HERE Geocoding & Search vs Azure Maps Search for AI agents
HERE Geocoding & Search is HERE's location search API family (Discover/Search, Autosuggest, Geocode, Reverse Geocode) for finding addresses and places/POIs. Azure Maps Search is Microsoft Azure's location search service for geocoding and finding places and businesses by name or category.
The short answer
- 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.
- Azure Maps Search: Teams already on Azure who want place search billed on their Azure account under Microsoft's enterprise terms.
Side by side
| HERE Geocoding & Search | Azure Maps Search | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | Addresses, places/POIs, EV charge points and third-party data such as Tripadvisor, searchable by free text or along routes. | Addresses, places and businesses by name or category. Search v1.0 (POI, category, nearby search) is superseded by Search 2026-01-01 but still works. |
| Returns | 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. | JSON. Search v1 POI results include name, phone, url, categories, brands and optional opening hours. |
| Before the first call | 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. | An Azure subscription with an Azure Maps account. Authentication is by Shared Key, Microsoft Entra ID or SAS token. |
| Free | 5,000 Discover/Search transactions a month on the Base Plan (30,000 for Geocode and Autocomplete). | 5,000 Search transactions a month. |
| Paid | 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. | $4.50 per 1,000 Search transactions (under 500K a month). Volume discounts start at 100,000 transactions. |
| Acting on a result | Place results can include phone, website and email contacts. There is no way to message a business through the API. | v1 POI results include phone and website URL. There is no way to message a business through the API. |
| Limits on keeping or showing results | 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. | Results may be cached only to reduce latency, not to serve multiple users, and for no longer than the header validity or 6 months, whichever is shorter. Geocodes may be kept while the Azure account is active. Results may not be displayed on third-party maps or content. |
| AI in its terms | 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. | The Product Terms say the customer may not modify or create a derivative work from any content using machine learning or artificial intelligence unless the terms expressly allow it. They also forbid building a competing or derived database. |
| Coverage | Not stated on the pages read. Searches can be limited to countries by ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code. | Not stated on its pages |
| MCP server | 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. | 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 HERE Geocoding & Search and Openpath vs Azure Maps Search.
Questions people ask
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).
What do I need before I can use Azure Maps Search?
An Azure subscription with an Azure Maps account. Authentication is by Shared Key, Microsoft Entra ID or SAS token.
Is Azure Maps Search free?
5,000 Search transactions a month.
Sources
Every line about another company comes from its own pages. Prices and terms change, so check the source before you rely on one.
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”
Azure Maps Search, read on October 15, 2026:
- azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/azure-maps: “Meters Free <500K 500K+ ... Search 5,000 $4.50 Contact Us”
- azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/azure-maps: “Unless otherwise specified, the prices below are per 1,000 transactions.”
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-maps/rest-api-azure-maps: “search for places and businesses by name or category”
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-maps/migrate-search-v1-api: “Azure Maps Search API version 1.0 has been superseded by Search API version 2026‑01‑01”
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-maps/migrate-search-v1-api: “While Search v1 continues to function, new development should use the latest Search API”
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/maps/search/get-search-poi: “Details of the returned POI including information such as the name, phone, url address, and classifications.”
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-maps/azure-maps-authentication: “Azure Maps supports three authentication methods: Shared Key, Microsoft Entra ID, and Shared Access Signature (SAS) Token.”
- microsoft.com/licensing/terms/productoffering/MicrosoftAzure/MCA: “Results may not be stored for longer than: (i) the validity period indicated in returned headers; or (ii) 6 months, whichever is shorter.”
- microsoft.com/licensing/terms/productoffering/MicrosoftAzure/MCA: “Customer may not cache or store results delivered by the Azure Maps API for the purpose of scaling such Results”
- microsoft.com/licensing/terms/productoffering/MicrosoftAzure/MCA: “Customer may not modify or create a derivative work based on any content using machine learning or artificial intelligence”
- microsoft.com/licensing/terms/productoffering/MicrosoftAzure/MCA: “Customer may not use Azure Maps or any part thereof to create a competing database or service”