Places API

Open Places API has one public search endpoint: GET /v1/places. Send the API key from your backend, include a location scope, and keep browser frontends away from the secret. Use q for text search, or use category to list places in a category in an area, up to the first 1,000 places per query area.

1. Create an account with Google or GitHub.
2. Create an API key on the dashboard's Overview page. Save it now; it is shown once.
3. Set it in your server's environment: export OPA_KEY="your_api_key".

See the authentication guide for key setup. Building an agent? Connect over MCP instead of writing REST calls.

curl -G "https://api.openplacesapi.com/v1/places" \
  --data-urlencode "q=coffee" \
  --data-urlencode "lat=40.7128" \
  --data-urlencode "lon=-74.0060" \
  --data-urlencode "radius_mi=25" \
  --data-urlencode "limit=10" \
  --data-urlencode "min_confidence=0.85" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPA_KEY"

A successful request returns HTTP 200 with a results array (which can be empty) and meta describing the search.

curl -G "https://api.openplacesapi.com/v1/places" \
  --data-urlencode "category=cafe" \
  --data-urlencode "lat=40.7128" \
  --data-urlencode "lon=-74.0060" \
  --data-urlencode "radius_mi=25" \
  --data-urlencode "limit=50" \
  --data-urlencode "offset=0" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPA_KEY"

The Python example needs requests: install it with pip install requests.

const apiKey = process.env.OPA_KEY;

if (!apiKey) throw new Error("OPA_KEY is required");

const url = new URL("https://api.openplacesapi.com/v1/places");
url.search = new URLSearchParams({
  q: "ramen",
  lat: "35.6762",
  lon: "139.6503",
  radius_mi: "25",
  mode: "all",
  min_confidence: "0.85",
}).toString();

const response = await fetch(url, {
  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${apiKey}` },
});

if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Search failed: ${response.status}`);

const body = await response.json();

import os
import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.openplacesapi.com/v1/places",
    params={
        "q": "coffee",
        "lat": 40.7128,
        "lon": -74.0060,
        "radius_mi": 25,
        "limit": 10,
        "min_confidence": 0.85,
    },
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['OPA_KEY']}"},
    timeout=10,
)
response.raise_for_status()
data = response.json()