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Frequently Asked Questions

Account

How can I start using the PTV Developer APIs?

You need to sign up for a PTV account and then activate your free subscription of PTV Developer. If you already have a PTV account, you can directly activate your free product. No payment details are needed to activate your free product.

Can I activate more than one free subscription?

No. Every account can only activate one free subscription of PTV Developer but multiple paid subscriptions.

Where can I update my personal data?

You can use the avatar menu on the top right corner to reach the Manage Profile section and update your personal information.

Where can I delete my account?

In the Manage Profile section you have the possibility to delete your account. Please note that you can only delete your account if no subscription is active.

Developer Support

How can I generate API keys to start developing?

Within your product instance you can create, rename and delete API keys in the API Keys App.

How many API keys can I create using a free subscription?

For the free subscription one API key is included. If you need more API keys, please contact us and we will find a solution that fits best to your needs.

How do I use the API keys?

The API keys are needed to authenticate against PTV Developer APIs. Check the Quick Start of the API documentations for more details on the authentication options.

How can I run performance tests on PTV Developer APIs?

If you want to run performance or load tests, please contact us and we will find a solution that fits best to your needs.

How can I generate client classes for PTV Developer APIs?

Learn how to generate clients for PTV Developer APIs in this tutorial. Alternatively you can download clients for Java, C# and TypeScript from GitHub.

What does the experimental tag for PTV Developer APIs mean?

The term "experimental" denotes a service or feature that is still in the early phases of development. It could still be going through extensive testing and not be completely stable.

  • API stability: An experimental feature or service's API may be unstable. This implies that depending on the input or the direction of the work, it could alter regularly or, in certain cases, it might be entirely removed.
  • Completeness: A feature or service that is still being tested may not be fully functioning. It offers a sneak preview of something that is still in the development stage.
  • Documentation: It is labelled with the tagline [EXPERIMENTAL].

What does the preview tag for PTV Developer APIs mean?

The term "preview" refers to a service or feature that is more developed than an experimental one. Although the core functions are established and reliable, it could still be missing some features that are planned for the full release.

  • API Stability: A preview feature or service's API is stable, indicating users may anticipate predictable behavior and replies.
  • Completeness: A feature or service is more comprehensive than an experimental one. The majority of the functions are available, however certain intended features could be absent at this time; these features will be introduced in the future.
  • Documentation: It is labelled with the tagline [PREVIEW].

How can I avoid 404 (Not Found) error codes even though my url seems to be ok?

If the endpoint requires a parameter in the path and this parameter is missing you will get a http response code 404 (Not Found) even if the rest of the url is correct. You have to add the required parameter to the url in order to get a successful response or an error message with more details if something else is wrong with the parameter.

Licensing & Terms

Can I use a free subscription for productive/commercial use of my application?

The free subscription is only for testing and integration purposes. If you want to roll out your application for commercial use, you need to contact us and we will find a solution that fits best to your needs.

What are the terms of use?

You can find the terms of use for different regions by using the according link below.

EU - English
EU - German
US - English

What are the limits for the free subscription?

The free subscription is only for testing and integration purposes and has some limits compared to a paid subscription. In general, 500 transactions per day and one API key are included to test all offered services. Some services have additional limits as described in the table below.

APIMethodLimit
Geocoding & Places API-No additional limit
Geocoding & Places OSM API-No additional limit
Raster Maps API-No additional limit
Vector Maps API-No additional limit
Vector Maps OSM API-No additional limit
Map Matching API-No additional limit
Routing API-No additional limit
Routing OSM API-No additional limit
Matrix Routing APIcalculateMatrix (sync)250 matrix relations per request
startMatrixCalculation (async)250 matrix relations per request
Matrix Routing OSM APIcalculateMatrix (sync)250 matrix relations per request
startMatrixCalculation (async)250 matrix relations per request
EWS Road Distance APIgetRelation100 requests per month
Route Optimization APIcreatePlan25 transports per request
Sequence Optimization APIstartAndCreateOptimizedRoute25 transports per request
Loading Space Optimization APIstartBinPacking (async)5 bins and 100 items per request
Data API-No additional limit

How are transactions calculated?

To measure the transactions 1k packages are used as measurement unit. Your usage of all offered services is simply added up.

