Geocoding is the process of converting between geographic coordinate data and address or place name data. Matching a location to an accurate address and location is important for many companies, including those specializing in business intelligence, e-commerce, retail, real estate, shipping, logistics, weather forecasting, and photo and content services. The Mapbox Geocoding API is their solution to match, verify, and standardize addresses.

How reverse geocoding differs from forward geocoding

Forward geocoding converts addresses, such as “1133 15th St NW Suite 845 Washington, DC 20005” into geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) that can then be used with services, like digital maps, that require location data in coordinate form. Forward geocoding also works with place names, like “Austin, TX”, which will return a coordinate pair in the center of the named place. 

Reverse geocoding does the opposite, converting geographic coordinates into human-readable addresses or place names. For example, a weather company would use reverse geocoding to match the location of a user’s device to the nearest named location in their database in order to display local weather reports.

Experiment with both forward and reverse geocoding in the Mapbox Geocoding API Playground.

Reverse geocoding is central to asset tracking 

Asset tracking includes all manner of physical things, whether they be vehicles, shipments, pieces of equipment, or anything else with a scannable or broadcasting device. The tracking may be done periodically, such as by scanning labels at various transit points, or continuously with a location-broadcasting device using GPS or other similar technologies.

When a location-broadcasting device sends coordinates, reverse geocoding converts that data into other formats such as street address or postal code or county. For businesses managing fleets, shipments, or IoT devices, reverse geocoding removes the need to interpret raw coordinates manually. Reverse geocoding returns data in a format that is easier to use in conjunction with existing database fields, allowing analysis by way of postal code, region, or other layer. The human-readable results are also ready to present to employees or customers in a frontend application UI, such as a ‘where’s my shipment’ tracking updates interface. 

Accuracy and precision are essential for useful reverse geocodes 

The value of a reverse geocoding result depends on the accuracy of the geocoding service, and whether it can deliver the level of precision that is optimal for the use case at hand. Mapbox invests heavily in data quality, continually refining location data accuracy with extensive human- and AI-powered data verification and correction pipelines. Mapbox uses automatic telemetry data from real devices around the world, as well as tens of thousands of user feedback submissions each month to keep address data up-to-date.

The Mapbox Geocoding API returns multiple levels of geocoding granularity for each set of coordinates. Users can choose between a result as specific as the nearest house number or street name, or abstract to varying degrees, such as to zipcode, district, or region. For example, a last-mile logistics company that is closely tracking a particular shipment may want detail at the street address level as a shipment nears its destination. On the other hand, an international or national shipping company may largely use data on the county or state a shipment passes through. 

Bulk processing and storage of reverse geocodes

The Mapbox Geocoding API offers both Temporary and Permanent storage options for both forward and reverse geocode results. Temporary geocoding is equivalent to looking up an address once: The API returns the coordinates of an address, ready to display on a map or trigger a navigation session, but the result is not stored in a database.

Permanent geocoding allows a geocode result to be saved for future use without needing to call the API again. Permanent geocodes are useful for asset tracking and logistics businesses that need to store addresses for future use, reporting, or analytics, such as calculating gas taxes owed to different authorities at the end of the year.

The Mapbox Geocoding API also supports batch geocoding, a capability that allows developers to efficiently process large volumes of data for both temporary and permanent geocodes in a single operation, up to 1,000 queries in the same request. Fleet management or asset tracking companies often use batch geocoding to update large databases of vehicle or device tracking data to create data visualizations and analyses. Other companies may use batch geocoding to update or validate a database of addresses.

Mapbox Geocoding powers enterprise asset tracking

Thousands of companies around the world rely on Mapbox for reverse geocoding services. Linxio, headquartered in Australia, provides a comprehensive fleet management platform used by thousands of customers across multiple countries, from small businesses to large industry fleets and government organizations. The Linxio platform supports everything from job and fleet management to driver compliance, digital workflows, and third-party integrations. Linxio uses the Mapbox Geocoding API and Mapbox Navigation SDK to enable accurate location updates and seamless fleet visibility.

“We move quickly at Linxio, our dedicated team of developers are always eager to push the boundaries with what is possible in a fleet management platform, always improving, always evolving, and to move as quickly as we do, Mapbox was the perfect solution.” - Matthew Talia, CEO & Founder, Linxio

The Mapbox Geocoding API includes powerful features appreciated by businesses and developers, including structured input for forward geocoding, smart address matching, and point accuracy details in every API response object. Mapbox Geocoding also can be set to return the nearest ‘routable point’ in order to pinpoint the optimal delivery location based on the road network, helping delivery drivers to reach the actual entrance of their destination efficiently. Businesses that switch to Mapbox Geocoding report lower latency, faster data corrections, and better flexibility compared to other providers — all while benefiting from cost-effective pricing.

Build an asset tracking application with Mapbox

Reverse Geocoding is one of many Mapbox products available to support full-service asset tracking architecture. To experiment with Mapbox reverse geocoding, try the Mapbox Delivery App Demo, which  simulates a delivery vehicle’s trip across the United States. If you drag the truck to a new location, the application makes a reverse geocoding API call, simulating the data flow that would come from a real truck’s location tracker. The simulated mobile app in the demo then uses the reverse geocoding result to display the package’s current location to an end user.

Try the interactive demo here.

In addition to the Geocoding API, the demo uses the following Mapbox services:

• The Mapbox Directions API calculates a route between the origin and destination to display on the map when you drag the truck icon.
• Mapbox GL JS provides the visual map interface for the interactive component of the demo.
• The Mapbox Static Images API provides a low-resource map image to include in the simulated mobile app to visualize the location to an end user.

Mapbox Geocoding integrates seamlessly across the Mapbox platform, including maps and navigation services, making development and maintenance workflow smoother. Mapbox Geocoding results can pair smoothly with the Mapbox Boundaries datasets to provide further data analysis insights, such as point-in-polygon queries.

Get started with Mapbox reverse geocoding today

Start testing the Mapbox Geocoding API instantly by creating a free Mapbox account, no contract required. The Mapbox Geocoding free tier of 100,000 API requests/month combined with volume-based pricing makes testing and scaling easy. Visit the Mapbox Reverse Geocoding Documentation for extensive details on how to implement precise reverse geocoding for any business.