# Foursquare, free: Local business search API

> Access global POI data from our Open Source Places dataset via an API offering real-time venue search, discovery, and ranking.

Foursquare's Local business search API on its Sandbox plan. It costs $0.00 per 1,000 places. It returns 5 of the 8 key fields we check: Address, Phone, Website, Category, Coordinates.
We haven't run a Local business search API benchmark yet.
This plan is free. We rank 89 plans for Local business search APIs by price. Half the plans cost $0.04 per 1,000 places or less.
[Stadia Maps's $250 monthly plan](https://datacircle.dev/local-business-search-apis/stadia-maps/250-monthly-professional-get-geocoding-v2-autocomplete/llms.txt) is the cheapest paid plan per 1,000 places: $0.001. Stadia Maps charges for each page of results. We count 10 places on each page to get the $0.001 price.

- This page: https://datacircle.dev/local-business-search-apis/foursquare/free
- Get it: https://foursquare.com/pricing/?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=local-business-search-api-pricing
- Request: `GET https://places-api.foursquare.com/places/search`, Place Search (Pro fields)
- API key: with the plan, on https://foursquare.com/pricing/?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=local-business-search-api-pricing
- Its API docs: https://docs.foursquare.com/fsq-developers-places/reference/place-search?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=local-business-search-api-pricing
- Sold by: Foursquare (https://foursquare.com?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=local-business-search-api-pricing)
- Checked: 2026-11-04

## In the answer

- Completeness: 63%
- Address: ✓
- Phone: ✓
- Website: ✓
- Category: ✓
- Coordinates: ✓

## Price

- $ per 1,000 places: $0.00
- Per: page of 50
- Billing: free

## Not found

- $ per 1,000: $0.00

## In their words

- Their pitch: Access global POI data from our Open Source Places dataset via an API offering real-time venue search, discovery, and ranking.

## Data

- Keep data: no caching permitted for Pay as You Go and Sandbox customers, but for fsq_place_id and Photo IDs, which are cached without limit
- Use data: Foursquare grants you a limited, non-exclusive, revocable, non-sublicensable, non-transferable license, without rights to create any derivative works, to access and use the Places API to (a) develop, implement and integrate with application(s), website(s), product(s) and/or service(s) owned or controlled by you (“Your Service”), (b) call the Places API for Foursquare Places data (“Places Data”) using your Access Credentials, (c) use, reproduce, distribute, transmit, display and perform Places Data as part of Your Service, and (d) create external reports, analyses and demos (“External Materials”) using Places Data, so long as: (i) you provide Foursquare with branded attribution in connection with any External Materials, (ii) no material portions of the Places Data are exposed to third parties [...], and (iii) the External Materials are not competitive with Foursquare’s then-current products or services. You may not use the Places API for any other purpose without Foursquare’s prior written consent. [...] You must provide Foursquare with branded attribution (i.e., ‘Powered by Foursquare’) on any page or screen within Your Service where Places Data may appear. [...] if certain attributes included in Places Data are not publicly available to users of the Foursquare City Guide mobile app or any successor thereto (e.g., “Calculated Scores” attributes and various other reliability metrics), then you may only use such attributes on an internal basis (and must not [...] externally display such attributes or make such attributes available to users of Your Service or any third party). [...] In addition, you shall not do any of the following: Provide access to the Places API or Places Data to third parties, except as integrated into Your Service as permitted by the licenses granted hereunder, Make Places Data available to third parties in bulk, Allow third parties to systematically query Places Data to obtain all or substantially all Places Data for a given locality, region, or country, or Use Places Data to contact businesses included in Places Data as prospective customers.

## Plan

- Pay: $0
- You get: 10,000 requests
- Enough for: 10,000 pages

## Rate limit

- Per second: 50

## Speed

- Answer: in the call

## The call

- You send: X-Places-Api-Version header "2025-06-17". Optional: query, ll, radius, fsq_category_ids, fsq_chain_ids, exclude_fsq_chain_ids, exclude_all_chains, fields, min_price, max_price, open_at, open_now, tel_format, ne, sw, near, sort, limit, cursor
- Method: GET
- Path: /places/search

## About the plan

- Plan: Sandbox
- Who can get it: anyone with a Foursquare developer account

## The 30 fields the plan's answer can hold

place ID, name, categories, address, city, region, postcode, country, admin region, post town, PO box, latitude, longitude, distance, phone, email, website, Facebook ID, Instagram handle, Twitter handle, link, date closed, Placemaker URL, chains, store ID, parent place, child places, census block, DMA, unresolved flags

