---
id: placekey
version: "0.0.36"
license: unclear
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: aging
---

# placekey — Utilities for working with Placekeys

License: permissive · Maintenance: aging · Downloads: 86.5K/mo

## What it is and what it does

Placekey-py is a Python client for the Placekey location encoding system, which assigns unique identifiers to geographic places based on coordinates or addresses. The library provides three main functions: local conversion between Placekeys and latitude-longitude pairs or H3 indices (no network calls required), distance calculations between Placekeys, and an API client for batch geocoding through the Placekey service. The API client handles rate limiting automatically and integrates with pandas for bulk operations.

The package depends on h3, shapely, requests, ratelimit, backoff, boto3, and pandas. It's useful for teams that need a standardized location identifier across datasets or systems, or for accessing Placekey's public datasets stored in S3. The local conversion functions work offline, while the API client requires authentication and network access.

Use it for:

- Standardize location data across multiple datasets by converting addresses or coordinates to Placekeys for consistent joins.
- Batch geocode addresses through the Placekey API with automatic rate limiting and confidence scores.
- Calculate distances between locations encoded as Placekeys without repeated coordinate lookups.
- Access and download Placekey's free public datasets (e.g., business locations) from S3.
- Validate Placekey format in data pipelines before downstream processing.

## Worth the install?

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

Converts between Placekeys (location identifiers), geographic coordinates, and H3 indices; includes an API client for batch geocoding and dataset access.

Yes, if you need Placekey integration. The package is stable (no known vulnerabilities), has low install friction, and the permissive license poses no risk. However, the aging maintenance status (540 days since last release) and reliance on an external service for API features mean you should verify that the Placekey service itself meets your availability and support expectations before committing to it as a core dependency.

## Install

pip install placekey
uv add placekey
poetry add placekey

## Installing placekey

Before you install: Low friction: pure Python wheel with no compiled dependencies beyond shapely (which may require system GEOS on macOS Big Sur). Aging maintenance status—last release 540 days ago—but no active vulnerabilities and Python 3.8+ support remains current.

License in practice: Apache 2.0 permissive license allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; suitable for most projects.

Quickstart:

pip install placekey

import placekey as pk

# Convert lat/long to Placekey
placekey = pk.geo_to_placekey(37.7371, -122.44283)
print(placekey)  # '@5vg-82n-kzz'

# Convert Placekey back to coordinates
lat, lon = pk.placekey_to_geo('@5vg-82n-kzz')
print(lat, lon)

macOS Big Sur may require `brew install geos` before shapely installs successfully.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the API client requires an active Placekey API key and whether free tier access is available.
- Current state of the Placekey service itself and whether the API endpoints remain stable.
- Performance characteristics for batch operations on large DataFrames via the pandas integration.

## Package facts

- License: not declared (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: aging
- Downloads: 86.5K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

placekey geocoding, location identifier conversion, h3 index to coordinates, batch place lookup api, geographic coordinate encoding, placekey api client, location standardization, geocoding, location-data, geospatial

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