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geolith

Feature

Reverse geocoding: from a GPS fix to an address

geolith reverse geocoding turns a latitude and longitude into the nearest addresses and places: GET https://api.geolith.app/v1/reverse?point.lat=18.922&point.lon=72.8346 returns GeoJSON features nearest first, each with its distance in kilometres. In the India benchmark (20 Oct 2026) the first result was right for 99.5% of 200 points. A companion endpoint, /v1/nearby, lists places around a point for "what is near me" screens.

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What is reverse geocoding?

Reverse geocoding is the opposite of geocoding: it turns a latitude and longitude into the nearest address or named place. geolith answers GET /v1/reverse with the closest places first and the distance to each in kilometres, so an app can label a GPS fix or a dropped map pin.

Detail

Parameters

Reverse looks within a radius around the point and returns the nearest places first.

  • point.lat and point.lon: the point, required.
  • boundary.circle.radius: search radius in km, default 1, at most 100.
  • size: 1 to 40 results, default 10.
  • layers: for example address for street addresses only, or venue for POIs.
  • lang: return names in a language such as hi.
Request
curl "https://api.geolith.app/v1/reverse?point.lat=35.6586&point.lon=139.7454&size=1" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

# -> "UMEIYA, 芝公園四丁目, 港区, 東京都, 日本", properties.distance 0.003 (km)

Detail

Nearby places

/v1/nearby takes the same point and returns places within up to 50 km, nearest first. Add layers=venue to list only points of interest, for example the shops and stations around a delivery partner.

Detail

Where reverse geocoding is used

Delivery apps label a dropped pin, fleet tools turn GPS pings into street names, photo apps name where a picture was taken, and field apps fill in an address from the phone’s location.

Guides

See it in code

Reverse geocoding in JavaScriptTurn latitude and longitude into an address in the browser and in Node.js with the geolith reverse geocoding API, including the user's current location and error handling.Read →

Questions

Reverse geocoding: questions

What unit is the distance in?
Kilometres. Each reverse and nearby result has properties.distance, for example 0.006 for 6 metres.
Can I store reverse geocoding results?
Yes. geolith results may be stored permanently; you only need to keep showing the OpenStreetMap and Overture attribution where you display them.
How accurate is reverse geocoding?
In the India benchmark the first result was right for 99.5% of 200 points; Nominatim scored 100, Photon 98.5 and Pelias 98.0 on the same set.

Sources

  1. geolith search benchmarks: engines, geolith (read 2026-10-22)

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