---
id: morecantile
version: "7.0.3"
license: MIT License Copyright (c) 2020 Development Seed Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to… (full text in the JSON record)
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# morecantile — Construct and use map tile grids (a.k.a TileMatrixSet / TMS).

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 667.1K/mo

## What it is and what it does

Morecantile is a library for constructing and querying map tile grids (TileMatrixSets) that conform to the OGC Two Dimensional Tile Matrix Set specification version 2.0. It extends the concept of Web Mercator tile indexing to support arbitrary coordinate reference systems and tile grid definitions. The library provides a set of built-in grids covering common projections (Web Mercator, UTM, polar stereographic, and regional systems) and allows you to define custom grids.

You use it to convert between tile coordinates and geographic or projected bounds, retrieve bounding boxes for tiles in their native CRS or in geographic coordinates, and manage tile grid metadata. It's commonly used as a foundation for tile-based geospatial services, raster tile generation, and OGC-compliant tile APIs.

Use it for:

- Generate tile coordinates and bounds for raster data served in non-Web Mercator projections like UTM or polar stereographic.
- Build OGC-compliant tile servers that support multiple TileMatrixSet definitions.
- Convert between tile indices and geographic/projected coordinates for geospatial analysis.
- Integrate tile grid logic into map rendering or tile caching systems.
- Support regional mapping applications using country-specific or continent-specific tile grids.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Construct and work with map tile grids following the OGC TileMatrixSet specification, supporting Web Mercator and many other coordinate reference systems beyond the standard Web Mercator grid.

Yes. Morecantile is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, low install friction, and permissive licensing. Install it if you need to work with map tiles in coordinate systems other than Web Mercator, or if you're building OGC-compliant geospatial services. The library is well-established in the geospatial Python ecosystem.

## Install

pip install morecantile
uv add morecantile
poetry add morecantile

## Installing morecantile

Before you install: Low friction: pure Python wheel with four runtime dependencies (attrs, click, pydantic, pyproj). Actively maintained with recent releases; last commit 2026-08-09.

License in practice: MIT License permits unrestricted use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions—suitable for commercial and open-source projects alike.

Quickstart:

pip install morecantile

import morecantile

tms = morecantile.tms.get("WebMercatorQuad")
print(tms.xy_bbox)
print(tms.bounds(morecantile.Tile(10, 10, 4)))

Requires Python 3.11 or later; pyproj dependency may require system PROJ libraries on some platforms.

Verify before relying:

- Whether pyproj's system-level PROJ dependency adds meaningful install friction on Windows or macOS.
- Performance characteristics when working with large numbers of tiles or custom TileMatrixSet definitions.

## Package facts

- License: MIT License Copyright (c) 2020 Development Seed Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to… (full text in the JSON record) (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 667.1K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

tile matrix set, map tile grids, TMS coordinate systems, web mercator tiles, geospatial tile indexing, OGC tile grids, raster tile coordinates, geospatial, gis, tile-grids

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/morecantile) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/morecantile/)