Addresses, places and radius searches

ListShack's geocoding tools turn addresses into locations, check batches of addresses, find what's at a point, look up places, and let you count and buy records within a radius. Geocoding is for the United States only and runs on ListShack's own geocoder, so your addresses are never sent to a third-party mapping service.

What it costs

Geocoding has its own monthly lookup allowance. It never uses your free data calls or your credits.

Plan	Lookups a month
Free	25,000
Paid	250,000

• Looking up an address, a point or a place uses one lookup; checking a batch uses one lookup per address.
• A lookup that fails, is refused, or times out uses nothing, and a retried lookup isn't charged again.
• The allowance resets on the 1st of each month (UTC). Every answer shows how many lookups you have left.

Radius counts and searches are counts, so they use your data calls like any other count.

1. Looking up an address

You can ask	What you get back
"Where is 350 5th Ave, New York, NY?"	Latitude and longitude, and the address in standard form
"What county is 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC in?"	The county, with city, state and ZIP
"Clean up this address: 350 fifth avenue nyc"	House number, street, unit, city, county, state and ZIP
"Is 123 Main Street, Springfield a real address?"	Whether it matches an exact street address, or only a street, place or area
"Give me the top 3 matches for 'Main St, Springfield'."	Up to 5 possible matches, best first

An answer is an exact address only when it matches a real US street address. A match on just a street, a town or a landmark is shown as such.

2. Checking a batch of addresses

You can ask	What you get back
"Check these 20 addresses and tell me which are valid."	Valid or not for each, with the standard form or the reason
"Standardize this list of customer addresses."	Each address in standard form
"Which of these addresses can't be found?"	The ones that failed, with the reason for each

• Up to 25 addresses at a time; ask again for more.
• An address is valid only on an exact US street-address match. It can be invalid because it was blank, couldn't be interpreted, or matched only a street, place or area.
• One bad address doesn't stop the rest of the batch.

3. What's at a location

You can ask	What you get back
"What's the address at 40.7484, -73.9857?"	The nearest street address and its distance in miles
"What are the 5 closest addresses to this point?"	Up to 5 nearby addresses, nearest first

4. Looking up a place

You can ask	What you get back
"Where is Austin, Texas?"	Its center point and boundaries
"Find Travis County, TX."	The county's center, boundaries and state
"What is ZIP code 78701?"	The ZIP code's center and boundaries
"Which Springfields are there?"	Up to 5 matching places, each with its state

For a city, county or state, the assistant also gets a ready-made filter for counts and searches. A ZIP code doesn't; to search around one, use a radius from its center.

5. Counting and buying records within a radius

Radius search finds records within a distance of an address you looked up, the center of a place, or coordinates you give. It works on US Consumers and US Businesses, but not yet on Aged US Vehicle Owners and US Cell Phones 2.

You can ask	What happens
"How many homeowners live within 5 miles of 350 5th Ave, New York?"	Looks up the address (1 lookup), then counts (1 data call)
"How many businesses are within 10 miles of downtown Austin?"	Looks up Austin's center, then counts around it
"How many people aged 65 and over can I mail to within 3 miles of my store at 123 Main St, Columbus, OH?"	Looks up the address, then counts with the age filter and the direct mail rules
"Make it 15 miles instead."	Recounts with the new radius; no new lookup
"Save that radius search and buy 2,000 records from it."	Saves the search with its radius, then buys after your approval

• A radius can be from 0.5 to 100 miles, and it combines with every other filter and rule.
• A saved search keeps its radius, so previews and purchases contain only records inside it.
• Counts are still rounded to the nearest 10, and counts under 25 are hidden.

6. Your geocoding allowance

• "How many geocoding lookups do I have left?"
• "Did that batch use up my lookups?"

What it can't do

• Geocode or search outside the United States.
• Suggest addresses as you type.
• Return the exact boundary of a city or county; you get its center and a box around it.
• Search a custom area drawn on a map; searches use a radius around one point.

Limits

Limit	Value
Lookups a month	25,000 free; 250,000 paid
Matches per lookup	Up to 5
Addresses per batch	Up to 25
Radius	0.5 to 100 miles