Geocoder.ca was founded on July 15th 2005 by Ervin Ruci. (that first version was picked up 15 days later by Archive.org.)
Incorporated on November 15th 2007 as Geolytica INC, it provides geoparsing, geocoding, reverse geocoding, batch geocoding API and data services for locations in the USA and Canada.
The geocoding problem, which mostly involves converting a textual address into geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude), is a complex and challenging task due to the variability and ambiguity of natural language. While there are various geocoding techniques and tools available, they often rely on a combination of heuristics, statistical models, and machine learning algorithms to achieve high accuracy - with no single technique solving this problem for good.
Our geocoding techniques have evolved over the years to get as close to the best solution as possible. We also released a wordwide geocoding service in late 2016 - Geocode.XYZ - for those looking for geocoding services outside of North America. We've also released a worldwide reverse geocode lite API (3geonames.org) in 2018 and a worldwide Point of Interest data aggregation service (poidata.xyz) in 2021.
Keep an eye on our development blog for the latest features and products or get in touch via our contact page.
For developers & applications
One HTTPS endpoint for forward, reverse, postal, geoparse and autocomplete. Returns XML, JSON, JSONP or CSV. Reading your first result in minutes.
✓ Forward, reverse & postal lookups
✓ Batch tools, polygons, census enrichment
✓ Pay-as-you-go or subscription
For teams who want the dataset
License the Canadian & U.S. address and postal database. Run it on your own servers with no per-call billing and no caching restrictions — the data is yours.
✓ Downloadable address & postal data
✓ Self-hosted, offline-capable
✓ Flat, predictable cost
What it does
Everything in the examples, grouped by what you'd actually reach for.
Address, postal/ZIP or intersection → coordinates.
Latitude, longitude → nearest address & corner.
Full 6-character Canadian postal & US ZIP+4 lookup.
As-you-type suggestions. Demo →
Pull locations out of free text. Try it →
batchpostal, showaddrs, postal-in-polygon, getpolygon.
Nearest points of interest with reverse lookups.
Enrich results with StatsCan census attributes.
Run it your way
The same geocoder, wherever your data needs to live.
License the dataset and run it entirely on your own infrastructure.
Data products →
More from Geolytica
Geocoder.ca covers North America. Its sister services go global.