What's new in the ArcGIS Geocoding service

September 2024

Quality improvements

Increased PointAddress match rates in Brazil, Greece, India, and Thailand.

API and service output changes

A new service endpoint—batchGeocode—which allows large files of addresses to be batch geocoded is now available. Refer to this blog post for a high level overview.

June 2024

Quality improvements

Increased PointAddress match rates in Colombia, Croatia, Malta, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, Spain, Suriname, Turkey, United Kingdom.
Routing (street-side) locations are now available for most PointAddresses, which may improve the accuracy of navigation workflows that utilize geocoding to define destinations. Refer to the locationType parameter description for more details.
POI geocoding is now supported for South Korea.
Subaddress geocoding is now supported for Belgium and Portugal.

API and service output changes

When an invalid category value is included in a request, the request no longer results in an error. Instead, a responseInfo message is returned in the response which contains information about the invalid category values. Details can be found here.

March 2024

API and service output changes

A new type of search, and corresponding Addr_type value, is supported by findAddresscandidates and geocodeAddresses—StreetBetween. It allows you to search for a street between two intersecting cross streets, such as "Conway Dr between Sheridan Ave and E El Norte Pkwy". Street Between is the category value that can be used with the category parameter to limit search results to StreetBetween candidates.
The outFields parameter is now supported for reverseGeocode requests. It allows you to specify a smaller set of output fields to be returned in the JSON response.
A new API parameter, returnInputLocation, is now supported for reverseGeocode requests. It allows you to display the location of the input X/Y coordinates which were submitted in a reverseGeocode request as a point on a map.
New output fields are returned for reverseGeocode requests—X, Y, InputX, and InputY.

December 2023

Quality improvements

Increased PointAddress match rates due to better handling of ambiguous address input.
Source address data for Hong Kong updated and improved.
Improved handling of different house number formats in Czechia.

September 2023

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.
Support for geocoding addresses without street names in Czechia was added.
Improved handling of short input (one or two characters) for suggest requests.
Improved language detection to prevent mixed-language output address labels.

API and service output changes

A new error message – MagicKey was not generated from the current release and is no longer valid – is now returned for findAddressCandidates requests which include an outdated magicKey value.
Output x,y coordinate values returned in reverseGeocode responses no longer include extraneous decimal places. Output x,y coordinate values are now rounded to 12 decimal places.
Output address labels for Postal geocoding candidates enhanced with additional administrative boundary information.

Reference data updates

New address data source added for Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
New administrative boundary data sources added for Iceland and Netherlands.
New populated places data source added for France.
New address data source added for North Carolina, USA.
Subaddress geocoding now supported for South Korea.
Infutor address data for USA updated.
HERE reference data updated.
Additional source data updates provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

June 2023

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

API and service output changes

A new API parameter, returnCollections, is now supported for the suggest operation.
Output score and x,y coordinate values returned in findAddressCandidates and geocodeAddresses responses no longer include extraneous decimal places. Output x,y coordinate values are now rounded to 12 decimal places.

Reference data updates

New authoritative address data sources added for Bahamas, Faroe Islands, and New Caledonia.
New authoritative administrative boundary data sources added for Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia.
Subaddress geocoding now supported for Ireland.
HERE reference data updated.
Safegraph POI data for USA and Canada updated.
Geonames reference data updated.
FAA airport data updated.
Additional source data updates for Australia, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, and Thailand.
Additional source data updates provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

April 2023

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

API and service output changes

Street Midblock is supported as a value for the category parameter. It allows locations with Addr_type value StreetMidblock to be included in geocoding responses when the category parameter values Street Midblock or Address are passed in the request.

Reference data updates

GEBCO global dataset of ocean floor features added.
New authoritative address data sources added for City of Madrid and Municipality of Valencia, Spain.
New authoritative address data source added for Montana, USA, from USDOT NAD.
HERE reference data updated.
Infutor address data for USA updated.
Safegraph POI data for USA and Canada updated.
Lightbox address data for Canada updated.
Geonames reference data updated.
Additional source data updates for Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands.
Additional source data updates provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

January 2023

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

Reference data updates

The China geocoding capability has been updated with new source data from OpenStreetMap contributors.
New authoritative address data source added for Brandenburg, Germany.
New authoritative administrative boundary data source added for Belgium.
New authoritative administrative boundary data source added for France.
New authoritative administrative boundary data source added for Latvia.
New authoritative address data source added for Arizona, USA, from USDOT NAD.
HERE reference data updated.
Infutor address data for USA updated.
Safegraph POI data for USA updated.
Lightbox address data for Canada updated.
Safegraph POI data for Canada updated.
Additional source data updates for Australia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Great Britain, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Switzerland.

