Cities Lookup

Overview

Pass any city name to query a monthly updated catalog of over 150,000 settlements. The response lists matching places with their country name, two-letter ISO code, census population count, and population category. Free requests return one matching record, while paid plans include custom result limits and longitude-latitude coordinates.

Live Test Cities Lookup API →

Endpoint

One host, one path per API. The block below shows this call in four languages; every one of them is the same HTTP request. Making requests covers the timeouts, retries and parameter rules that apply to all of them. The SDKs wrap the same call in a typed client.

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curl "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/citieslookup?city=San%20Francisco&limit=5" \
  -H "x-api-key: your_api_key_here"

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const res = await fetch('https://api.apiverve.com/v1/citieslookup?city=San%20Francisco&limit=5', {
  headers: { 'x-api-key': 'your_api_key_here' },
});

if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`${res.status} ${await res.text()}`);

const { data } = await res.json();
console.log(data);

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import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/citieslookup?city=San%20Francisco&limit=5",
    headers={"x-api-key": "your_api_key_here"},
    timeout=15,
)
res.raise_for_status()

print(res.json()["data"])

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package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
)

func main() {
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/citieslookup?city=San%20Francisco&limit=5", nil)
	req.Header.Set("x-api-key", "your_api_key_here")

	res, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer res.Body.Close()

	out, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
	fmt.Println(string(out))
}

Replace your_api_key_here with the key from your dashboard. When the inputs arrive as a list rather than one at a time, batch requests run up to 200 of them through this same API in a single call.

Authentication

Send your key in the x-api-key header. That is the only auth step — there is no token exchange and no per-endpoint scope to configure. Authentication covers creating, rotating and revoking keys.

Parameters

Sent in the query string. Premium parameters are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them.

Response

Every API returns the same three top-level keys, so one response handler covers your whole integration: status, error and data. Only data changes shape. Response format covers the envelope, the other output formats and how premium fields are withheld.

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{
  "status": "ok",
  "error": null,
  "data": {
    "search": "San Francisco",
    "foundCities": [
      {
        "name": "San Francisco",
        "altName": "",
        "country": "US",
        "countryName": "United States",
        "featureCode": "PPLA2",
        "population": 874961,
        "populationCategory": "major",
        "loc": {
          "type": "Point",
          "coordinates": [
            -122.4194,
            37.7749
          ]
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Response fields

Paths are relative to data. Premium fields are absent rather than zeroed on plans that do not include them, so check for presence instead of comparing to 0.

Errors

Read the HTTP status first, then error for the specific reason. The body names the parameter that has to change. Error handling covers the full status list and which of them are worth retrying.

Use cases

Checkout Address Validation

When customers enter a city name during checkout, match official country codes and alternative names to standardize shipping records.

Retail Expansion Sizing

Retail analysts evaluate new store candidates by querying population figures and city size categories across international regions.

Fleet Dispatch Routing

For regional delivery scheduling, dispatchers convert destination city names into exact longitude and latitude coordinates on paid tiers.

Travel Destination Filtering

To help users discover vacation spots, travel search engines group destinations by population tier and resolve local alias spellings.

Other ways to use Cities Lookup

Set up Cities Lookup on APIVerve, or reach the same source a different way. Your APIVerve account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.

Related

More in Geography: