Comparison
Openrouteservice is retiring its old API host. The protocol is the same.
We’re compatible with Openrouteservice: the same protocol, on the same map data. What differs is headroom.
This API is for when the free tier of Openrouteservice’s public API stops being enough. That happens often, and it looks the same each time: quotas are per endpoint, the matrix quota is the smallest, and there’s no published paid plan above it. Every paid plan here allows more requests a minute than their 40, and a monthly allowance to match.
| Feature | WayMatrix | Openrouteservice |
|---|---|---|
| Matrix requests included 1 | 50,000 elements / month, free | 500 requests / day |
| Matrix size per call 2 | 2,500 on the free tier, up to 90,000 on paid | 3,500 elements |
| Paying for more 3 | Priced tiers | No paid plan published |
| Rate limit 4 | 5 to 120 requests / minute, by plan | 40 matrix requests / minute |
| What you may do with results 5 | Keep them | Share-alike applies |
| Keys in a browser 6 | A restricted key for that purpose | Not permitted |
| Road data | OpenStreetMap | OpenStreetMap |
| Coverage | North America | Global |
| Other endpoints 7 | Matrix, directions, isochrones | Also geocoding, elevation, POIs, optimization |
| Support | A person who answers | Community forum |
| Migration effort 8 | Change the base URL | Host and path both changed |
-
Read these two carefully, because they are different quantities and neither is the other in disguise: ours counts pairs and theirs counts calls, and one call of theirs may carry up to 2,500 pairs. Which free allowance is larger therefore depends entirely on the size of your matrices — at one pair per call ours is, and from 2 by 2 upward theirs is, about thirty times over at 10 by 10 and far more above that. This row was marked a win for us and on the free tier it is not one. What is true there is in the next two rows: the per-call ceiling is about the same, and there is no published way to pay them for more. Their side of this row is also per endpoint rather than pooled — matrix gets 500 a day, directions 2,000 and isochrones 500 — and the often-quoted "2,500 a day" belongs to a different plan.
Back to Matrix requests included -
On the free tier the limit is about the same: 2,500 elements is a 50 by 50 matrix, and their docs illustrate 3,500 with a 50 by 50 example, which is also 2,500. The difference is on paid plans. Theirs also drops to 25 elements with dynamic arguments, a more than hundredfold cut that is easy to trip over.
Back to Matrix size per call -
Openrouteservice: Their higher Collaborative allowance is only for humanitarian, academic, governmental and not-for-profit organisations that apply, and it's non-commercial. There's no published path from the free tier to a commercial plan.
Back to Paying for more -
Both of us rate-limit, and in the same unit. Ours is tighter on the free plan — 5 a minute against their 40 — and looser on every paid one.
Back to Rate limit -
Their terms license results under CC BY-SA 4.0. That covers whatever you build from them and requires crediting Openrouteservice and HeiGIT. Ours has one caveat: storing and using results internally is always fine, but a database you build from them and publish may carry the share-alike obligation of the ODbL, the Open Database Licence that covers OpenStreetMap data.
Back to What you may do with results -
Openrouteservice: Their FAQ says a key belongs to one person and must not be used in a browser. Keep that in mind before you build a map widget around one.
Back to Keys in a browser -
Openrouteservice: They run four services we don't. If your application uses any of them, this comparison covers one part of your bill, not all of it.
Back to Other endpoints -
Openrouteservice: Openrouteservice announced on 28 April 2026 that api.openrouteservice.org is deprecated, cut it to 10% of plan quota on 27 August, and has said that host shuts down after 2 November 2026. The new address changes the host and adds a path segment: api.openrouteservice.org/v2/matrix becomes api.heigit.org/openrouteservice/v2/matrix. So their own users have a base URL to change, whoever they route with, and a date to do it by. Their announcements are linked in the sources above.
Back to Migration effort
Openrouteservice figures were read from their own plans and restrictions pages on 2 September 2026. Their old host lost 90% of its quota on 27 August 2026, and it shuts down after 2 November 2026, so treat figures from before that quota cut with caution. The per-request restrictions and the FAQ cited below were re-read on 19 October 2026 and are unchanged. The per-endpoint quotas were not: their plans page now draws its figures in the browser and carries none in the page source.
Not yet verified for publication. The Openrouteservice quotas below have not been re-read since the date shown. Written .
Which of us you should buy
Come to us if…
- You are chunking matrices to fit 3,500 elements. Their own example for that limit is a 50 by 50 matrix. With us, you won't need the batching and stitching code written to work around it.
- You have hit the ceiling and found nothing above it. There's no published paid plan above the free tier, and the higher allowance is only for non-commercial organisations. For a company with growing traffic, that is a dead end.
- Share-alike on your results is a problem. Their terms attach CC BY-SA 4.0 to what you compute. If you're building something commercial on those numbers, read that clause before you go further.
- You have to edit the base URL either way. Openrouteservice has said its old host shuts down after 2 November 2026, so you're changing that line anyway. Point it at us instead.
Stay with Openrouteservice if…
- The free tier already covers you. Five hundred matrix requests a day is plenty for a prototype, an internal tool or a product with modest traffic. Don't pay us for what you already get free.
- You use their geocoder, elevation, POIs or optimization. We serve three endpoints and they serve nine. Splitting one application across two providers to save on matrices is rarely worth it. For route optimization, see Optimiciti
- You route outside North America. They're global. We cover one continent, and we can't route you outside it.
- Your organisation qualifies for their Collaborative plan. Humanitarian, academic, governmental and not-for-profit work can apply for a much higher allowance at no cost. Apply for that before you pay anyone.
- You want the reference implementation. It's their API, and we match it. If you want the original rather than a compatible alternative, stay with them.
The same request, somewhere with more room.
Take a call you already make, point it here, and compare the results. Nothing else in your code changes, and the free allowance is enough to check 50,000 pairs before you decide.
client.py
Removed: - base_url = "https://api.openrouteservice.org"
Added: + base_url = "https://api.waymatrix.io" headers = {"Authorization": API_KEY}The header shape is theirs too: a raw key with no Bearer prefix, which is what their client libraries send.