use only. | HERE Location Reasoning, an MCP server at https://hlr.here.ai/mcp (docs: https://docs.here.com/location-reasoning/docs/hlroverview). Access terms and pricing for it were not confirmed. |
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 Foursquare Places API and Openpath vs HERE Geocoding & Search.
Questions people ask
What do I need before I can use Foursquare Places API?
A Foursquare developer account and a Service API key. Usage beyond the free calls is paid through credits or a card on file.
Is Foursquare Places API free?
500 free Pro calls a month since June 1, 2026, by its docs; the pricing page also says “up to 10,000 free calls on Pro endpoints”.
What do I need before I can use HERE Geocoding & Search?
A HERE platform account on the Base Plan, which requires entering a payment method at sign-up (since 2025), plus an app ID and API key.
Is HERE Geocoding & Search free?
5,000 Discover/Search transactions a month on the Base Plan (30,000 for Geocode and Autocomplete).
Sources
Every line about another company comes from its own pages. Prices and terms change, so check the source before you rely on one.
Foursquare Places API, read on October 15, 2026:
- foursquare.com/pricing: “0 – 500 Calls 501 to 100,000 Calls 100,001 to 500,000 Calls 500,001+ Calls $0.00 CPM $15.00 CPM $12.00 CPM $9.00 CPM”
- foursquare.com/pricing: “0 – 100,000 Calls 100,001 to 500,000 Calls 500,001+ Calls $18.75 CPM $15.00 CPM $11.25 CPM”
- foursquare.com/pricing: “Pro Premium $30.00 CPM $36.00 CPM”
- foursquare.com/pricing: “Enjoy up to 10,000 free calls on Pro endpoints.”
- docs.foursquare.com/developer/reference/upcoming-changes: “Beginning June 1, 2026, the following Places API & V2 Pro endpoint rates go into effect for all users”
- docs.foursquare.com/developer/reference/upcoming-changes: “You will now receive 500 free Pro calls.”
- docs.foursquare.com/data-products/docs/places-pro-and-premium: “tel: Telephone number of a POI with local formatting”
- docs.foursquare.com/data-products/docs/places-pro-and-premium: “email: Primary contact email address of organization, if available”
- foursquare.com/legal/terms/enterprise-developermasterterms: “access the Foursquare Service to develop or improve any point-of-interest or venue dataset, algorithm, or machine learning operation(s)”
- foursquare.com/legal/terms/enterprise-developermasterterms: “create derivative works of the Foursquare Service or any underlying data”
- foursquare.com/legal/terms/enterprise-developermasterterms: “point of interest data for New York City would be confidential, even if individual venue commercial addresses are public”
- foursquare.com/products/places-api: “100M+ POI across 200+ countries”
- foursquare.com/products/places-api: “Build AI Agents that are situationally aware and tailored to the user's surroundings with a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server”
- github.com/foursquare/foursquare-places-mcp: “Currently MCP is only supported for local use”
HERE Geocoding & Search, read on October 15, 2026:
- here.com/get-started/pricing: “Discover / Search pricing Monthly Transactions Cost per 1,000 0 to 5,000 Free 5,001 to 200,000 €2.33”
- here.com/get-started/pricing: “200,001 to 1,000,000 €1.87 1,000,001+ Contact us 1 Transaction is counted for every Request.”
- here.com/get-started/pricing: “Discover addresses, Places/POIs, EV charge points, truck-specific attributes and 3rd party data like Tripadvisor”
- here.com/learn/blog/april-2025-platform-release-notes: “The Base plan requires entering a payment method during the onboarding process to access our platform.”
- docs.here.com/geocoding-and-search/docs/discover: “Only title, id, resultType, position can be expected for all results.”
- legal.here.com/en-gb/terms/here-platform-terms: “for more than 30 days, except HERE Positioning services which cannot be cached or stored outside the Platform for more than 24 hours”
- legal.here.com/en-gb/terms/here-platform-terms: “Use HERE Materials in connection with a machine learning or artificial intelligence (“AI”) system”
- legal.here.com/en-gb/terms/here-platform-terms: “Except as otherwise permitted in your Subscription Plan or separate agreement with HERE, you may not:”
- here.com/get-started/pricing/base-plan-restrictions: “The following use cases are excluded from the Base Plan.”
- docs.here.com/location-reasoning/docs/hlroverview: “HERE Location Reasoning is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server”
- docs.here.com/location-reasoning/docs/hlroverview: “The HERE Location Reasoning MCP server is available at: https://hlr.here.ai/mcp”