Foursquare Places API vs TomTom Search API 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. TomTom Search API is a family of TomTom location search APIs: the Orbis-based Places Search API (Suggest, Discover, Details) is now recommended, and the older Search API is labelled previous-generation.
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.
- TomTom Search API: Navigation-grade POI search with a real no-card free tier and EU-priced pay-as-you-go. Strong in automotive and routing contexts.
Side by side
| Foursquare Places API | TomTom Search API | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | POIs worldwide: Place Search, Place Details, Autocomplete, Place Match, Tips and Photos. | Addresses and points of interest (POIs) on TomTom Orbis Maps, or on TomTom Maps for the legacy Search API. |
| 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 (Discover returns a results array). POI results include a title, address, GeoJSON position, poiTypes (categories), contacts (phones and websites) and opening hours. |
| 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 free TomTom developer account and API key. No credit card is needed until you add prepaid credit. |
| 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” | Places Search API: 5,000 Discover and 5,000 Details requests a month, plus 10,000 Suggest. Legacy Search API: 2,500 a month. The free tier does not expire. |
| 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. | Places Search API Discover costs EUR 18.00 per 1,000 (5K–100K), Details EUR 12.00 per 1,000 and Suggest EUR 1.00 per 1,000. The legacy Search API costs EUR 3.00 per 1,000 (2.5K–100K). Billing is prepaid credit. |
| Acting on a result | Phone (tel), website and email are Pro fields. There is no way to message a business through the API. | Discover results can include phone numbers and websites. 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. | Caching or storing Results is prohibited except in clients, within cache-control header max-age. Caching to serve multiple users is not allowed. Logo and copyright attribution is required. |
| 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. | The Portal Terms forbid applying ML or AI to the Licensed Products in a way that makes them redundant. They also forbid using them with any ML/AI process where the information would be stored in a "Public Reference Data Set". |
| Coverage | Foursquare says 100M+ POI across 200+ countries. | The market list (search on TomTom Orbis Maps) marks POI coverage per country, including the United States. TomTom says markets not listed are not supported. |
| 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. | TomTom Maps MCP Server, remote at https://mcp.tomtom.com/maps (public preview). Open source at https://github.com/tomtom-international/tomtom-maps-mcp |
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 TomTom Search API.
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 TomTom Search API?
A free TomTom developer account and API key. No credit card is needed until you add prepaid credit.
Is TomTom Search API free?
Places Search API: 5,000 Discover and 5,000 Details requests a month, plus 10,000 Suggest. Legacy Search API: 2,500 a month. The free tier does not expire.
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”
TomTom Search API, read on October 15, 2026:
- docs.tomtom.com/pricing: “Places Search API Discover ... Free Up to 5K Tier 1 5K–100K € 18.00”
- docs.tomtom.com/pricing: “Search API Serve search results using TomTom's previous-generation map format. For new projects we recommend Places Search API.”
- docs.tomtom.com/pricing: “Free Up to 2.5K Tier 1 2.5K–100K € 3.00”
- docs.tomtom.com/pricing: “The more you use, the less you pay per 1,000 requests”
- docs.tomtom.com/pricing: “Free means free — no time limit, no credit card required.”
- docs.tomtom.com/pricing: “You only need a payment method when you're ready to add prepaid credit and go beyond the free monthly allowance.”
- docs.tomtom.com/places-search-api/documentation/places-search/discover: “Delivers fully resolved location or discoverAction results based on complete input criteria.”
- docs.tomtom.com/legal/terms-and-conditions: “The caching or storing of any Results shall be prohibited except that you may cache Results delivered by the Licensed Products provided that”
- docs.tomtom.com/legal/terms-and-conditions: “Nothing under Clause 11.4 entitles any form of caching for the purpose of scaling results to serve multiple clients or users.”
- docs.tomtom.com/legal/terms-and-conditions: “you agree to implement to the TomTom Copyright API in order to generate the applicable copyright and logo attribution”
- docs.tomtom.com/legal/terms-and-conditions: “would be stored or retained in any Public Reference Data Set by such machine learning, AI algorithm or other software related process”
- docs.tomtom.com/tomtom-maps-mcp/documentation/overview: “The TomTom Maps Remote MCP Server is in public preview.”
- docs.tomtom.com/search-api/documentation/tomtom-orbis-maps/product-information/market-coverage: “If a market is missing in the following tables, it is not currently supported.”