TomTom Search API vs Mapbox Search Box API 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. Mapbox Search Box API is Mapbox's search API for addresses, places and POIs, with interactive (/suggest + /retrieve), text (/forward), category and reverse endpoints.
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.
- Mapbox Search Box API: Cheap autocomplete-style place and address search inside map apps, with a first-party hosted MCP server.
Side by side
| TomTom Search API | Mapbox Search Box API | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | Addresses and points of interest (POIs) on TomTom Orbis Maps, or on TomTom Maps for the legacy Search API. | Addresses, places and points of interest, including category search such as "coffee shops around me". |
| 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 features with name, address, coordinates, POI categories, mapbox_id and optional metadata such as phone, website, open hours, rating and photos. Each response includes an attribution string. |
| Before the first call | A free TomTom developer account and API key. No credit card is needed until you add prepaid credit. | A Mapbox account and access token. You can sign up without a credit card, but you get trial usage limits until you add a payment method. |
| 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. | Introductory preview pricing: 500 interactive sessions a month and 50,000 /category or /reverse requests a month. The page also shows a "Standard pricing" table (2,500 and 25,000 free), and which table applies when was not stated in the text read. |
| 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. | Sessions: $3.00 per 1,000 under the introductory preview pricing, or $11.50 per 1,000 under the standard pricing. /category and /reverse: $1.00 per 1,000 (intro) or $1.70 (standard). |
| Acting on a result | Discover results can include phone numbers and websites. There is no way to message a business through the API. | Retrieved POIs can include phone and website in metadata. 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. | All Search Box results are for temporary use only. Storing position data requires contacting Mapbox sales. |
| 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". | Not stated on its pages |
| 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. | Global. The docs have a supported-geographies section that was not reviewed in detail. |
| 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 | Mapbox MCP Server, hosted at https://mcp.mapbox.com/mcp (OAuth) and open source at https://github.com/mapbox/mcp-server. The search tools use the Search Box API. |
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 Mapbox Search Box API.
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 Mapbox Search Box API?
A Mapbox account and access token. You can sign up without a credit card, but you get trial usage limits until you add a payment method.
Is Mapbox Search Box API free?
Introductory preview pricing: 500 interactive sessions a month and 50,000 /category or /reverse requests a month. The page also shows a "Standard pricing" table (2,500 and 25,000 free), and which table applies when was not stated in the text read.
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.”
Mapbox Search Box API, read on October 15, 2026:
- mapbox.com/pricing: “Introductory preview pricing* Monthly sessions Up to 500 501 - 100,000 ... Cost per 1,000 Free $3.00”
- mapbox.com/pricing: “Standard pricing Monthly requests Up to 2,500 2,501 - 100,000 ... Cost per 1,000 Free $11.50”
- mapbox.com/pricing: “Request to /category and /reverse endpoints are billed on a per-request basis.”
- mapbox.com/pricing: “Monthly requests Up to 50,000 50,001 - 500,000 ... Cost per 1,000 Free $1.00”
- mapbox.com/pricing: “A session includes 50 /suggest calls, and 1 /retrieve call, and it will automatically expire after 2 minutes of inactivity.”
- docs.mapbox.com/accounts/guides/signup: “Quick sign-up without a credit card gives you access to Mapbox services with trial usage limits.”
- docs.mapbox.com/api/search/search-box: “all data returned by the Search Box API endpoints is only available for temporary use”
- docs.mapbox.com/api/search/search-box: “"metadata" : { "phone" : "PHONE_NUMBER" , "website" : "WEBSITE_URL" , "open_hours"”
- docs.mapbox.com/api/guides/mcp-server: “This endpoint is available at https://mcp.mapbox.com/mcp”