All locations of a chain by Wikidata ID

brand:wikidata links a shop or restaurant to the Wikidata item of the brand. It is language-independent and the same in every country, which makes it the most reliable way to find a chain.

The query

[out:json][timeout:60];
area["ISO3166-1"="CH"][admin_level=2]->.ch;
nwr["brand:wikidata"="Q38076"](area.ch);
out center;

Run it

Live result from overpass.ch, cached for up to 12 hours. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

How it works

1. Q38076 is McDonald's on Wikidata. Look up the ID of any brand on wikidata.org.
2. No amenity filter is needed: the brand tag alone identifies the outlets.

Variations

• Several brands at once: ["brand:wikidata"~"^(Q38076|Q177054)$"] (McDonald's and Burger King).
• Big countries take longer to search. Raise [timeout:], or split the query by region.

Run it from your code

curl https://api.overpass.ch/v1/YOUR_API_KEY/interpreter \
  --data-urlencode 'data@query.overpassql'

import requests

query = open("query.overpassql").read()
r = requests.post("https://api.overpass.ch/v1/YOUR_API_KEY/interpreter",
                  data={"data": query}, timeout=120)
r.raise_for_status()
print(r.json()["elements"][:3])

const res = await fetch("https://api.overpass.ch/v1/YOUR_API_KEY/interpreter", {
  method: "POST",
  body: new URLSearchParams({ data: query }),
});
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(await res.text());
console.log(await res.json());

Save the query as query.overpassql. It works the same in Overpass Turbo, QGIS and JOSM.