openrouteservice.org Pricing: Plans, Tiers, and Cost Examples (2026)

Pricing overview

openrouteservice.org provides location-based services through a set of APIs, including Geocoding, Directions, Isochrones, Matrix, and POIs (Points of Interest) APIs. The pricing structure is tiered, designed to accommodate users from individual developers and researchers to commercial enterprises requiring high-volume access. The service operates on a freemium model, offering a free tier with daily and monthly request limits, alongside several paid subscription plans that scale with usage and provide additional features. All plans include access to the same core API functionalities, with distinctions primarily based on request volume, rate limits, and support levels, as detailed on the official openrouteservice.org plans page.

The pricing model is primarily based on the number of API requests made. A 'request' is generally defined as a single call to any of the openrouteservice.org API endpoints, such as a geocoding query or a route calculation. The specific cost per request decreases at higher tiers, making it more cost-effective for high-volume applications. Users requiring specialized deployments or offline capabilities can also consider self-hosting options, which involve different cost structures related to server infrastructure and maintenance rather than direct API request billing.

Plans and tiers

openrouteservice.org offers multiple subscription tiers beyond its free offering, each designed to meet different usage requirements and budget constraints. These plans typically include increased request limits, higher rate limits, and sometimes enhanced support or additional features. The primary distinguishing factors among the plans are the maximum number of requests allowed per day and per month, and the concurrent request limit. The following table summarizes the key aspects of the available plans, based on information from the openrouteservice.org pricing page:

Each paid plan offers a significant increase in daily and monthly request quotas compared to the free tier, allowing for more extensive use in production environments. The concurrent request limit is also a critical factor for applications that make multiple API calls simultaneously, impacting the responsiveness and scalability of the service. For organizations with unique requirements or extremely high volumes, custom enterprise solutions are available, often involving dedicated infrastructure or self-hosted deployments.

Free tier and limits

The openrouteservice.org free tier is designed to allow developers to evaluate the API, build prototypes, and support low-volume applications without incurring costs. This tier provides access to the full range of core APIs, including Geocoding, Directions, Isochrones, Matrix, and POIs. The primary limitations of the free tier are:

• Daily Request Limit: 2,500 requests per day.
• Monthly Request Limit: 40,000 requests per month.
• Concurrent Requests: 40 concurrent requests.

These limits are cumulative across all API endpoints. For example, if an application makes 1,000 Geocoding requests and 1,500 Directions requests in a single day, it would reach its daily limit. The free tier is suitable for small personal projects, academic research, or initial development phases of commercial applications. Users exceeding these limits will need to upgrade to a paid plan to continue using the service without interruption. Details on these limits are consistently provided on the official openrouteservice.org pricing page.

Real-world cost examples

To illustrate the practical implications of openrouteservice.org's pricing, consider the following scenarios:

Scenario 1: Small E-commerce Delivery Service

A small e-commerce business needs to calculate delivery routes for approximately 500 orders per day. Each order involves one geocoding request for the destination and one directions request. Additionally, the business performs 100 geocoding lookups daily for address validation. This totals 500 (geocoding) + 500 (directions) + 100 (validation) = 1,100 requests per day.

• Daily Usage: 1,100 requests
• Monthly Usage: 1,100 requests/day * 30 days = 33,000 requests/month
• Plan Recommendation: The free tier (40,000 requests/month) would initially suffice. However, as the business grows, it would quickly exceed the 2,500 daily limit. The Starter plan (20 EUR/month), offering 20,000 requests/day and 500,000 requests/month, would be appropriate for scaling.
• Estimated Cost: 20 EUR/month.

Scenario 2: Fleet Management Application

A fleet management application tracks 50 vehicles, performing real-time route optimization and calculating estimated times of arrival (ETAs) every 5 minutes during an 8-hour operational window. Each vehicle generates one matrix API request and one directions API request every 5 minutes. Additionally, the application performs 1,000 geocoding requests daily for new destinations.

• Route Optimization Requests: (50 vehicles * 2 requests/vehicle * 12 updates/hour * 8 hours/day) = 9,600 requests/day.
• Geocoding Requests: 1,000 requests/day.
• Total Daily Usage: 9,600 + 1,000 = 10,600 requests/day.
• Total Monthly Usage: 10,600 requests/day * 30 days = 318,000 requests/month.
• Plan Recommendation: The Starter plan (20 EUR/month) would cover the monthly volume (up to 500,000 requests/month) and the daily volume (up to 20,000 requests/day).
• Estimated Cost: 20 EUR/month.

