TomTom Search API vs Azure Maps Search for AI agents
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. Azure Maps Search is Microsoft Azure's location search service for geocoding and finding places and businesses by name or category.
The short answer
- 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.
- Azure Maps Search: Teams already on Azure who want place search billed on their Azure account under Microsoft's enterprise terms.
Side by side
| TomTom Search API | Azure Maps Search | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | Addresses and points of interest (POIs) on TomTom Orbis Maps, or on TomTom Maps for the legacy Search API. | 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 Search v1.0 (POI, category, nearby search) is superseded by Search 2026-01-01 but still works.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 (Discover returns a results array). POI results include a title, address, GeoJSON position, poiTypes (categories), contacts (phones and websites) and opening hours. | JSON. Search v1 POI results include name, phone, url, categories, brands and optional opening hours. |
| Before the first call | A free TomTom developer account and API key. No credit card is needed until you add prepaid credit. | An Azure subscription with an Azure Maps account. Authentication is by Shared Key, Microsoft Entra ID or SAS token. |
| 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. | 5,000 Search transactions a month. |
| Paid | 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. | $4.50 per 1,000 Search transactions (under 500K a month). Volume discounts start at 100,000 transactions. |
| Acting on a result | Discover results can include phone numbers and websites. 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 | 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. | 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 | 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". | 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 | 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. | Not stated on its pages |
| MCP server | TomTom Maps MCP Server, remote at https://mcp.tomtom.com/maps (public preview). Open source at https://github.com/tomtom-international/tomtom-maps-mcp | 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 TomTom Search API and Openpath vs Azure Maps Search.
Questions people ask
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.
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.
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.”
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”