Foursquare Places API
Location intelligence software
Data as a service (DaaS) software
Business intelligence software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
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Pay-as-you-go
Free TrialFree version
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Medium
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- Accommodation and food services
- Arts, entertainment, and recreation
- Transportation and logistics
What is Foursquare Places API
Foursquare Places API is a location data service that provides programmatic access to points-of-interest (POI) information such as venue names, categories, addresses, and geospatial coordinates. It is used by developers, data teams, and product teams to power place search, geocoding-like enrichment, store/venue matching, and location-based analytics in web and mobile applications. The product is delivered via APIs and is typically embedded into customer applications and data pipelines rather than used as a standalone UI. It differentiates through its focus on POI/venue data and enrichment workflows for location-aware products.
API-first place data access
The product is designed for integration into applications and backend services through APIs rather than requiring a dedicated end-user interface. This supports common engineering workflows such as place lookup, autocomplete/search, and enrichment of customer or store records with standardized place attributes. API delivery also makes it easier to embed place intelligence into multiple products and channels. It fits teams that want to build custom experiences on top of a location dataset.
POI enrichment and matching
Places data can be used to normalize and enrich business location records with consistent naming, categorization, and geospatial attributes. This helps with entity resolution tasks such as matching a user-entered location to a canonical venue or reconciling store lists across systems. These capabilities are commonly used in analytics pipelines to improve reporting consistency by reducing duplicate or ambiguous place records. It is particularly relevant when location is a key dimension in customer, sales, or operations data.
Supports location analytics use cases
The API can feed downstream business intelligence and location intelligence workflows by providing structured place attributes that can be joined to internal datasets. Typical use cases include market/store analysis, location-based segmentation, and building maps or dashboards that rely on standardized POI data. Because it is vendor-neutral and API-based, it can be paired with different mapping, CRM, or analytics stacks. This flexibility is useful for organizations that do not want location data locked into a single application.
Requires engineering to implement
As an API product, it generally requires developer resources to integrate, test, and maintain. Organizations looking for an out-of-the-box mapping or territory-planning UI may need additional software layers to deliver end-user functionality. Data teams may also need to build ETL/ELT processes to operationalize enrichment at scale. This can increase time-to-value compared with packaged business applications.
Coverage and freshness vary
POI datasets can vary by geography, category, and update cadence, which can affect match rates and accuracy for specific markets. Customers often need to validate coverage for their target regions and business types before standardizing on the dataset. Some use cases may require supplemental sources or manual curation for edge cases (e.g., new venues, temporary closures, niche categories). These factors can impact analytics consistency and operational workflows.
Cost and usage constraints
API-based DaaS products typically price by usage, features, or data volume, which can become material at high request rates or large-scale enrichment jobs. Rate limits and quota management may require architectural work such as caching, batching, or asynchronous processing. Budgeting can be less predictable when usage scales with customer growth or product adoption. Procurement may also require careful review of data licensing terms for redistribution and derived products.
Plan & Pricing
Pricing model: Pay-as-you-go (billed per 1,000 calls — CPM)
Free tier / sandbox: Test in the developer sandbox; Pro endpoints are free up to 10,000 calls (0–10,000 calls = $0.00 CPM). Foursquare developer accounts also receive $200 in monthly free usage credits when signed up directly through the Foursquare developer portal (AWS Marketplace customers do NOT receive the $200 monthly credit).
Pro endpoints (per 1,000 calls / CPM):
- 0 – 10,000 Calls: $0.00 CPM
- 10,001 – 100,000 Calls: $15.00 CPM
- 100,001 – 500,000 Calls: $12.00 CPM
- 500,001 – 1,000,000 Calls: $9.00 CPM
- 1,000,001 – 5,000,000 Calls: $4.50 CPM
- 5,000,001+ Calls: $1.25 CPM
(Examples of Pro endpoints called out by Foursquare: Place Search, Place Details, Autocomplete, Geotagging Candidates when requested with default fields.)
Premium endpoints (per 1,000 calls / CPM):
- 0 – 100,000 Calls: $18.75 CPM
- 100,001 – 500,000 Calls: $15.00 CPM
- 500,001 – 1,000,000 Calls: $11.25 CPM
- 1,000,001 – 5,000,000 Calls: $5.75 CPM
- 5,000,001+ Calls: $1.75 CPM
(Premium endpoints called out by Foursquare: Tips & Photos. Search, Details & Geotagging Candidates are Premium when requested with premium-tier fields.)
Enterprise / discounts: Enterprise customers get custom pricing and additional discounts; contact sales via Foursquare.
Notes / other official details:
- Pricing and tiering are volume-based; "more calls mean more savings" per Foursquare's pricing page.
- AWS Marketplace customers are billed per AWS-listed rates and do not receive the $200/month developer credit; billing differences vs direct sign-up are documented by Foursquare.
- Foursquare documentation also includes an "Upcoming Changes" notice (migration to new Places endpoints and pricing changes for legacy customers effective Oct 1, 2025) — refer to Foursquare docs for migration and billing details.
Seller details
Foursquare Labs, Inc.
New York, NY, USA
2009
Private
https://foursquare.com/
https://x.com/foursquare
https://www.linkedin.com/company/foursquare/