APIMethod1k transactions correspond to...
Geocoding & Places APIsearchLocationsByText1,000 texts
searchLocationsByAddress1,000 addresses
searchLocationsByPosition1,000 positions
getSuggestionsByAdress100,000 suggestions
searchPlacesByText1,000 texts
searchPlacesByPosition500 positions
searchPlacesByArea500 areas
Geocoding & Places OSM APIsearchPlacesByText1,000 texts
searchPlacesByPosition500 positions
searchPlacesByAddress1,000 addresses
Raster Maps APIgetImageTile15,000 image tiles
getDataTile15,000 data tiles
getSatelliteTile5,000 satellite tiles
Vector Maps APIgetVectorTile15,000 vector tiles
Vector Maps OSM APIgetVectorTile15,000 vector tiles
Map Matching APImatchPosition5,000 positions
createMatchedTrack5,000 positions
Routing APIcalculateRoute1,000 routes
calculateRoutePost1,000 routes
getRouteByRouteId1,000 routes
calculateReachableAreas (sync)500 waypoints
startAndCreateReachableAreas (async)500 waypoints
startAndCreateReachableLocations500 waypoints
Routing OSM APIcalculateRoute1,000 routes
Matrix Routing APIcalculateMatrix (sync)1,000 matrix relations
startMatrixCalculation (async)1,000 matrix relations
Matrix Routing OSM APIcalculateMatrix (sync)1,000 matrix relations
startMatrixCalculation (async)1,000 matrix relations
EWS Road Distance APIgetRelation1,000 relations
Route Optimization APIstartOptimization60 transports
30 transports when using Optimization Premium
Sequence Optimization APIstartAndCreateOptimizedRoute120 transports
Loading Space Optimization APIpackBins (sync)10 bins
startBinPacking (async)10 bins
Data API-No transactions calculated

Please note that the error code 'GENERAL_QUOTA_EXCEEDED' is returned, if the transaction limit of your subscription is exceeded. If you need more transactions, please contact us and we will find a solution that fits best to your needs.

What are request limits?

Request limits define a maximum amount of objects in a single call of the services (e.g. number of waypoints per routing request). If the limits are reached it is recommended to split up the amount of objects into multiple requests. Note that for some APIs there are no request limits because the endpoints handle only single objects (e.g. map tiles, addresses or coordinates).

Find the request limits per service in the table below.

APIMethodRequest limit
Geocoding & Places API-No request limit
Geocoding & Places OSM API-No request limit
Raster Maps API-No request limit
Vector Maps API-No request limit
Vector Maps OSM API-No request limit
Map Matching APIcreateMatchedTrack16,200 positions per request
Routing APIcalculateRoute25 waypoints per request
calculateRoutePost25 waypoints per request
Routing OSM APIcalculateRoute25 waypoints per request
Matrix Routing APIcalculateMatrix (sync)250,000 matrix relations per request
startMatrixCalculation (async)4,000,000 matrix relations per request
Matrix Routing OSM APIcalculateMatrix (sync)250,000 matrix relations per request
startMatrixCalculation (async)

4,000,000 matrix relations per request 

(250,000 matrix relations for time-dependent matrices) 

EWS Road Distance API-No request limit
Route Optimization APIcreatePlan3,000 transports per request
Sequence Optimization APIstartAndCreateOptimizedRoute500 transports per request
Loading Space Optimization APIpackBins (sync)2 bins and 100 items per request
startBinPacking (async)100 bins and 10,000 items per request
Data API-No request limit

Please note that depending on your current subscription lower limits may apply.

What are rate limits?

Rate limits are the number of requests per given time period a single API key can make. If those limits are exceeded, the error code 'GENERAL_RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED' is returned and further requests will temporarily be rejected (sliding window based). Please note that the rejection in one API does not affect other APIs.

Find the rate limits per service in the table below.

APIMethodRate limit
Geocoding & Places APIsearchLocationsByText2,000 requests per minute
searchLocationsByAddress2,000 requests per minute
getSuggestionsByAddress2,000 requests per minute
searchLocationsByPosition10,000 requests per minute
All other methods600 requests per minute
Geocoding & Places OSM APIAll methods600 requests per minute
Raster Maps APIgetSatelliteTile2,500 requests per minute
All other methods10,000 requests per minute
Vector Maps APIAll methods10,000 requests per minute
Vector Maps OSM APIAll methods10,000 requests per minute
Map Matching APImatchPosition10,000 requests per minute
All other methods300 requests per minute
Routing APIstartAndCreateReachableAreas (async)50 requests per minute
startAndCreateReachableLocations (async)50 requests per minute
All other methods500 requests per minute
Routing OSM APIAll methods300 requests per minute
Matrix Routing APIcalculateMatrix (sync)500 requests per minute
startMatrixCalculation (async)50 requests per minute
getStatus3,000 requests per minute
All other methods100 requests per minute
Matrix Routing OSM APIcalculateMatrix (sync)500 requests per minute
startMatrixCalculation (async)50 requests per minute
getStatus3,000 requests per minute
All other methods100 requests per minute
EWS Road Distance APIAll methods600 requests per minute
Route Optimization APIstartOptimization50 requests per minute
getOperationStatus3,000 requests per minute
All other methods100 requests per minute
Sequence Optimization APIstartAndCreateOptimizedRoute50 requests per minute
getOptimizedRoute3,000 requests per minute
All other methods100 requests per minute
Loading Space Optimization APIpackBins (sync)20 requests per minute
startBinPacking (async)50 requests per minute
getStatus3,000 requests per minute
All methods100 requests per minute
Data APIAll methods300 requests per minute