September 2022

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

Reference data updates

The South Korea geocoding capability has been enhanced with support for geocoding transliterated-language (English) address input, and full support for all findAddressCandidates, geocodeAddresses, and reverseGeocode REST API parameters.
New authoritative address data source added for Latvia.
Geonames reference data updated.
HERE reference data updated.
Infutor address data for USA updated.
Safegraph POI data for USA updated.
Lightbox address data for Canada updated.
FAA airport data updated.
Additional source data updates for Austria, Japan, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Thailand.
Additional source data updates provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

June 2022

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

Reference data updates

New authoritative address data source added for Belgium.
New authoritative address data sources added for Germany.
New authoritative address data source added for Puerto Rico.
New authoritative POI data source added for Canada from provider Safegraph.
HERE reference data updated.
Infutor address data for USA updated.
Additional source data updates provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

March 2022

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

API and service output changes

The CntryName output field is now returned by findAddressCandidates, geocodeAddresses, and reverseGeocode.

Reference data updates

New authoritative address data source added for Canada from provider Lightbox.
New authoritative address data source added for US Virgin Islands.
HERE reference data updated.
Infutor address data for USA updated.
Safegraph POI data for USA updated.
Additional source data updates for Finland.
Additional source data updates provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

December 2021

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

API and service output changes

The RegionAbbr output field is now returned by the reverseGeocode operation.

Reference data updates

HERE reference data updated.
Infutor address data for USA updated.
New authoritative address data source added for France.
New authoritative address data source added for State of Maine.
Additional source data updates for USA provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

September 2021

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

Reference data updates

HERE reference data updated.
Infutor address data for USA updated.
Safegraph POI data for USA updated.
New authoritative address data source added for Slovakia.
New authoritative address data source added for State of Arkansas.
New authoritative address data source added for New York City.
Additional source data updates for Iceland, Japan, Suriname, and Thailand.
Additional source data updates for USA provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

June 2021

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

API and service output changes

The preferredLabelValues parameter is now supported by the suggest operation.

Reference data updates

HERE reference data updated.
New point address and subaddress reference data added for USA from provider Infutor.
New authoritative address data source added for Slovenia.
New authoritative address data source added for Lithuania.
New authoritative address data source added for Liechtenstein.
New authoritative address data source added for Luxembourg.
Airport data added for USA and territories from provider FAA.
Additional source data updates for Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Norway, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, and Washington, DC.
Additional source data updates for USA provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

April 2021

Quality improvements

Reverse geocoding in the ocean is now supported.
Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

Reference data updates

HERE reference data updated.
BuildingFootprintUSA address data updated.
Safegraph POI data updated.
New authoritative address data source added for Poland.
New authoritative address data source added for State of New York.
New authoritative locality and POI data source added for United Kingdom.
Natural Earth global ocean data source added.
Additional source data updates for USA provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

December 2020

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

API and service output changes

The outFields parameter is now supported by the geocodeAddresses operation.

Reference data updates

HERE reference data updated.
BuildingFootprintUSA source data updated.
Safegraph POI data added for USA.
New authoritative address data source added for Finland.
New authoritative address data source added for Iceland.
New authoritative address data source added for the state of Massachusetts.
Additional source data updates for Japan.
Additional source data updates for USA provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

October 2020

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

API and service output changes

The ArcGIS Geocoding service no longer supports communication via HTTP. The HTTPS URL will be enforced as the only available REST endpoint, and customers will no longer have the option of submitting requests to the HTTP URL. Refer to this technical support article for more details.
Subaddress matching is now supported by the reverseGeocode operation.
A new type of search, and corresponding Addr_type value, is supported by findAddresscandidates and geocodeAddresses—StreetMidBlock. This includes searches for a group of house numbers representing one or more city blocks, like "200 block of Main St".

Reference data updates

HERE reference data updated.
New authoritative address data source added for Switzerland.
Additional source data updates for USA provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

June 2020

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

API and service output changes

The building rooftop or parcel centroid location is now returned by default for PointAddress and Subaddress matches, if available in the reference data. Previously the street entrance location was returned by default. See the description of the locationType parameter for more details.

Reference data updates

HERE reference data updated.
Additional source data updates for Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, and Washington, DC.
New authoritative data sources added for Norway.
BuildingFootprintUSA source data updated.
Additional source data updates for USA provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

March 2020

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

API and service output changes

Subaddresses are now returned by the suggest operation.

