Geocoding is the process of converting a textual representation of place—such as an address or a place name—into spatial coordinates that can be added to a map.
For more in-depth information on geocoding, check out the resources in the Documentation and Training section of this research guide.
We've recommended two options for geocoding below, and you can find more in the Address Locators section of this research guide.
The cloud-based ArcGIS World Geocoding Service is provided by ESRI as the default locator in ArcGIS Online, and also in ArcGIS Pro as long as the user is logged into their ArcGIS Online account in the application.
Batch geocoding (converting many addresses at once) with this service uses 40 credits per 1,000 geocodes. By default WashU users are provided 500 credits, so this option cannot be used if you have more than 12,500 addresses.
Individual addresses can be located at no cost using the appropriate search function in any of the ESRI suite of software.
See the Geocoding Workflows and Documentation and Training pages of this guide for more details on using the ArcGIS World Geocoding Service in ArcGIS online and ArcGIS Pro.
ArcGIS StreetMap Premium (SMP) includes an address locator that is updated several times per year and is the most current “in-house” address locator available to the WashU community. Our subscription gives us access to the North America and Latin America datasets. If your project will require geocoding more than 12,500 addresses outside the Americas please contact Data Services so we can help you find a solution.
We offfer three different ways of accessing SMP:
