Geocodio vs Zip-Codes.com

Geocodio is a solid geocoding API. Zip-Codes.com handles addresses too — but the ecosystem is built around postal code workflows: first-class radius, typeahead, distance, ZIP-level enrichment, and full Canadian postal coverage. One credit pool, US-hosted on every tier.

Get an API key Open the playground

2,500 credits/day · No credit card · No expiration

$0.49 per 1K on Developer plan†

5 first-class endpoints

US-hosted every tier, no upgrade

2,500 free credits / day

† Developer tier: $49/mo for 100,000 credits. Geocodio PAYG is $1.00/1K (raised Feb 1, 2026 from $0.50).

Geocodio is built around one job: turn a free-form address into a coordinate, optionally appending Census or political-district data. They do that well, with permissive data-storage rights and bundled North-American enrichment. Zip-Codes.com is built around postal-code workflows: ZIP and FSA lookup with deep enrichment, radius search (centroid or spatial polygon-intersection), geographic typeahead, distance, and address parsing — as separate specialized endpoints sharing one credit pool, one API key, one billing relationship. If your job is geocoding addresses, Geocodio fits. If your job touches ZIPs, postals, radius, or typeahead, this page is for you.

At a Glance

Capability	Geocodio	Zip-Codes.com
Forward geocoding (address → coords)	Rooftop / interpolated lat,lng	ZIP+4 centroid via `/v2/address`
Reverse geocoding (coords → ?)	Coords → street address	Coords → containing ZIP with enrichment
Radius search	Not offered	First-class `/v2/radius`, centroid up to 500 mi or spatial polygon with `pct_inside`
Geographic typeahead	Not offered	`/v2/suggest` across cities, counties, CBSAs, FSAs, ZIPs, states
Distance / bearing	Distance matrix (50K async)	`/v2/distance` 1 credit per pair, timezone included
ZIP lookup with enrichment	Geocode an address first, then append fields	Direct `/v2/zip?code=...` with 11+ enrichment flags
Census ACS demographics	Current 5-year vintages	14 years (2011–2024), 542 fields per ZIP
Boundary memberships	CD, state-leg, school district	Census tract, CD, state-leg, school district + Canadian ridings
US coverage
Canadian coverage	Geocoding only	FSA + full 6-char postal + Census, native
Mexico coverage
US data hosting	Enterprise tier ($3,250/mo)	Every tier, including free
Free tier	2,500 lookups / day	2,500 credits / day, no credit card, no expiry
Paid entry tier	PAYG $1.00 / 1K (as of Feb 2026)	$49/mo — 100,000 credits (≈ $0.49 / 1K)
Async batch / large bulk	Lists API up to 10M+ records	Up to 100 inputs / batch request
Data storage rights	Permissive — store, embed, resell	Standard commercial terms

Three Places This Tilts Toward Us

Geocodio is a good geocoder. These three workflows aren’t about geocoding.

Radius search is a first-class endpoint, not DIY

Geocodio doesn’t offer radius search. Common workarounds: geocode every ZIP in a region, then compute distance from your center yourself, then filter. That works but it spends credits on geocoding lookups you don’t need, requires you to maintain your own distance/containment math, and falls down on spatial accuracy when ZIPs partially overlap a search area.

Our /v2/radius endpoint takes a center (ZIP, FSA, postal, or coordinates) and a radius (or auto for density-based sizing). Centroid mode runs haversine and returns US ZIPs + Canadian postals up to 500 miles. Spatial mode runs a true polygon-intersection and returns each ZIP with a computed pct_inside percentage — the right primitive for territory assignment, service-area definition, or delivery-zone compliance where partial coverage matters. Optionally layer in timezone or ACS aggregates across the result set.

Typeahead across geographic entities, not just addresses

If your UI needs typeahead and the user types cook, spring, or los an, what should come back? An address autocomplete (Geocodio doesn’t offer one anyway) gives you street-level matches. But many checkout, shipping, lead-form, and analytics workflows want geographic matches: cities, counties, metros (CBSAs), ZIPs, FSAs, states — ranked, deduplicated across types.

/v2/suggest is built for that. Pass q=spring and get Springfield IL, Springfield MO, Spring TX, Spring Branch TX, the Spring CBSA, all ranked. Pass proximity=auto to bias by caller IP, proximity=40.7128,-74.006 for explicit coordinate bias, or state=IL to filter. Tiered credit cost based on requested limit (1–15 results = 1 credit, all the way up to 500 results = 5 credits).

ZIP enrichment without geocoding the address first

Geocodio’s billing model is “1 address × (1 + N field appends) lookups.” That works fine when the workflow starts with an address. When the workflow starts with a ZIP — from CRM records, e-commerce checkout, lead forms, batch imports, market-area analysis — the geocoding step is a tax. You’re paying to look up a coordinate you didn’t need to get to the ACS data you did.

/v2/zip accepts a ZIP, ZIP+4, Canadian postal, or coordinates directly. 11+ opt-in enrichment flags: timezone, census, cd, state_leg, school_district, the four ACS profiles (acs_demographic / _social / _economic / _housing), 14 years of historical ACS, plus medicare. Each adds 1 credit. A ZIP lookup with four ACS profiles costs 5 credits total — at the Developer tier, that’s about $0.0025.

Code: Geocodio ↔ Zip-Codes.com

Most Geocodio integrations migrate cleanly. JSON in, JSON out, single API key. The mapping differs by what you’re asking for — here’s a ZIP-enrichment example.

