Applications send a visitor's IP address to these services and get back a country, a city, a network owner or a risk signal.
This guide ranks twelve providers by the effort to reach a first working lookup, the cost once volume and extra data modules arrive, how the data leaves again, and how independent each vendor is.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
In short
What IP geolocation services software does
IP geolocation services map an IP address to a place and network details, delivered through a metered web API or a downloadable database file that applications query locally.
The ranking follows five checks. Setup effort comes first, then real cost, then the route for getting data out, then lock-in, then the intended buyer. Top three places belong to challengers outside the best-known brands whenever possible, and incumbents follow from four. Our how we work page explains the choice of these five and why we give no mark out of ten.
Adelaide provider selling API tiers and flat database files separately
Ranked #1 of 12 in Best IP Geolocation Services in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingAsia-Pacific
BigDataCloud splits its offer in two. The API side begins with a Base tier of 10k monthly requests, then Bronze at 100k, Silver at 1M and Gold at 10M, with overage priced per 10k requests.
The database side sells Network, Compact, a bundle of the two and Complete as flat CSV or MMDB files, billed monthly. Exit is easy because the data arrives as plain files. The about page describes an Adelaide company with no investors.
What stands out
Self-funded vendor
CSV and MMDB files
Free API tier
Where it costs you
Anything beyond the 10M requests of the Gold tier moves to a bespoke quote.
Redistribution and OEM terms are quoted separately, so shipping the data inside a product is not self-serve.
Right for
Small teams that want API calls today and downloadable database files later
Wrong for
Products that must redistribute the data inside software
AustraliaMonthly API tiers with a standing free tier, plus flat database files on their own monthly packages; prices published
Perros-Guirec operator selling euro-priced API plans and database downloads
Ranked #2 of 12 in Best IP Geolocation Services in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
DB-IP prices databases and API access in separate blocks. IP to Country is the cheapest yearly download at 49.90 EUR, IP to Location adds region, city and approximate coordinates at 299.90 EUR, and ISP data is priced on its own, with a combined Location and ISP file above both.
API plans bill monthly from Starter through Premium to Enterprise, with Core and Extended series priced higher. The operator and a French street address are named on the page.
What stands out
Euro pricing
Daily request quotas
Yearly file downloads
Where it costs you
Enterprise is contact-sales only, so unlimited volume has no listed price.
The pricing section lists no sample download, so file formats cannot be tested without the starter API trial or a purchase.
Right for
Teams that want euro billing and a choice between API access and yearly files
Wrong for
Buyers who want a permanent allowance for side projects
FrancePublished euro prices: API plans with daily quotas billed monthly, database downloads billed yearly, a trial on the starter API tiers
Seattle company with a country-level free Lite plan and three paid tiers
Ranked #3 of 12 in Best IP Geolocation Services in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
IPinfo organises its offer as named plans. Lite costs nothing and stops at country data; Core and Max list 500 and 2,500 web lookups, with 150k and 250k API requests shown against them.
Overage per thousand requests is lower on Core than on Max, and Enterprise is custom annual pricing. The about page describes an internet data company working on IP data since 2013 and names no owner or acquirer, so the vendor stands alone on the evidence read.
What stands out
Lite plan
Overage per thousand
Hosted in the US
Where it costs you
Core cannot be tried first, since no trial of the paid plans is listed.
Lite is limited to country precision, which rules it out for finer targeting.
Right for
Developers who need a country lookup now and a paid tier later
Wrong for
Anyone needing city-level answers on the free tier
United StatesFree Lite plan, then Core and Max billed monthly or yearly, Enterprise on custom annual terms; overage charged per thousand requests
GeoIP's creator, billed per query against prepaid credit
Ranked #4 of 12 in Best IP Geolocation Services in 2026.
Published pricingElsewhere
The three GeoIP web service levels are Country, City Plus and Insights, priced at one, three and twenty times the Country rate. With no subscription, a month without traffic costs nothing beyond the prepaid balance.
