Yelp Places API vs Foursquare Places API for AI agents
Yelp Places API is Yelp's licensed API (formerly Yelp Fusion) for searching businesses and reading Yelp business details, ratings, photos and review excerpts. Foursquare Places API is Foursquare's pay-as-you-go API for searching and reading point-of-interest data from its global places database.
The short answer
- Yelp Places API: Yelp ratings, review excerpts and photos for restaurants and local services in consumer apps that display Yelp content. The terms rule out passing that content to an LLM.
- 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.
Side by side
| Yelp Places API | Foursquare Places API | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | Local businesses listed on Yelp. Yelp says it covers "millions of businesses around the world," and the supported-locales page lists 32 countries. | POIs worldwide: Place Search, Place Details, Autocomplete, Place Match, Tips and Photos. |
| Returns | JSON over REST at https://api.yelp.com/v3. Results include name, address, phone, Yelp rating, price level, review count, coordinates, categories, image and Yelp URL. Photos and review excerpts depend on the plan. | 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. |
| Before the first call | A Yelp developer account (a business email is required for the trial) and a private API key. Paid plans need a credit card on file. | A Foursquare developer account and a Service API key. Usage beyond the free calls is paid through credits or a card on file. |
| Free | A 30-day trial with up to 5,000 API calls, for evaluation only, not commercial use. There is no permanent free tier. | 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” |
| Paid | Base costs $229 a month plus $5.91 per extra 1,000 calls. Enhanced costs $299 a month plus $6.57 per 1,000. Premium costs $643 a month plus $14.13 per 1,000. The FAQ says paid plans include 30,000 calls a month by default. | 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. |
| Acting on a result | Results include the business phone number and its Yelp page URL. There is no way to message a business through the Places API. | Phone (tel), website and email are Pro fields. There is no way to message a business through the API. |
| Limits on keeping or showing results | No caching or storing of Yelp Content for more than 24 hours. No building your own business-listing database from it. Display Requirements apply, and Yelp can require removal of content within 24 hours. | 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. |
| AI in its terms | Very restrictive. Section 9 bans training or fine-tuning generative AI models on Yelp Content. Section 9.4 bans submitting or ingesting any Yelp Content into any Generative AI Model, for example in prompts to ChatGPT. Yelp sells a separate Yelp AI API for conversational use at $25 per 1,000 calls. | 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. |
| Coverage | 32 countries in Yelp's supported-locales list, including the US. | Foursquare says 100M+ POI across 200+ countries. |
| MCP server | Yelp/yelp-mcp on GitHub (https://github.com/Yelp/yelp-mcp). It wraps the Yelp Fusion AI API with one yelp_agent tool and needs a Yelp Fusion AI key, not a Places API key. | foursquare/foursquare-places-mcp on GitHub (https://github.com/foursquare/foursquare-places-mcp). The README says MCP is currently supported for local use only. |
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 Yelp Places API and Openpath vs Foursquare Places API.
Questions people ask
What do I need before I can use Yelp Places API?
A Yelp developer account (a business email is required for the trial) and a private API key. Paid plans need a credit card on file.
Is Yelp Places API free?
A 30-day trial with up to 5,000 API calls, for evaluation only, not commercial use. There is no permanent free tier.
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”.
Sources
Every line about another company comes from its own pages. Prices and terms change, so check the source before you rely on one.
Yelp Places API, read on October 15, 2026:
- business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing: “$229 per month plus $5.91 per additional 1,000 API calls”
- business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing: “$299 per month plus $6.57 per additional 1,000 API calls”
- business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing: “$643 per month plus $14.13 per additional 1,000 API calls”
- business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing: “Receive 5,000 free API calls during the 30-day trial period”
- business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing: “Start 30-day free trial Business email required”
- business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing: “$25 / 1,000 API calls Minimum 1,000 daily API calls”
- docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/places-faq: “These API calls are STRICTLY FOR EVALUATION AND NOT FOR COMMERCIAL DEPLOYMENT”
- docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/places-faq: “This plan includes 30,000 API calls per month by default”
- docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/places-intro: “valuable information such as name, address, phone number, Yelp rating, price levels, and review counts”
- docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/places-intro: “The Yelp Places API uses private key authentication to authenticate all endpoints.”
- docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/places-intro: “millions of businesses around the world”
- terms.yelp.com/developers/api_terms: “opt into a paid subscription program by providing credit card and other necessary information”
- terms.yelp.com/developers/api_terms: “cache, record, pre-fetch, or otherwise store any portion of the Yelp Content for a period longer than twenty-four (24) hours”
- terms.yelp.com/developers/api_terms: “use it to update or create your own database of business listing information”
- terms.yelp.com/developers/api_terms: “Submit or ingest any Yelp Content into any Generative AI Model (e.g., prompts that contain any Yelp Content into ChatGPT”
- terms.yelp.com/developers/api_terms: “for the purpose of training, developing, enhancing, or fine-tuning any Generative AI Models without Yelp’s prior written approval”
- github.com/Yelp/yelp-mcp: “MCP server for exposing tools powered by Yelp's data”
- docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/resources-supported-locales: “Following are the locales Yelp Places API supports.”
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”