Quick answer
OpenCage - OpenCage wins for most builders who want a genuinely usable free tier with no credit card required, while Geocodify is better if your app is call-heavy and you want a simple monthly quota instead of daily limits.
How the free tiers compare
These two free tiers target different stages of builder usage. Geocodify is the more generous free option on raw monthly volume, with 30,000 calls per month and a clear 1 request per second cap, plus commercial use allowed. It is better framed as a lightweight production starter for apps with steady, modest traffic. OpenCage is more explicitly a testing-oriented free tier: 2,500 requests per day, one API key, spreadsheet uploads up to 100 rows, permanent data storage during testing, and no credit card required. That makes it easier to try quickly and safer for early integration work, but the daily cap and single-key limit can become constraints sooner for production-like usage. Paid pricing is flat for the first tiers on both, but Geocodify jumps from free to $49/month, while OpenCage starts at $50/month and then scales through several larger flat tiers.
Geocodify vs OpenCage free tier, side by side
| GeocodifyFTV 60 | OpenCageFTV 65 | |
|---|---|---|
| Free request quotaGeocodify uses a monthly cap; OpenCage uses a daily cap. | 30,000 calls per month | 2,500 requests per day |
| Rate limit | 1 request per second | 1 request per second |
| Spreadsheet / file upload limitOnly OpenCage lists a free-tier upload limit. | Not listed | Up to 100 rows |
| API keys on free tierOnly OpenCage states a key limit. | Not listed | One API key only |
| Credit card requiredThe field is present for OpenCage only. | Not stated | No |
| Commercial use on free tierGeocodify explicitly allows commercial use on free. | Yes | Not stated |
After you outgrow the free tier
Geocodify’s first paid tier is a flat $49/month Starter plan, then $150/month Business, then enterprise pricing by contact. OpenCage starts at a flat $50/month X-Small plan, then moves through $125/month, $500/month, and larger contact-sales tiers. Both are mostly flat-priced rather than usage-metered, so the main difference is not per-request math but how quickly you outgrow the free caps. For typical small-team usage, Geocodify is slightly cheaper at the first paid step, while OpenCage gives a more gradual ladder once you leave free.
Cost at real usage
| Usage | Geocodify | OpenCage |
|---|---|---|
| At the first paid step after freeGeocodify is $1 cheaper at entry. | $49/mo | $50/mo |
| At roughly 300,000 requests/monthOpenCage does not provide a single flat tier that maps cleanly to this monthly volume in the provided data. | Starter - $49/mo, but the plan quota is 300,000 calls/month | Would require 10+ X-Small plans at $50/mo each if you tried to cover that volume by quota alone; the listed paid tiers are flat, so practical cost is plan-based rather than per-request |
| At 700,000 requests/monthOpenCage’s provided tiers are daily-based and not directly convertible here without assumptions. | Would require more than the Starter quota; Business is $150/mo for 700,000 calls/month | Not enough data to price exactly from the provided plan list; the largest listed fixed tier is Enterprise from $2,000/mo |
Estimates, not quotes. Usage-based rates change - verify with the vendor's pricing page before committing.
When to pick each one
Pick Geocodify when…
- You want the larger free request allowance for a low-traffic app or prototype that still needs commercial use.
- You prefer a monthly quota over a daily quota because your usage comes in bursts or is hard to smooth out day by day.
- You do not need a no-credit-card signup claim and you are fine with attribution on the free plan.
- You are building around geocoding plus extras like batch geocoding, geoparsing, autocomplete, or enhanced datapoints mentioned in the product description.
Pick OpenCage when…
- You want to try the API without entering a credit card.
- You are in a testing phase and need spreadsheet uploads, permanent data storage during testing, or a single API key.
- You want a free tier that is clearly oriented around evaluation before production.
- You want daily request limits and a free plan that includes explicit no-IP-restriction and no-CORS-restriction allowances.
Bottom line
For the most common builder case, OpenCage is the safer free-tier pick because it clearly supports evaluation without a credit card and includes testing-friendly limits and controls. Geocodify is the better free tier if you care more about raw allowance and a monthly quota that can support a small production workload. Once you pay, Geocodify is slightly cheaper at the entry tier, but OpenCage offers a more gradual path up the stack.
Read the full listings: Geocodify and OpenCage. Scores use the FTV methodology at /ftv. Browse more head-to-heads on /compare, or see the top-ranked free tiers on /top.