Core ZIP code data for personal use. Need more fields? Compare to our professional editions below.
| Field Name | Data Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ZipCode | Char(5) |
5-digit ZIP code (00000-99999), including U.S. territories and military codes |
| State | Char(2) |
USPS 2-letter state abbreviation (e.g., CA, NY, TX) |
| City | VarChar(35) |
USPS-designated primary city name for this ZIP code |
| Latitude | Decimal(12,4) |
Geographic coordinate (degrees north/south), 4-decimal precision |
| Longitude | Decimal(12,4) |
Geographic coordinate (degrees east/west), 4-decimal precision |
| ClassificationCode | Char(1) |
ZIP type: Blank = Non-unique, M = Military, P = PO Box, U = Unique |
| Population | Integer |
2020 Census population for ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) |
Best for enterprise applications, logistics, comprehensive demographic analysis, and redistribution
Professional editions add: Census 2020 demographics, CBSA/MSA codes, median income data, congressional districts, DST indicators, and 37+ more fields. Perfect for commercial applications.
Create your free account and download immediately. No credit card required.
Professional editions unlock powerful features for commercial applications and advanced analysis.
Quick answers to common questions about the FREE ZIP Code Database. Have technical questions? See the full Technical FAQ.
Yes, completely free. No credit card required, no trial period, no hidden fees.
What you get at no cost:
The only restriction: The FREE edition is for personal use only. Commercial applications require a (starting at $49.95/year).
The FREE edition includes 7 essential data fields for all 42,000+ U.S. ZIP codes:
| Field Name | Description |
|---|---|
| ZIP Code | 5-digit ZIP code |
| State | 2-letter state abbreviation |
| City | Primary city name |
| Latitude | Geographic coordinate (4-decimal precision) |
| Longitude | Geographic coordinate (4-decimal precision) |
| Classification Code | ZIP type (Standard, PO Box, Unique, Military) |
| Population | 2020 Census population (ZCTA) |
Perfect for: Address validation, basic mapping, personal projects, educational use, form validation, and distance calculations.
Want more? Explore the Data Explorer to compare FREE with Professional editions and see all available fields.
The download process is quick and simple:
Total time: Usually less than 2 minutes from registration to download.
Having trouble? Contact our support team at 1-800-425-1169 or info@zip-codes.com - we're happy to help!
No credit card required. We only need your name, email address, and password to create your account.
Why we ask for an email:
We respect your privacy and will never sell your information. You can unsubscribe from update notifications anytime, though your download access remains active forever.
The Free download bundles four ready-to-import flavors of the same 7-column dataset, so you can match whatever tool you already have on the desktop without a conversion step:
Since the field set is fixed at 7 columns (ZIP, city, state, lat, lon, classification, population), every flavor parses identically; pick by familiarity rather than capability. Need richer fields? The paid editions ship the same four formats with 31 to 94 columns.
No, the FREE edition is for personal use only.
Personal use includes:
You need a Professional edition if:
Professional editions start at just $49.95/year and include commercial usage rights, plus 24-87 additional data fields like demographics, county information, time zones, and statistical areas.
to find the right fit for your commercial needs.
The FREE edition includes 7 core fields. Professional editions add 24-87+ additional fields depending on the tier:
Key differences:
or explore the Data Explorer to see the actual fields side-by-side.
Absolutely! You can upgrade anytime when your needs change.
Common upgrade scenarios:
Upgrade process:
Your FREE edition account remains active, so you can always access both versions if needed.
The 7-column Free snapshot covers the bulk of small-scale, personal-project workloads — anything where you need 5-digit-ZIP-to-city/state lookup, rough centroid mapping, or basic distance math but don't need demographics, ZIP+4, time zones, or Census geography.
Common Free-edition workflows we hear about:
What pushes you out of Free territory: anything that ships the data to other people (commercial license required), anything needing county / time zone / area code, demographic enrichment, or sub-36-foot coordinate precision. The Free coordinates are 4-decimal — fine for plotting a dot on a map, too coarse for ZIP+4 / DPV-style work.
If the use case is fuzzy, the safest check is the license question: is the data leaving your laptop / personal account? If yes, you need a paid edition. If no, Free is fine indefinitely.
Monthly updates, published on the 1st of each month. We synchronize with official USPS updates to ensure you have the most current data.
