BAN vs a commercial geocoding API
France publishes its national address base (Base Adresse Nationale, BAN) as open data, and the state runs a free geocoding service on it. For many projects that is exactly what you need. This guide says when, and when it is not enough. Addrova is built on the same BAN data, so we have no interest in hiding this.
What the free national service gives you
Read on 18 October 2026 on the public guide of the Géoplateforme (cartes.gouv.fr, geocoding guide) and on data.gouv.fr: [À VÉRIFIER : relire ces pages le jour de la publication]
- Free, with a rate limit of 50 requests per second per IP address. Exemptions exist for public-service missions.
- Search, autocomplete and reverse geocoding, plus CSV geocoding (synchronous for files up to 50 MB or 200,000 lines, asynchronous up to 1 GB).
- The index is refreshed weekly from the BAN; places come from the BD TOPO and parcels from the cadastre, both quarterly.
- The BAN content is under the Licence Ouverte 2.0: reuse, including commercial, with attribution.
- No contractual availability commitment was found, and the former api-adresse URL was shut down at the end of January 2026.
When the national service is enough
- Occasional or moderate lookups, prototypes, internal tools.
- Public bodies that can use the national service under the public-service exemption.
- A one-off cleaning of a file with clean addresses.
- You can live without a contract, and you can follow a service that changes its URLs.
When a commercial API adds value
| Need | Why the free service may not be enough |
|---|---|
| A contract and an availability target | No contractual commitment was found for the free service |
| Messy addresses | Typos, abbreviations and missing parts need repair and a confidence score |
| Several countries | One API and one response shape beyond France |
| Predictable limits | A per-IP rate limit is hard to plan around from many servers |
| Stored results under a clear licence | You must follow the open licence yourself; a contract can state it |
| Data protection paperwork | A DPA, a list of sub-processors, a statement of what is logged |
What Addrova adds, and what it does not
Addrova uses the BAN as its French source and adds repair, a confidence score, batch files, a compatibility mode and a contract. It does not claim to be more accurate than the national service: no benchmark is published yet, and we will not say so before one is. If the free service covers your need, use it.
How to decide in an afternoon
- Take 500 of your own addresses, including the worst ones.
- Run them through the national service and, if you are considering one, a commercial API.
- Count how many come back with a confident match and look at the others.
- Add the cost of your time: rate limits, retries, cleaning, and who answers when it fails.
FAQ
Can I store BAN results? Yes, under the Licence Ouverte 2.0, with attribution.
Does Addrova resell the BAN? It uses it as a source and names it, with its licence, in every response.