Reference data updates

HERE reference data updated.
Additional source data updates for USA provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

December 2019

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.
Improved subaddress geocoding.

Reference data updates

HERE reference data updated.
New authoritative data sources added for Czechia, Denmark, New Zealand, Spain.
Support for distance marker geocoding in Thailand.
Additional source data updates for USA provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

October 2019

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

API and service output changes

A new API parameter, preferredLabelValues, is now supported for the findAddressCandidates, geocodeAddresses, and reverseGeocode operations.
URL encoding is enforced by the ArcGIS Geocoding service. URL requests sent to the service that are not properly encoded will result in an error.

Reference data updates

Point address and subaddress reference data with precise rooftop locations from provider BuildingFootprintUSA has been added to the ArcGIS Geocoding service, with coverage for much of USA.
HERE reference data updated.
Additional source data updates for USA provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

June 2019

Quality improvements

Numerous quality and performance improvements.

Reference data updates

HERE reference data.
Additional source data updates for Australia, Austria, Estonia, Japan, Macau, Netherlands, Thailand, and Washington, DC.
Additional source data updates for USA provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

March 2019

Quality improvements

Numerous quality and performance improvements.

Reference data updates

HERE reference data updated.
Additional source data updates for USA provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

December 2018

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

API and service output changes

The featureTypes parameter of the reverseGeocode operation now supports input value DistanceMarker.

Reference data updates

HERE reference data updated.
Additional source data updates for USA provided by the GIS user community through the Community Addresses program.

September 2018

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

API and service output changes

The geocodeAddresses operation supports two new parameters.
- searchExtent: Use this parameter to exclude places outside of a specified bounding rectangle from geocoding results.
- langCode: Use this parameter to define the language of geocoding results.

Reference data updates

HERE reference data updated.
Additional source data updates for Australia, Austria, Estonia, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Thailand, and Washington, DC.

June 2018

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

Reference data updates

HERE reference data updated.
Additional source data updates for Austria and Japan.

April 2018

Quality improvements

Numerous bug fixes and quality improvements.

Reference data updates

HERE reference data updated.
Additional source data updates for Australia, Japan, Netherlands, and Washington, DC.

December 2017

Quality improvements

Enhanced matching with the suggest operation.
Miscellaneous bug fixes and quality improvements.

Reference data updates

HERE reference data.
Additional source data updates for Australia, Austria, Estonia, Hong Kong, Netherlands, and Thailand.

September 2017

Quality improvements

Street intersections are now supported by the suggest operation.
Improved performance with the reverseGeocode operation.
Bug fixes and quality improvements for several countries, including JPN, ITA, and PRI.

API and service output changes

New Addr_type value DistanceMarker and corresponding category value Distance Marker have been added.

Reference data updates

HERE reference data updated.

May 2017

Quality improvements

Enhanced reverse geocoding—More types of features can be returned by the reverseGeocode operation, including POIs, postal boundaries, and administrative boundaries.
Improved intersection search—Intersections can now be found between disconnected streets, such as at cul-de-sacs and highway overpasses, and at roundabouts.
Improved coordinate search—Coordinate search has been improved with more supported input formats such as Military Grid Reference System (MGRS), United States National Grid (USNG), and degrees-minutes-seconds (DMS).
Street-level geocoding is supported for many additional countries: ABW, AZE, BGD, BOL, CCK, CIV, CUB, CXR, CYP, DOM, ECU, FJI, GEO, LBY, LKA, MDV, MNP, MUS, MYT, NCY, NFK, NPL, PRY, SEN, SLV, and TUN. See the complete list of supported countries for details.
Improved POI search—You can now search for POI names with addresses and postal codes using the findAddressCandidates operation.
Batch geocoding of POIs is now supported with the geocodeAddresses operation.
Various geocoding quality improvements for some geographic regions.

