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Learn more about our complete developer suite of products and compare feature sets to see which one is best for you.
All products include access to 105M+ POIs |   Power location-based experiences in your app or website. |   Engage and communicate with users by delivering context-aware content - in real-time. |   Comprehensive, global places data - available offline. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account Tiers | |||
| Free | Get API | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Commercial | Let's Talk | Let's Talk | Let's Talk |
| Key Features | |||
| Access to millions of fresh venue-related tips, tastes, photos & attributes from the Foursquare community | — | ||
| Access places data - in real time - from any connected application | — | — | |
| Accurately assign a mobile app user to a specific location (Snap-to-Place) | — | ||
| Detect when a mobile app user stops at or visits a particular location - using our always-on, passive location awareness | — | — | |
| Access downloadable points-of-interest (POI) data | — | — | |
| Powerfully deliver real-time notifications based on point + radius geofences around specific POIs | — | — | |
| Use Cases | |||
| Enable users to search and discover venues via a mobile app or website | — | — | |
| Geo-tag content such as a photos, videos and more in your mobile app or website | — | — | |
| Know where your mobile app users go in the real world | — | ||
| Build mobile audience segments for analysis, targeting and measurement | — | ||
| Trigger real-time, context-aware notifications and content in your mobile app (MMA integration recommended) | — | — | |
| Analyze visit and venue data to identify shopper and consumer insights trends | — | — | |
| Consistently deliver personalized notifications to users in both rural and urban (dense) environments | — | — | |
| Control the detection time of a visit with both speed and accuracy | — | — | |
| Get API | Let's Talk | Let's Talk | |
Power location-based experiences in your app or website.
Engage and communicate with users by delivering context-aware content - in real-time.
Comprehensive, global places data - available offline.
Compare Details
| Free | |
| Places API | Get API |
| Pilgrim SDK | Not applicable |
| Places Database | Not applicable |
| Commercial | |
| Let's Talk | |
| Access to millions of fresh venue-related tips, tastes, photos & attributes from the Foursquare community | |
| Places API | |
| — | Pilgrim SDK |
| Places Database | |
| Access places data - in real time - from any connected application | |
| Places API | |
| — | Pilgrim SDK |
| — | Places Database |
| Accurately assign a mobile app user to a specific location (Snap-to-Place) | |
| Places API | |
| Pilgrim SDK | |
| — | Places Database |
| Detect when a mobile app user stops at or visits a particular location - using our always-on, passive location awareness | |
| — | Places API |
| Pilgrim SDK | |
| — | Places Database |
| Access downloadable points-of-interest (POI) data | |
| — | Places API |
| — | Pilgrim SDK |
| Places Database | |
| Enable users to search and discover venues via a mobile app or website | |
| Places API | |
| — | Pilgrim SDK |
| — | Places Database |
| Geo-tag content such as a photos, videos and more in your mobile app or website | |
| Places API | |
| — | Pilgrim SDK |
| — | Places Database |
| Know where your mobile app users go in the real world | |
| Places API | |
| Pilgrim SDK | |
| — | Places Database |
| Build mobile audience segments for analysis, targeting and measurement | |
| Places API | |
| Pilgrim SDK | |
| — | Places Database |
| Trigger real-time, context-aware notifications and content in your mobile app (MMA integration recommended) | |
| — | Places API |
| Pilgrim SDK | |
| — | Places Database |
| Analyze visit and venue data to identify shopper and consumer insights trends | |
| — | Places API |
| — | Pilgrim SDK |
| Places Database | |
Top Companies
Trust Foursquare
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Take your place among the best and the brightest in your industry.
Uber
The breadth and accuracy of Foursquare’s location intelligence is impressive. With the ability to customize location data, we can make the user experience even better for Uber riders and drivers around the globe.
David Richter
Global Head of Business & Corporate Development
SnipSnap
While we had built one of the most popular mobile coupon apps with six million users, we struggled to be able to deliver timely and accurate push-notification reminders when folks arrived in store. The Pilgrim SDK solved a five-year-old problem we had at SnipSnap.
Ted Mann
Founder
TouchTunes
The Pilgrim SDK enables us to drive more song plays by delivering personalized music recommendations to our 6M+ app users, increasing in-app engagement by 60%.