Credit options are $25, $50, $100, $250 or a custom sum between $20 and $25,000. The home page does not mention a downloadable database, so file-based licensing is not described on the pages read.
What stands out
GeoIP originator
Per-query billing
Prepaid credit
Where it costs you
What the sign-up trial includes is undisclosed, so evaluation scope is unknown.
Larger monthly spend means a sales conversation before any discount.
Right for
Teams that want to pay per query and keep spending proportional
Wrong for
Buyers needing a stated company address before signing
Not stated by the vendorPublished per-query rates by data depth, prepaid credit with no minimums, a trial through sign-up, volume discounts on request
Austrian-run API with six plans and servers in Germany
Ranked #5 of 12 in Best IP Geolocation Services in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
ipbase publishes six levels: Free, Small, Medium, Large, Business and Enterprise. The four paid plans give 65,000, 650,000, 2.5 million and 6 million requests, and the yearly price equals about ten months of the monthly one.
Amounts exclude VAT. Because the plan headers show the yearly price divided by twelve, compare them with the FAQ figures before budgeting, otherwise the real monthly bill is understated.
What stands out
Everapi GmbH
Servers in Germany
Per-minute rate limit
Where it costs you
Free usage is throttled by a per-minute cap on top of the monthly one.
Plan headers show yearly prices divided by 12, which differ from the monthly figures in the summary and FAQ.
Right for
Projects that want a clear ladder of plans and German servers
Wrong for
Buyers who need a street address on file first
AustriaPublished plans billed monthly or yearly, a free tier at low monthly volume, Enterprise invoiced annually
Daily-limit API with a free plan and a seven-day Business trial
Ranked #6 of 12 in Best IP Geolocation Services in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
The free plan at ipdata degrades instead of stopping: after 1,000 city-level lookups in a day, answers drop to country level and the key is no longer required.
Paid steps are Startup at 50,000 requests a day, Business at 100,000 and Enterprise with unlimited requests by custom quote. The about page mentions AWS infrastructure in fifteen regions. Annual billing is said to save 20 percent, though the matching monthly prices are not displayed.
What stands out
Daily request limits
AWS in 15 regions
Business trial
Where it costs you
Monthly prices are not shown, only yearly-billed ones.
Startup has no trial, so only Business can be tested before payment.
Right for
Apps with steady daily traffic that fits a fixed per-day ceiling
Wrong for
Buyers who need a named company and country on file
Not stated by the vendorPublished plans measured in daily requests, a free plan with no card, yearly-billed Startup and Business, custom Enterprise
Credit-metered API without a standing allowance, sold in five plans
Ranked #7 of 12 in Best IP Geolocation Services in 2026.
Published pricingElsewhere
Plans scale from Starter at 100,000 credits to Scale at 2,450,000, while Enterprise starts at $299 a month with 500,000 included. Extra Enterprise blocks cost $20 a month per 100,000 credits.
Customers in the EEA and UK are said to pay in euros, yet the page shows no euro amounts, so the invoice currency needs confirming. One-time credit packs offer a way to buy without a subscription.
What stands out
Credit metering
Extra API keys
One-time credit packs
Where it costs you
Nothing renews after the 20,000 starting credits, so every later lookup is paid.
Extra API keys cost $2 a month each, which adds up where every service has its own key.
Right for
Teams that prefer buying credit blocks over fixed monthly request tiers
Wrong for
Hobby projects that need a monthly allowance at zero cost
Not stated by the vendorPublished credit plans billed monthly or yearly, a one-time credit grant on sign-up, extra credit blocks and one-time packs
Credit-based API with a forever-free Developer plan and add-on modules
Ranked #8 of 12 in Best IP Geolocation Services in 2026.
Published pricingElsewhere
Plans rise from Starter at 150,000 credits a month through Plus, Pro and Business to Premium at 5,000,000, with annual billing about 17 percent cheaper on the example given.
Because modules draw extra credits, a request counted as one lookup elsewhere can cost four here when Security and Abuse Contact are both attached. The Developer plan resets daily rather than monthly. Enterprise uses custom pricing and volume.
What stands out
Credits per lookup
Add-on modules
Annual billing
Where it costs you
Each attached module draws more credits, so real cost exceeds the base lookup price.
Trying a paid plan means asking support or live chat first.
Right for
Developers who want one API with optional security and abuse data
Wrong for
Anyone who wants to predict cost from request count alone
Not stated by the vendorPublished credit plans from a free Developer plan to Premium, annual billing on paid plans, custom Enterprise
Tiered request plans with a small free plan and per-second limits
Ranked #9 of 12 in Best IP Geolocation Services in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
The free plan allows 1,000 requests a month at one request per second and needs no card. Starter, Standard and Professional share the same selector, from 200,000 up to 3,500,000 monthly, so volume does not separate them.
An annual toggle claims a 10 percent saving with yearly options up to 42M, but yearly prices are not listed. The copyright line names Abstract API Inc., and no country or address is shown.
What stands out
Per-second limits
Annual toggle
Free plan, no card
Where it costs you
The feature list and the request selector disagree on paid volume.
Starter is limited to three requests per second.
Right for
Developers who want a small test allowance before choosing a tier
Wrong for
Buyers who must settle exact annual prices from the page
Not stated by the vendorPublished monthly tiers with a free plan, an annual toggle and Enterprise by quote
APILayer product with a non-commercial free plan and three paid levels
Ranked #10 of 12 in Best IP Geolocation Services in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
Four published steps exist: Free at 100 lookups, Standard at 50,000, Business at 500,000 and Business Pro at 2,000,000, billed monthly or yearly, with yearly billing lowering each paid price.
Overage per lookup falls from about 0.001 on Standard to 0.0002 on Business Pro. The service is branded IPAPI within APILayer and its legal documents sit on a separate domain, so check which entity signs your contract.
What stands out
APILayer product
Non-commercial plan
Per-lookup overage
Where it costs you
Commercial use rules out the free plan, which also stops at 100 lookups.
No company address or country appears on the pages read.
Right for
Hobby projects testing a lookup flow before committing to Standard
Wrong for
Businesses that need a free allowance for commercial use
Not stated by the vendorPublished monthly or yearly plans, a free plan limited to non-commercial use, per-lookup overage rates, custom plans on request
Part of APILayer, with a small free plan needing no card
Ranked #11 of 12 in Best IP Geolocation Services in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
Prices run from nothing at 100 requests a month to Basic at 50,000, Professional at 500,000 and Professional + at 2,000,000, with a custom plan on contact.
Because the legal pages live on ideracorp.com, the contracting entity is not visible from the product page itself, which matters when procurement needs a named company. Expect to ask the vendor who invoices before you commit.
What stands out
Part of APILayer
Imprint on ideracorp.com
Four request tiers
Where it costs you
A buyer meets Basic untested, as no paid-plan trial is described.
The free allowance of 100 requests a month covers only a few tests.
Right for
Developers wanting a short published ladder from testing to two million requests
Wrong for
Buyers who want a stated company country before purchase
Not stated by the vendorPublished monthly plans, a free plan without a card, a custom plan through sales
Quote-only provider listing no plans, prices or trial
Ranked #12 of 12 in Best IP Geolocation Services in 2026.
Pricing on requestElsewhere
Digital Element sells by quotation, with price guided by use case, scale and the depth of data, including precision, granularity and attributes. The one complimentary offer is a consultation with its experts.
The copyright line credits Digital Envoy for 2000 to 2025, a name that differs from the Digital Element branding, so confirm the contracting entity. With no listed tiers, comparison with the other eleven entries rests on a sales quote.
What stands out
Quote-based
Use-case pricing
Digital Envoy footer
Where it costs you
No price or plan is listed, so budgeting starts with a sales call.
The page mentions no trial, so data cannot be tested before talking to the company.
Right for
Buyers whose use case justifies a negotiated, quote-based contract today
Wrong for
Developers who want to try a lookup this afternoon
Not stated by the vendorQuoted according to use case, scale and depth, with a contact form and talk-to-sales link
IP geolocation services map an IP address to a place and network details, delivered through a metered web API or a downloadable database file that applications query locally. Compare on the following points, in this order, before you compare features.
01
Decide whether you need a published price
Only 11 of the 12 print a price; 1 quote per organisation. Comparable without a sales call: BigDataCloud, DB-IP, IPinfo, MaxMind, ipbase, ipdata, Ipregistry, IPGeolocation, Abstract API, ipapi, ipstack.
02
Decide how much the jurisdiction matters
The 12 companies behind this list are established in 5 countries, by region Elsewhere 8, Europe 2, North America 1, Asia-Pacific 1. Disclosure obligations attach to the company, so they travel with the vendor even when the servers stay at home.
Metered API or database files: how BigDataCloud, DB-IP and MaxMind deliver IP data
Services here deliver data in two ways, and that choice shapes every later cost. A metered API charges per call: MaxMind bills per query, with Country at $0.0001 and Insights at $0.002, while BigDataCloud and DB-IP sell tiers of requests. Flat files work differently.
BigDataCloud sells CSV or MMDB packages monthly, and DB-IP offers the same two formats as yearly downloads, from IP to Country up to a combined Location and ISP file. Files suit high-volume local lookups, whereas an API suits a low-volume signup form. Estimate your monthly lookups first, price both routes against that figure, and note that the MaxMind pages read do not describe a downloadable database at all.
Estimate monthly lookups before comparing any prices
Price an API route and a file route for the same volume
Confirm the database format your application can read
Credits, daily limits and overage: how Ipregistry, IPGeolocation and ipdata count usage
Every vendor counts differently, so a headline number says little. Ipregistry meters credits and charges $0.25 per 1,000 beyond a plan, plus $2 a month for each extra API key. IPGeolocation charges one credit for a standard lookup, but the Security module adds two and the Abuse Contact module adds one, so a fully loaded call costs four.
ipdata sets limits per day, with Startup at 50,000 requests daily and no monthly figure on the page. Others, such as ipbase and ipstack, quote monthly requests. Convert each plan into lookups per month for the traffic and modules you really expect, then compare the resulting bill instead of the plan label. A plan that looks cheap per request can cost more once modules are attached.
Convert daily and monthly limits into one monthly figure
List the add-on modules each call will carry
Ask what overage costs at twice your expected volume
Free allowances in IP geolocation: what IPinfo, ipapi and ipstack give before you pay
Free access differs in size and in what it permits. IPinfo Lite is free forever but returns country-level data only. ipapi allows 100 lookups on its free plan and restricts it to non-commercial use. ipstack also gives 100 requests a month and needs no card, while ipbase allows 1,000 a month at 10 per minute. Ipregistry gives a single grant of 20,000 credits that never renews.
A free plan therefore tells you whether the data format works, not whether the paid tiers will behave. Because IPinfo and ipstack name no trial of paid plans, the jump from free to paid is often made untested. Plan the first paid month as a trial of its own, with a spending alert, and keep the free plan running beside it.
Read the licence terms on commercial use of free plans
Check which precision level the free allowance returns
Find out whether the first paid tier has a trial
Contracting entity and quotes: ipapi, ipstack and Digital Element on paper
Several pages in this market show little about who sells the service. The ipapi pricing page calls it an APILayer product and links legal pages on ideracorp.com, and ipstack does the same, so the invoicing company is not visible from the product page. Digital Element shows a Digital Envoy copyright line unlike its branding and lists no prices, only a talk-to-sales route.
Others are clearer: DB-IP names Eris Networks S.A.S, ipbase names Everapi GmbH, and BigDataCloud names BigDataCloud Pty Ltd. Ask each shortlisted vendor for the invoicing entity, its country and the currency of the invoice before the first payment, particularly where Ipregistry says EEA and UK customers pay in euros.