## Foursquare's plans (7)

- [Foursquare, free](https://datacircle.dev/local-business-search-apis/foursquare/free/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 63% complete
- [Foursquare, pay as you go, 0 to 100,000 calls](https://datacircle.dev/local-business-search-apis/foursquare/pay-as-you-go-0-to-100000-calls/llms.txt): $0.375 per 1,000, 88% complete
- [Foursquare, pay as you go, 0 to 500 calls](https://datacircle.dev/local-business-search-apis/foursquare/pay-as-you-go-0-to-500-calls/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 63% complete
- [Foursquare, pay as you go, 501 to 100,000 calls](https://datacircle.dev/local-business-search-apis/foursquare/pay-as-you-go-501-to-100000-calls/llms.txt): $0.30 per 1,000, 63% complete
- [Foursquare, pay as you go, 100,001 to 500,000 calls, GET /places/search, Place Search (Pro fields)](https://datacircle.dev/local-business-search-apis/foursquare/pay-as-you-go-100001-to-500000-calls-get-places-search-place-search-pro-fields/llms.txt): $0.24 per 1,000, 63% complete
- [Foursquare, pay as you go, 500,001 calls and more, GET /places/search, Place Search (Pro fields)](https://datacircle.dev/local-business-search-apis/foursquare/pay-as-you-go-500001-calls-and-more-get-places-search-place-search-pro-fields/llms.txt): $0.18 per 1,000, 63% complete
- [Foursquare, contact us, Enterprise, GET /places/search, Place Search (Pro fields)](https://datacircle.dev/local-business-search-apis/foursquare/contact-us-enterprise-get-places-search-place-search-pro-fields/llms.txt): 63% complete

## Foursquare's calls (2)

- `GET /places/search`, Place Search (Pro fields): [Foursquare, free](https://datacircle.dev/local-business-search-apis/foursquare/free/llms.txt)
- `GET /places/search`, Place Search (Premium fields): [Foursquare, pay as you go, 0 to 100,000 calls](https://datacircle.dev/local-business-search-apis/foursquare/pay-as-you-go-0-to-100000-calls/llms.txt)

## Foursquare's APIs (1)

- [Foursquare: Local business search API pricing, 7 plans](https://datacircle.dev/local-business-search-apis/foursquare/free/llms.txt)

## Foursquare: Local business search API alternatives

- [Google Maps Platform, pay as you go, 5,000,001+ monthly events, POST /v1/places:searchText, Places API Text Search Enterprise + Atmosphere](https://datacircle.dev/local-business-search-apis/google-maps-platform/pay-as-you-go-5000001-monthly-events-post-v1-places-searchtext-places-api-text-search-enterprise-atmosphere/llms.txt): $0.17 per 1,000, 100% complete
- [Pullbay, $49 monthly, Builder, GET /yelp/search](https://datacircle.dev/local-business-search-apis/pullbay/49-monthly-builder-get-yelp-search/llms.txt): $0.18 per 1,000, 75% complete, live
- [Yandex Maps API, $22,500 yearly](https://datacircle.dev/local-business-search-apis/yandex-maps-api/22500-yearly/llms.txt): $0.18 per 1,000, 75% complete, 1 day
- [Yelp, $299 monthly](https://datacircle.dev/local-business-search-apis/yelp/299-monthly/llms.txt): $0.199 per 1,000, 88% complete, live

## Sources

From each provider's own pricing page and docs, and from what providers tell us. We read this row from these pages on 2026-11-04.

- https://docs.foursquare.com/fsq-developers-places/reference/pagination.md?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=local-business-search-api-pricing
- https://docs.foursquare.com/fsq-developers-places/reference/place-search?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=local-business-search-api-pricing
- https://docs.foursquare.com/fsq-developers-places/reference/rate-limits.md?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=local-business-search-api-pricing
- https://docs.foursquare.com/fsq-developers-places/reference/response-fields?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=local-business-search-api-pricing
- https://docs.foursquare.com/fsq-developers-places/reference/usage-guidelines.md?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=local-business-search-api-pricing
- https://foursquare.com/legal/terms/apilicenseagreement?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=local-business-search-api-pricing
- https://foursquare.com/legal/terms/enterprise-developermasterterms?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=local-business-search-api-pricing
- https://foursquare.com/pricing/?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=local-business-search-api-pricing
- https://foursquare.com/products/places-api/?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=local-business-search-api-pricing