Overpass API alternatives
The public overpass-api.de server is often busy and is not meant for production use. Your options are other public instances, your own server, hosted Overpass, or a different tool.
Why look for an alternative?
- Errors under load: 429 Too Many Requests and 504 Gateway Timeout, especially at busy times of day.
- Usage policy: the public server is meant for light use, roughly under 10,000 queries and 1 GB per day. Its operators ask heavy and commercial users to use their own or a paid server.
- No guarantees: there is no SLA or support, and the limits can change at any time.
1. Other public instances
A few organisations run free public Overpass servers, listed on the OpenStreetMap wiki, for example:
- overpass.private.coffee, run by Private.coffee (formerly overpass.kumi.systems).
- maps.mail.ru/osm/tools/overpass, run by VK Maps.
Good for: spreading occasional load, testing. Watch out: they are free, best-effort services with their own policies. They can change or disappear without notice, and you don't know who else is using them. Check the terms of each operator before you rely on one.
2. Run your own Overpass server
Overpass is open source, and ready-made Docker images exist. For the full planet, plan for:
- Disk: about 500 GB on fast NVMe SSDs for the planet with metadata (our own database is 493 GB), more with history.
- Memory: 32 GB or more, plus RAM for the file cache. Queries are much faster when the database fits in cache.
- Initial load: several hours to download a clone of the database, then catching up with the minutely updates.
- Operations: keeping the minutely updates and area generation running, monitoring, upgrades, backups, and handling the occasional corrupted index.
Good for: very high volume, a single region (a country extract needs far less hardware), or data that must stay in your network. Watch out: the server cost is the small part; the time to run it is the big one.
3. Hosted Overpass API
Several companies run Overpass servers and sell access with an API key: for example Geofabrik, Tracestrack and us, overpass.ch. When you compare, check:
- Coverage: the full planet or one region? With metadata and areas?
- Freshness: minutely, hourly or daily updates?
- Limits: requests per month and minute, parallel queries, maximum timeout and memory.
- Priority: what happens when the server is busy?
- Where the servers are, and who you sign the contract with.
Good for: applications and teams that need Overpass to work, without running a server. Watch out: compare the limits with your real usage, and check whether you can raise them later.
4. Not Overpass at all
Overpass is the best tool for targeted questions: “all X in place Y”, “where do these streets cross”, “what changed”. For other jobs, different tools fit better:
- Bulk data for a whole country: download an extract (
.osm.pbf) from Geofabrik and load it with osmium, osm2pgsql or Planetiler. - Geocoding (address → coordinates): Nominatim or Photon.
- Map tiles: a vector tile service or your own tiles from Planetiler.
- Routing: OSRM, Valhalla or GraphHopper.
At a glance
| Public instance | Own server | overpass.ch | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Hardware plus your time | Free plan; paid plans from CHF 19/month |
| Setup | None | Days, then ongoing operations | Minutes: change one URL |
| Limits | Per IP address, shared, can change | Your hardware | Per key, published, in every response |
| When busy | 429 and 504 errors | Up to you | Paid plans are served first |
| Data | Full planet, minutely | What you load | Full planet with metadata and areas, minutely |
| Support | Community | You | E-mail, Swiss company, servers in the EU |
Switching takes one line
overpass.ch runs the standard Overpass API, so every query, library and tool works unchanged. Only the URL changes:
https://overpass-api.de/api/interpreter
→ https://api.overpass.ch/v1/YOUR_API_KEY/interpreter
See the documentation for Overpass Turbo, JOSM, QGIS, Python, R and JavaScript, and the query examples to get started.