API and service output changes

Additional reverse geocoding functionality—you have more control over the features that are returned by the reverseGeocode operation with the new featureTypes parameter.
The new locationType parameter allows you to choose the output location of PointAddress matches in a request—rooftop or street location can be specified. This parameter is available with the findAddressCandidates, geocodeAddresses, and reverseGeocode operations.
The langCode parameter is now available with the findAddressCandidates operation. It allows you to specify the output language of geosearch results.
Greater flexibility for street address geocoding is provided by the new matchOutOfRange parameter. It allows candidates to be positioned more precisely for address searches in which the input house number exceeds the house number range assigned to the matching street segment. Available with the findAddressCandidates and geocodeAddresses operations.
Additional address input fields—The address2 and address3 input fields have been added for multifield geocoding. Available with the findAddressCandidates and geocodeAddresses operations.
New output fields
- Additional administrative divisions
  - Block
  - Sector
  - District
  - MetroArea
  - RegionAbbr
  - Territory
- Subaddress output fields
  - BldgName
  - BldgType
  - LevelName
  - LevelType
  - UnitName
  - UnitType
  - SubAddr
- Miscellaneous output fields
  - LongLabel
  - ShortLabel
  - AddRange
  - ExInfo
Changes to the Addr_type output field
- New Addr_type values
  - Subaddress
  - StreetAddressExt
- Addr_type values that are no longer used
  - BuildingName
  - Admin
  - Depadmin
  - Subadmin
  - Zone
The distance parameter has been deprecated for the findAddressCandidates and suggest operations. Please discontinue using it in your application for proximity searches. A default distance value of 50,000 meters is now used for all findAddressCandidates and suggest requests that include the location parameter.
Update June 2024: The distance parameter for reverseGeocode was deprecated as part of the May 2017 release, but this information was not documented at the time. The distance parameter is no longer functional and it its use should be discontinued. Instead, reverseGeocode returns the most relevant feature near an input location based on a prioritized hierarchy of feature types.

Reference data updates

HERE reference data updated.
Additional third party reference data updates for EST, GTM, NLD, SUR.
New authoritative address data sources used for AUS and AUT.

July 2016

HERE address reference data updated for USA, CAN, BRA, GBR, DEU, NLD, AUS.
Additional third party reference data update for JPN.
Significant geocoding quality improvement for HKG, JPN, GTM and COL.
The find operation has been deprecated. Please discontinue using it in your application, and use the findAddressCandidates operation instead.

March 2016

HERE address reference data updated.
Additional third-party reference data updates for the following countries: Netherlands, Brazil, Estonia, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Guatemala.
India and Greece locators are now based on HERE reference data.
Major geocoding quality improvement made to Brazil, Estonia, Guatemala, and Colombia. Additional significant improvement for Germany, Hong Kong and Spain.

July 2015

Specify the maximum number of suggestion results with the maxSuggestions parameter.
Limit suggestion results to a specified country using the countryCode parameter.
POI search is now supported for Japan.
Address geocoding supported for Guam.
HERE address reference data updated.
Additional reference data updates for Greece, Netherlands, India, Singapore, Thailand, and Guatemala.
Major geocoding quality improvements made to Spain, Columbia, and Hong Kong. Additional significant improvements made to France, Germany, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Guatemala.
Various geocoding quality improvements.

December 2014

Limit suggestion results to a specified area with the searchExtent parameter.
Specify intersection or address output for the reverseGeocode operation with the returnIntersection parameter.
Add ranking of primary and alternate street names for more intuitive results.
HERE POI reference data updated.
Reference data update for Chinese geocoding in Hong Kong.
Major geocoding quality improvement made to France, Germany, Colombia, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong. Additional significant improvements on India, Croatia, and Bulgaria.
Various geocoding quality improvements.

July 2014

Filter geocode results by category with the category parameter.
Specify the desired output language for street addresses returned by the reverseGeocode operation.
Search for Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) coordinates.
Major geocoding quality improvements made to Croatia, Peru, Bulgaria, Greece and Singapore. Additional significant improvements on India, Surinam and Lithuania.
Address geocoding supported in Belize.
Locator reference data update.

March 2014

Geocoding coverage expanded to ten more countries.
Mile markers added to Puerto Rico data.
Address points added to Singapore, India, and Thailand data.
Geocoding quality improvements made to Singapore, Greece, Chile, Thailand, Peru, Puerto Rico, Argentina, and Uruguay.
Updated source data for Singapore and Thailand.

December 2013

Collections of places are supported by suggest (Coffee Shops, Restaurants, and so on).
New point-of-interest data sources for India, Israel, Germany, Austria, Thailand, and Slovakia.
Phone and URL are outputs for Places.
Country inputs have improved matching.
Major locator quality improvement made to 22 counties includes Romania, Chile, Peru, Greece, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Uruguay, Thailand and India. Additional significant improvement on Israel.
Updated locator data source for Greece, Thailand and India.

September 2013

Added the suggest operation.

July 2013

Geocoding quality improved for more than 16 countries, including Malaysia, Turkey, and Czech Republic.
Address information is returned for businesses and points of interest (POI).
Japanese addresses support transliterated English.

April 2013

The geocoding data coverage includes China.
Major geocoding quality improvements made to 25 countries, including Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Demark, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, and Poland.
Updated Navteq locator reference data.