Scenario 3: Geospatial Research Project

A research institution is conducting a study requiring extensive isochrone calculations and POI searches across a large geographic area. They anticipate making 60,000 isochrone requests and 40,000 POI requests over a single month, with peak usage of 5,000 requests on certain days.

• Monthly Usage: 60,000 (isochrones) + 40,000 (POIs) = 100,000 requests/month.
• Peak Daily Usage: 5,000 requests/day.
• Plan Recommendation: The Starter plan (20 EUR/month) would cover the daily peak (up to 20,000 requests/day) and the monthly volume (up to 500,000 requests/month).
• Estimated Cost: 20 EUR/month.

Scenario 4: Large-scale Logistics Platform

A logistics platform operates globally, requiring 75,000 geocoding requests, 150,000 directions requests, and 25,000 matrix requests daily for route planning and optimization. They also have a peak concurrent request need of 250.

• Total Daily Usage: 75,000 + 150,000 + 25,000 = 250,000 requests/day.
• Total Monthly Usage: 250,000 requests/day * 30 days = 7,500,000 requests/month.
• Plan Recommendation: This usage significantly exceeds the Extra Large plan's monthly limit (6,000,000 requests/month) and daily limit (200,000 requests/day). This scenario would require a Custom/Enterprise plan, potentially involving self-hosting or a dedicated instance.
• Estimated Cost: Contact sales for a custom quote.

How the pricing compares

When evaluating openrouteservice.org's pricing, it is useful to compare it with other prominent providers in the mapping and geospatial API market. Key alternatives include Mapbox, Google Maps Platform, and HERE Technologies, all of which offer similar core functionalities but often with different pricing models and feature sets.

Mapbox

Mapbox offers a pay-as-you-go model for many of its services, with a free tier for low usage. Their pricing is often granular, based on specific API calls (e.g., map loads, geocoding lookups, routing requests). For instance, Mapbox's pricing for geocoding may be structured per 1,000 requests, with costs decreasing at higher volumes. While it provides extensive customization and data visualization tools, its per-request costs for high-volume routing or geocoding can sometimes be higher than openrouteservice.org's tiered plans, especially for open-source data-driven projects. Mapbox also provides robust SDKs for various platforms, which can influence development costs.

Google Maps Platform

Google Maps Platform operates on a pay-as-you-go model, with a free tier that provides a monthly credit. After the credit is exhausted, users are billed based on usage for various products like Maps, Routes, and Places. Google's pricing can be more complex due to its extensive suite of APIs and different billing units (e.g., map loads, route waypoints, geocoding calls). For example, a single Directions API request might incur costs based on the number of waypoints or the complexity of the route. For high-volume commercial use, Google Maps Platform can become significantly more expensive than openrouteservice.org, particularly when considering the cost per request after exhausting the free credit. However, Google offers unparalleled global coverage and feature richness, as outlined in the Google Maps Platform documentation.

HERE Technologies

HERE Technologies also offers a freemium model with a flexible pricing structure that includes a free plan and various paid plans. Their pricing is often tailored to specific use cases, such as fleet management, logistics, or mapping. HERE's pricing can be competitive for enterprise-level applications, particularly those requiring advanced features like real-time traffic, highly accurate location data, or specialized routing algorithms. Similar to Google, HERE's comprehensive offerings might come with a higher price point for high-volume API calls compared to openrouteservice.org, which focuses on leveraging open-source data for cost-effectiveness. HERE provides extensive developer documentation for its APIs.

Summary of Comparison

openrouteservice.org generally presents a more cost-effective solution, especially for projects built on open-source data and those requiring customizable routing. Its tiered subscription model provides predictable monthly costs for defined usage volumes, which can be advantageous over purely pay-as-you-go models where costs can fluctuate more unpredictably. For developers and organizations prioritizing open data, flexibility, and budget predictability, openrouteservice.org often provides a compelling alternative to larger, more established commercial providers, particularly when the specific features and global reach of those alternatives are not strictly necessary.