Photon reverse geocoding - coordinates to address
Reverse geocoding using Photon (Komoot). Returns the nearest OSM object as a GeoJSON FeatureCollection. The nearest object may be a street, building or POI, not necessarily a house address. The endpoint is a pass-through to the upstream Photon instance, so any Photon parameter is forwarded as-is; only the parameters most relevant to typical use are documented here. Complete upstream documentation: https://github.com/komoot/photon#api.
Response fields and units
| Field | Format / unit | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
features[].geometry.coordinates | [longitude, latitude] in decimal degrees | GeoJSON point coordinates |
features[].properties.extent | [minLon, maxLat, maxLon, minLat] in decimal degrees | Feature bounds when present |
Parameters
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
lat | number | Yes | Latitude coordinate | 51.5 |
lon | number | Yes | Longitude coordinate | -0.1 |
lang | string | No | Response language (e.g., en, de, fr, it, ru) | en |
Try It Out
Required parameters only
curl -H "capi-key: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "capi-host: busmaps.com" \
"https://capi.busmaps.com:8443/v1/photon/reverse?lat=51.5&lon=-0.1"Popular parameters
curl -H "capi-key: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "capi-host: busmaps.com" \
"https://capi.busmaps.com:8443/v1/photon/reverse?lat=51.5&lon=-0.1&lang=en"Response Example
{
"features": [
{
"geometry": {
"coordinates": [
-0.0998967,
51.5001944
],
"type": "Point"
},
"properties": {
"city": "London",
"country": "United Kingdom",
"countrycode": "GB",
"district": "Elephant and Castle",
"extent": [
-0.1002233,
51.5004093,
-0.099547,
51.5000175
],
"name": "Belvedere Buildings",
"osm_id": 31765736,
"osm_key": "highway",
"osm_type": "W",
"osm_value": "cycleway",
"postcode": "SE1 0DQ",
"state": "England",
"type": "street"
},
"type": "Feature"
}
],
"type": "FeatureCollection"
}Response Schema
View JSON Schema
{
"$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
"title": "Photon Reverse Geocoding Response",
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"features": {
"type": "array",
"items": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"type": {
"type": "string",
"description": "GeoJSON object type: Feature"
},
"properties": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"city": {
"type": "string",
"description": "City name"
},
"locality": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Sub-district / quarter / named area within a district"
},
"state": {
"type": "string",
"description": "State or region name"
},
"osm_type": {
"type": "string",
"description": "OSM element type letter: N (node), W (way), R (relation)"
},
"postcode": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Postal code"
},
"osm_key": {
"type": "string",
"description": "OSM key (e.g., place, highway, building)"
},
"countrycode": {
"type": "string",
"description": "ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code"
},
"country": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Country name"
},
"name": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Name of the matched object"
},
"district": {
"type": "string",
"description": "District or neighborhood"
},
"housenumber": {
"type": "string",
"description": "House number (for house-type results)"
},
"type": {
"type": "string",
"description": "OSM place type such as city, street, or house"
},
"extent": {
"type": "array",
"items": {
"type": "number"
},
"description": "Bounding box of the feature in [minLon, maxLat, maxLon, minLat] order, in decimal degrees"
},
"osm_id": {
"type": "integer",
"description": "OpenStreetMap element ID"
},
"osm_value": {
"type": "string",
"description": "OSM value (e.g., residential, cycleway, footway)"
},
"street": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Street name"
}
},
"required": [
"city",
"type",
"state",
"osm_type",
"postcode",
"osm_key",
"countrycode",
"osm_id",
"osm_value",
"country",
"district"
],
"description": "Place attributes (fields vary by result type)"
},
"geometry": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"coordinates": {
"type": "array",
"items": {
"type": "number"
},
"description": "Coordinate pair in [longitude, latitude] order, in decimal degrees"
},
"type": {
"type": "string",
"description": "GeoJSON geometry type: Point"
}
},
"required": [
"coordinates",
"type"
],
"description": "GeoJSON Point geometry with [lon, lat] coordinates"
}
},
"required": [
"geometry",
"properties",
"type"
]
},
"description": "Array containing the nearest matching OSM object as a GeoJSON Feature"
},
"type": {
"type": "string",
"description": "GeoJSON object type: FeatureCollection"
}
},
"required": [
"features",
"type"
]
}Response Codes
200
Reverse geocoding completed successfully400
Invalid coordinates500
Upstream Photon error or invalid JSON