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I'm building a PHP script which ends up with an array of latitude, longitude pairs (around 2,500), and I want to be able to reverse geocode them into full adresses, then recording them on my database.

I ran a search on Reverse Geocoding and have narrowed my options to Google and ESRI. I'm leaning towards ESRI because they have a REST API, whereas Google works via Javascript, which would give me much more trouble to implement.

But before I start coding I was curious whether the ArcGIS REST API has any restrictions at all: is it free or do I need to subscribe? Do I need an API key? If so, where do I get it? Are there restrictions regarding requests per minute / hour / month? I've looked around their docs, but can't seem to find anything non-technical.

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Yes, ArcGIS services will cost money in production. According to the World Geocoding Service's documentation, you will need an ArcGIS Online Subscription to use them. Limitations are rated on the number of requests made, not on any throughput. It will cost 40 credits per 1000 geocodes.

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  • Well, in my defense I did go through that article and was still puzzled. I seemed to have been under the impression that there was a difference between "multiple single requests" and "a single batch request". Silly me :) – Tomas Buteler Nov 22 '13 at 20:27
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Google has a rest api as well. It may also cost you. https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geocoding/

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  • Ah, thanks for that! Don't know how I missed it :) Also, 2,500 free requests per 24 hour period seems very reasonable to me and it certainly fits the immediate needs of my script. – Tomas Buteler Nov 22 '13 at 20:24

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