Ross Honey
President & CEO
Travel Japan WiFi
Travel Japan WiFi, one of the country’s most downloaded travel apps, helps direct travelers to the best places to eat and drink and find 200,000 Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the country. We are reassured that nearly every place in the world is in the Foursquare database, so we can deliver top-notch recommendations, always.
Kenji Soma
CTO of Travel Japan WiFi’s parent company Wire and Wireless Co.
Carousell
Foursquare and its expertise in location-based services helps us connect our Carousellers more effectively, making it all the more convenient to get the items they always wanted.
Lucas Ngoo
Co-founder & CTO
FAQs
Browse our frequently asked questions below for detailed answers about our products.
Last updated: October 2017
Foursquare’s terms of service varies by account type. Unverified and verified accounts, which are available to users at no cost, may access the API for non-commercial, public apps only.
Enterprise account holders, however, may use the API for commercial and private applications.
Last updated: April 2018
Foursquare defines a commercial app as one that earns a profit for its developer, while a public app is described as one that is free to use for all users. Per our policy, any commercial apps require Start-Up or Enterprise account for the API, or an Enterprise account for Pilgrim SDK and Places Database.
Talk to our business development team if you’d like to learn more about our commercial-level developer solutions.
For additional information on the Places API usage policy, check out licensing rules here.
Last updated: April 2018
For Sandbox accounts, the Places API enforces a limit of 950 Regular API Calls per day and 50 Premium API Calls per day, free of charge.
For Personal accounts, the Places API will increase this limit to 99,500 Regular API Calls per day and 500 Premium API Calls per day, also at no cost when you provide a credit card to confirm your identity. While verification is confirmed using a credit card, your credit card will not be charged.
Both Sandbox and Personal account holders may create only one app.
Last updated: April 2018
Regular endpoints include basic firmographic data, category, and ID.
Premium endpoints include venue details, photos, tips, menus, and other rich content endpoints.
Last updated: October 2017
Credit card verification is a simple, standard and automated approach to identity verification, processed by Stripe. It’s the best way for Foursquare to be able to ensure proper use of our API so we can serve our developers better.
Last updated: October 2017
No, scraping the Places API is not allowed. Learn more about our scraping policy here.
Last updated: October 2017
When a developer reaches their daily quota, their app will not be able to call the API beyond the limits of the tier (a developer will see an error until midnight UTC, when the daily call quota resets. Read more about our policy by visiting our rate limits page. To gain access to additional call volume, QPS, service and content, please contact us to discuss an Enterprise account.
Last updated: October 2017
Users of the Places API have access to a number of content attributes, vetted by our dedicated community of Foursquare City Guide and Swarm Superusers. In addition to ratings, tips, tastes and photos, developers also have access to a wide variety of place attributes. Read more about our database and what other attributes are available to developers by visiting our Endpoints Overview page.
Last updated: October 2017
Places Database customers may receive Foursquare’s place data in plain text format, which can be accessed offline. Reach out to us to learn more, or to hear about the Places API, which allows you to access our accurate venue data in real time.
Last updated: October 2017
Given user authorization, you can surface the following information from a user’s Foursquare profile using the Places API. This includes a list of venues a user has visited, all the photos a user has uploaded to Foursquare, and where a user has checked into. To see a complete list of user-level attributes, click here.
With Pilgrim SDK, mobile app publishers and marketers can see their audiences’ real world visits to a specific venue, chain or category over a given period. Analysts can also gain competitive insights including the number of visitors that go to a competitor’s chain or venue. Pilgrim SDK is available for Android and iOS.
Interested in the Pilgrim SDK or the want to learn about the Enterprise-level Places API? Contact us here.
Last updated: October 2017
Yes, our venues database is comprised over 105M points-of-interests such as restaurants, retailers, public parks and more.
Last updated: October 2017
At this time, the Pilgrim SDK developer console integrates with the following: Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Braze (formerly Appboy), Localytics, mParticle and Urban Airship.
Last updated: October 2017
As the cost of our Enterprise-level developer tools varies by product, usage and requirements, we recommend you reach out to us directly by filling out this contact form.
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