Place autocomplete API for administrative regions — realtime, ranked, hierarchy intact.

Product

Built for realtime autocomplete that still understands structure

Meridian is a place autocomplete API for administrative regions. As users type, the API returns ranked suggestions with the context your UI needs: district, municipality, parish, and the nested regions underneath.

Debounced client requests hit a prefix search index, so suggestions stay responsive while subtitles and child regions keep results unambiguous — without maintaining your own gazetteer or wrapping a general geocoder for typeahead.

Coverage

Countries the API will cover

Meridian is building administrative-region search across Europe and North America. The countries below are on the coverage roadmap for the same API.

How it works

From raw place data to a search index

Meridian is a pipeline as much as an API. Place regions are extracted, enriched, linked, and indexed so realtime autocomplete stays fast under typing load.

1. 01 — Extract

   Load place regions

   Region records and tags are imported, including names, admin levels, and region types used for display and filtering.

2. 02 — Hierarchy

   Link parents and children

   Each place is linked to its containing regions and nested sub-regions, so autocomplete can surface hierarchy without extra client-side lookup.

3. 03 — Enrich

   Add display names

   Human-readable display names and importance scores are attached, then normalized for accent-insensitive search.

4. 04 — Serve

   Index for fast search

   Documents are indexed for prefix search. As users type, the API aggregates matches, loads full documents, and formats autocomplete fields for the client.

API surface

Realtime autocomplete, hierarchy included.

Call GET /locations/search on each debounced keystroke. Optional lang selects the country index, and limit caps how many ranked suggestions come back. Full parameter notes are in the API docs.

GET /locations/search?q=bretagne&lang=fr&limit=10

{
  "query": "bretagne",
  "language": "fr",
  "total": 1099,
  "results": [
    {
      "score": 8,
      "weighted_score": 3.96919786624,
      "display_name": "Bretagne, France métropolitaine, France",
      "title": "Bretagne",
      "subtitle": "France métropolitaine, France",
      "hierarchy_subtitle": "France métropolitaine, France",
      "display_name_norm": "bretagne, france metropolitaine, france",
      "location": {
        "id": 102740,
        "name": "Bretagne",
        "name_norm": "bretagne",
        "tags": {
          "name": "Bretagne",
          "name:en": "Brittany",
          "population": "3354854",
          "population:date": "2019"
        },
        "details": {
          "addresstype": "state",
          "name": "Bretagne",
          "display_name": "Bretagne, France métropolitaine, France",
          "display_name_norm": "bretagne, france metropolitaine, france",
          "address": {
            "state": "Bretagne",
            "ISO3166-2-lvl4": "FR-BRE",
            "region": "France métropolitaine",
            "country": "France",
            "country_code": "fr"
          }
        },
        "parent_id": 1403916,
        "ancestor_ids": [1403916, 2202162],
        "child_ids": [7398, 102430, 7465, 7447],
        "parents": [
          {
            "id": 1403916,
            "name": "France métropolitaine",
            "name_norm": "france metropolitaine",
            "region_type": "territorial"
          },
          {
            "id": 2202162,
            "name": "France",
            "name_norm": "france",
            "region_type": "territorial"
          }
        ],
        "children": [
          {
            "id": 7398,
            "name": "Côtes-d'Armor",
            "name_norm": "cotes-darmor",
            "region_type": "departement"
          },
          {
            "id": 102430,
            "name": "Finistère",
            "name_norm": "finistere",
            "region_type": "departement"
          }
        ],
        "lineage": "/2202162/1403916/102740/"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Each hit includes ranked autocomplete fields plus the full stored location document — parents, children, lineage, and address details — when clients need more than the suggestion row. Child lists are abbreviated in this example.

Pricing

Simple monthly plans. Unlimited calls.

Pick one country or every country on the coverage roadmap. Both plans include unlimited autocomplete requests — no per-call metering.

FAQ

Administrative region search, answered

What is an administrative region autocomplete API?

It is a location search API that returns ranked place suggestions as a user types — districts, municipalities, parishes, and other administrative regions — including parent and child hierarchy in the same response.

How is Meridian different from a geocoding API?

Geocoders resolve addresses to coordinates. Meridian is built for typeahead over administrative regions: prefix matching, ranked relevance, region type, and nested children so product UIs can show unambiguous autocomplete rows without maintaining your own place database.

Which countries does the place autocomplete API cover?

Meridian indexes administrative regions across Europe and North America. Search is scoped by country. The live demo currently includes the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom, with more countries on the coverage roadmap.

How much does unlimited autocomplete cost?

One country is €4 per month for unlimited API calls. All countries on the coverage roadmap are €10 per month, also unlimited. There is no per-request metering.

Does the API return hierarchy with each suggestion?

Yes. Each hit includes formatted title and subtitle plus the stored location document: parents, children, lineage, region type, and address details when the client needs more than the suggestion row.

Is Meridian a Google Places Autocomplete alternative?

Meridian is built for administrative regions (states, counties, municipalities, parishes), not street addresses or businesses. If your picker needs hierarchy over places rather than Google’s POI autocomplete, Meridian is the closer fit — country-scoped indexes and unlimited calls on a flat monthly plan.