Ask for the invoicing entity and its country in writing
Confirm the currency and whether tax is included
Get a written quote where the page lists no plans
What goes wrong most often when buying IP geolocation services software
Comparing a monthly cap with a daily one without converting, which hides how large the per-day plans at ipdata are beside monthly tiers.
Counting every lookup as one unit when add-on modules, such as Security at IPGeolocation, draw extra credits per call.
Assuming a free plan covers commercial use, when ipapi limits its free plan to non-commercial use.
Budgeting from a pricing-page headline, although ipbase headers show yearly prices divided by twelve and Abstract API's feature list disagrees with its selector.
07
Frequently asked questions
6 answers
What is the best IP geolocation services in 2026?
BigDataCloud leads our ranking of 12. BigDataCloud calls itself a small, independent, bootstrapped company in Adelaide that answers to customers rather than investors, which wins the independence test here.
The API starts at 10k requests a month with no card, then climbs through Bronze, Silver and Gold. Database files are sold apart as monthly packages, and redistribution or OEM use is quoted separately, so embedding the data in your own product needs a conversation.
Which IP geolocation services tools publish their pricing?
11 out of 12 state a price model on their own site:
BigDataCloud: Monthly API tiers with a standing free tier, plus flat database files on their own monthly packages; prices published.
DB-IP: Published euro prices: API plans with daily quotas billed monthly, database downloads billed yearly, a trial on the starter API tiers.
IPinfo: Free Lite plan, then Core and Max billed monthly or yearly, Enterprise on custom annual terms; overage charged per thousand requests.
MaxMind: Published per-query rates by data depth, prepaid credit with no minimums, a trial through sign-up, volume discounts on request.
ipbase: Published plans billed monthly or yearly, a free tier at low monthly volume, Enterprise invoiced annually.
ipdata: Published plans measured in daily requests, a free plan with no card, yearly-billed Startup and Business, custom Enterprise.
Ipregistry: Published credit plans billed monthly or yearly, a one-time credit grant on sign-up, extra credit blocks and one-time packs.
IPGeolocation: Published credit plans from a free Developer plan to Premium, annual billing on paid plans, custom Enterprise.
Abstract API: Published monthly tiers with a free plan, an annual toggle and Enterprise by quote.
ipapi: Published monthly or yearly plans, a free plan limited to non-commercial use, per-lookup overage rates, custom plans on request.
ipstack: Published monthly plans, a free plan without a card, a custom plan through sales.
The remaining 1 sell by quote.
Is there a free IP geolocation services tool?
BigDataCloud, IPinfo, ipbase, ipdata, Abstract API, ipapi, ipstack come with a no-cost entry point, a free plan or a self-hosted edition.
Where are these IP geolocation services vendors established?
The headquarters are spread over 5 countries and 4 regions, Elsewhere 8, Europe 2, North America 1, Asia-Pacific 1:
BigDataCloud: Australia.
DB-IP: France.
IPinfo: United States.
MaxMind: Not stated by the vendor.
ipbase: Austria.
ipdata: Not stated by the vendor.
Ipregistry: Not stated by the vendor.
IPGeolocation: Not stated by the vendor.
Abstract API: Not stated by the vendor.
ipapi: Not stated by the vendor.
ipstack: Not stated by the vendor.
Digital Element: Not stated by the vendor.
What should you use instead of BigDataCloud?
The next in line are DB-IP, aimed at teams that want euro billing and a choice between API access and yearly files, and IPinfo, aimed at Developers who need a country lookup now and a paid tier later.
Who should not buy BigDataCloud?
Products that must redistribute the data inside software. Anything beyond the 10M requests of the Gold tier moves to a bespoke quote..
Do you make a IP geolocation services product that is not listed here? Describe what it does and who buys it. We decide on inclusion, a listing cannot be bought, and the details are under software advice.
