Microproduct Data GuideBeginner

OpenStreetMap Nominatim Search

Public Nominatim place-search responses derived from OpenStreetMap for checking one user-requested address or road candidate.

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At a Glance

Difficulty
Beginner — comfortable for a first prototype
Size
Tiny · ≤0.01 GB
Formats
JSON
Access
API
API Key
Not Required
Provider
OpenStreetMap Foundation
Updates
Near Real Time
Last Verified
Sep 28, 2026
Source Type
Community Source
Data Terms
ODbL 1.0 data with OpenStreetMap attribution. Public service allows at most one request per second per application, requires an identifying User-Agent, forbids autocomplete and systematic queries, and may withdraw access.
  • Python Syntax Checked
  • Runnable Notebook

From Source to Product Signal

Test a Product Idea in Four Steps

Read the public Nominatim usage policy before calling this shared service: at most one request per second per application, a distinct identifying User-Agent, attribution, caching, no autocomplete, and no systematic or bulk queries. Start with one public landmark address. ODbL share-alike applies to the OSM-derived data; keep a provider switch available if the public service withdraws access.

1

Check the Setup

  • Python 3.10 or newer
  • An internet connection
  • The requests Python package
2

Access the Data

  1. 1.Read the Nominatim policy and ODbL conditions in full.
  2. 2.Search one public landmark address with an identifying User-Agent.
  3. 3.Inspect the returned location and OSM attribution.
Open Official Source
3

Run the Python Example

Install the packages, then run the notebook cell.

python -m pip install requests

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search",
    params={"q": "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC",
            "format": "jsonv2", "limit": 1},
    headers={"User-Agent": "TrilemmaDataCatalogExample/1.0 (https://data.trilemma.foundation/)"},
    timeout=30,
)
response.raise_for_status()
for place in response.json():
    print(place["display_name"], place["lat"], place["lon"])
4

Test a Useful Signal

Inspect One Public Place Match

Check one user-triggered place candidate with the shared Nominatim API.

  1. 01Display OpenStreetMap attribution with the result.
  2. 02Require user confirmation before treating a road match as a property.
  3. 03Explain why a public demo service is unsuitable for bulk geocoding.

Related Datasets

Dataset Details

OpenStreetMap Foundation is a community source. Last verified 2026-09-28. Temporal coverage: current OpenStreetMap search index.

Domains

Geography

Data Types

Geospatial

Tasks

Search

Geography

Global

Formats

JSON

Provider

OpenStreetMap Foundation

Data Terms

ODbL 1.0 data with OpenStreetMap attribution. Public service allows at most one request per second per application, requires an identifying User-Agent, forbids autocomplete and systematic queries, and may withdraw access.

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