# U.S. Address Geocoder (`timgreen/u-s-address-geocoder`) Actor

Convert any number of U.S. addresses to latitude and longitude coordinates for a fraction of the cost of the Google Maps Geocoding API. Geocoding 1,000 addresses takes about two minutes and costs pennies.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/timgreen/u-s-address-geocoder.md
- **Developed by:** [Tim Green](https://apify.com/timgreen) (community)
- **Categories:** Automation, Real estate
- **Features:** Full permissions
- **Stats:** 33 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 4 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-usage

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

### U.S. Address Geocoder

The U.S. Address Geocoder [Apify Actor](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors) is a powerful tool that converts U.S. addresses to latitude and longitude coordinates in bulk. Geocoding is the process of assigning geographic coordinates to an address, allowing you to pinpoint locations on a map and unlock a wide range of location-based insights.

### Drastically cheaper than the Google Maps API

Google Maps offers a Geocoding API, but it's prohibitively expensive. Google charges $5 per 1,000 geocoded addresses. If you have tens or hundreds of thousands of addresses to geocode, you'll be paying a small fortune to Google.

Using the U.S. Address Geocoder with the default settings, geocoding 1,000 addresses will cost about $0.07. The Google Maps Geocoding API is more expensive by a factor of 70!

The U.S. Address Geocoder scrapes data from the U.S. Census Bureau to match addresses to geographical coordinates, all at a fraction of the cost of Google Maps Geocoding API.

### What will the results look like

The U.S. Address Geocoder takes a list of U.S. addresses as input, such as:

- 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500
- 350 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10118

The output for an address will look like this:

```json
    {
        "address": "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500",
        "matchedAddress": "1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVE NW, WASHINGTON, DC, 20500",
        "lat": 38.89869091865549,
        "lng": -77.03654395730787
    }
```

In some cases, the `matchedAddress` will be a slight variation of the input `address`. For example, *Drive* could be changed to *DR*. When there is no match for the supplied address, `matchedAddress`, `lat`, and `lng` will all be `null`.

### Limitations

The output from this actor is only as good as the underlying data, which comes from the U.S. Census Bureau, and the quality of the input addresses. Addresses that are misspelled, formatted incorrectly, or nonexistent may not return valid or accurate geocoded coordinates. The results may also not line up exactly with output from other services like the Google Maps Geocoding API.

# Actor input Schema

## `addresses` (type: `array`):

The list of addresses for which to geocode.

## `proxy` (type: `object`):

Select proxies to be used by your crawler.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "addresses": [
    "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500",
    "350 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10118"
  ],
  "proxy": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "addresses": [
        "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500",
        "350 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10118"
    ],
    "proxy": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("timgreen/u-s-address-geocoder").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "addresses": [
        "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500",
        "350 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10118",
    ],
    "proxy": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("timgreen/u-s-address-geocoder").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "addresses": [
    "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500",
    "350 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10118"
  ],
  "proxy": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call timgreen/u-s-address-geocoder --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,timgreen/u-s-address-geocoder"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/yDzFEpGEvWgU3UsSB/builds/js0vebXO1VzHMQtfb/openapi.json