Geocodio — geocode address with ACS appends

GET https://api.geocod.io/v1.12/geocode
    ?q=350+5th+Ave+New+York+NY+10118
    &fields=acs-demographics,acs-economics,cd,state-legislature
    &api_key=YOUR_KEY

# Billing: 1 address × (1 + 4 fields) = 5 lookups

Zip-Codes.com — same enrichment, ZIP-first input

GET https://api.zip-codes.com/v2/zip
    ?code=10118
    &include=acs_demographic,acs_economic,cd,state_leg
    &key=YOUR_KEY

# Billing: 1 base credit × (1 + 4 enrichments) = 5 credits
#   On Developer plan: 5 credits = $0.0025
#   On Geocodio PAYG (Feb 2026+): 5 lookups = $0.005

Both formulas are 1 base × (1 + N enrichments) — the difference is the per-credit cost. If you already have the address (not the ZIP), call /v2/address first to standardize and get the ZIP+4 (1 credit, no enrichments on this endpoint), then call /v2/zip for the enrichment data.

Run both side by side in the playground

Pricing at Three Volume Points

Modeled at 1 enrichment flag per call (most common). Geocodio prices reflect their February 1, 2026 increase. All Zip-Codes.com prices are flat monthly.

Monthly volume	Geocodio	Zip-Codes.com
10,000 lookups	Within free tier ^†	Within free tier ^†
100,000 lookups	$25 PAYG ^‡ · $1,350 Unlimited	$49 Developer plan
1,000,000 lookups	~$925 PAYG · $1,350 Unlimited · $3,250+ Enterprise (US-hosted)	$499 Business plan

† Both vendors offer a 2,500/day free tier — 10K/month spread across 30 days sits well within it on either side.

‡ Geocodio PAYG free credit is 2,500/day. At 100K spread evenly, ~25K is billable at $1.00/1K = $25. If you spike (e.g., 100K in one day), the PAYG cost is ~$97 since the daily free quota doesn’t scale.

When Geocodio is the better choice

Three workflows where we’d send you to Geocodio:

Rooftop or interpolated coordinate precision is the deliverable. Geocodio publishes ~70% rooftop / 20% interpolation / 10% city-fallback. We return the ZIP+4 centroid — same coordinate for everyone within that delivery range. Fine for ZIP-level workflows; not enough when the lat/lng has to land on the exact rooftop.
Mexico coverage. Geocodio covers US, Canada, and Mexico. We cover US and Canada only.
Permissive long-term data storage rights. Geocodio explicitly allows storing, embedding, and reselling geocoded results without a maps-product license. That’s a real moat for analytics products with persistent point clouds, and not something our standard terms beat them on.

Switching from Geocodio?

Most migrations are small — same JSON shape, single API key, no auth dance. The work is mapping their single geocode-with-fields call to our specialized endpoints. Email support@zip-codes.com if you want help mapping a specific integration. Free tier covers most evaluation and dev work.

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2,500 credits/day · No credit card · Documentation

Frequently Asked Questions

At the Developer plan ($49/mo for 100,000 credits), our effective cost is about $0.49 per 1,000 calls, compared to Geocodio’s $1.00 per 1,000 PAYG (raised from $0.50 on February 1, 2026). At 100K calls/month, that’s $49 vs $25 PAYG or $1,350 Self-Serve Unlimited — we win on flat tiers, Geocodio wins on low-volume PAYG. At 1M/month, we run $499 (Business plan) vs $925 PAYG or $1,350 Unlimited.

Yes. The /v2/address endpoint accepts a free-form US street address, parses it, standardizes it, appends ZIP+4, and returns the address components broken out with confidence and match-path signals. Fixed 1 credit per request. The honest difference: we return the ZIP+4 centroid as the coordinate; Geocodio returns rooftop or interpolated lat/lng. For ZIP-linked workflows the centroid is sufficient; for rooftop precision Geocodio is the better fit.

Five specialized endpoints Geocodio does not offer: /v2/radius (find postal codes within N miles, with optional spatial polygon-intersection), /v2/suggest (geographic typeahead across cities, counties, CBSAs, FSAs, ZIPs), /v2/distance (point-to-point distance and bearing, free timezone included), /v2/zip with 11+ optional enrichments (timezone, Census tract, CD, state-leg, school district, ACS demographics across 14 years, Medicare), and full Canadian FSA + 6-character postal coverage as a peer to US — not as a separate international product.

Production traffic is served from US infrastructure on every tier, including the free tier. Geocodio’s standard plans (free, PAYG, Self-Serve Unlimited) are EU-hosted; US-region hosting is gated to their Enterprise tier at $3,250/mo. For US data-residency policies, FedRAMP-adjacent workflows, or procurement requirements, this is the determining factor.

Yes — and broader. We expose 14 years of Census ACS 5-Year Estimates (2011–2024) across four profiles: demographic, social, economic, housing. Total of 542 ACS fields per ZIP. Opt-in flags on /v2/zip: acs_demographic, acs_social, acs_economic, acs_housing, plus historical variants like acs_demographic_2018. Each enrichment adds 1 credit to the call.

Yes. Batch endpoints exist for /quick-zip, /zip, /radius, and /distance — up to 100 inputs per request. Subscription required (Developer tier or higher). For larger jobs Geocodio’s async Lists API supports 10M+ records, which is a workflow we don’t offer — if your job is a one-time spreadsheet at that scale, Geocodio is the better fit.

We do not cover Mexico. Our coverage is US (ZIPs, ZIP+4, addresses) and Canada (FSAs, full 6-character postal codes, Census). If Mexico is part of your workflow, Geocodio is the better fit on coverage breadth.

Most Geocodio integrations are a small migration. JSON in / JSON out, single API key, no OAuth dance. The biggest semantic shift is that we have specialized endpoints (/zip, /radius, /suggest, /distance, /address) instead of one geocode endpoint with field appends — so calls split into endpoint per use case, but with one credit pool. Try the playground with the public demo key before migrating any code. Email support@zip-codes.com if you want help mapping your Geocodio integration.