What changes each month:
How to stay updated:
Good news: ZIP codes are relatively stable. Most months see only 10-50 changes across the entire U.S., so updates are optional - download new versions only when it makes sense for your use case.
Forever. Your FREE account never expires.
What this means:
Your data never expires either: Any version you download remains fully functional forever. Use it for years without needing updates if your use case doesn't require current data.
Professional editions work differently: They include 12 months of updates, after which you can renew annually if you want to continue receiving updates. to see all differences.
Yes! FREE users get the same support as paid customers.
Available support channels:
What we help with:
We're committed to providing excellent support regardless of whether you're using the FREE edition or a paid product. Don't hesitate to reach out!
The Free bundle is set up so most folks won't need any setup work at all:
csv module, pandas.read_csv, Node's csv-parse, Ruby's CSV.read, PHP's fgetcsv — they all read identical schemas..sql file with the CLI tool of your choice (mysql --execute, sqlcmd -i, etc.). The script creates the table, types each column, and inserts every row in one transaction; you can drop and re-run it whenever a new monthly snapshot is published.We don't ship a Postgres-flavored script, but the CSV plus a one-liner gets you there: COPY zip_codes FROM 'file.csv' DELIMITER ',' CSV HEADER;
Need help fitting the import into a specific stack? Support is free for Free-edition users too — drop an email to info@zip-codes.com.
All Free-edition coordinates are encoded in EPSG:4326 (WGS84 lon-lat) — the same CRS used by GPS, every common web-map tile, Google/Apple/Bing maps APIs, and OpenStreetMap. No reprojection needed for the standard plotting workflows.
Two things to know that are specific to the Free edition:
Need higher precision (6-decimal, ~4-inch / ~10-cm) or full polygon coverage? Step up to a Professional edition for 6-decimal lat/lon, or layer in the ZIP Code Boundary Data product for actual shape files.
Yes — every row in the Free file ships with a centroid lat/lon, which is everything you need for as-the-crow-flies distance math. Three implementation paths people typically take:
geopy.distance.geodesic; JavaScript has @turf/distance or geolib.getDistance; PHP has any geodist package on Packagist; Ruby has geocoder; Java has the Apache SIS or JTS great-circle helpers. All of them take (lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2) and return meters or miles.ST_Distance_Sphere(POINT(lon, lat), POINT(lon, lat)) returns meters directly. Postgres + PostGIS gives ST_Distance with a GEOGRAPHY cast. SQL Server's geography::STDistance does the same. Index a GEOGRAPHY column and a 50-mile radius query across all 42,000 ZIPs returns sub-second.Two limits worth flagging up-front. (1) These are straight-line distances, not driving distances — for ETA / route work, layer a routing engine (OSRM, Valhalla, GraphHopper, Google Directions, Mapbox Directions) on top. (2) The Free edition's 4-decimal lat/lon means the result is precise to ~36 ft per endpoint; for personal-project mapping that's invisible noise, for ZIP+4-style precision you'll want a Professional edition's 6-decimal coordinates.
Paid customers also get our standalone Radius Finder app (offline desktop tool) and the online radius search inside their account.
James Harris
Lead Data Architect - 23 Years Experience
Even a free download deserves accurate data. The 7-field Free ZIP Code Database snapshot is pulled from the same verified USPS source that feeds our paid editions — same monthly USPS reconciliation, same human review on the source records, just a smaller field set and a one-time snapshot instead of ongoing updates.
James and the team treat the free release the same way they treat the paid ones: validate, sanity-check, ship. We'd rather you get accurate basics today than a broken full extract tomorrow.
More About Our Team →
Why give away free ZIP code data at all? Because if the basics work for your project today, we've earned the conversation later. If your needs outgrow the free snapshot — more fields, monthly updates, demographics, multi-county handling, redistribution rights — you already know our data is accurate.
The free download is a snapshot, not a subscription. There's no signup wall, no nag email, and no expiring license — pull it, use it, build with it. If you ever need monthly USPS reconciliation, ZIP+4 street-level precision, or any of the 94+ fields in our paid editions, the upgrade path is one click away.
Questions about the schema or fit? Real humans answer the phone and read the inbox. Whether you're an indie developer prototyping a lookup tool or a Fortune 500 evaluating before a procurement decision, you get the same direct line.
Our sources include trusted federal and licensed data from the United States Postal Service, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Geological Survey, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, along with proprietary datasets created by ZIP-Codes.com. Data last updated on June 6, 2026.