GeoLite2 Free Geolocation Data
GeoLite2 databases are free IP geolocation databases comparable to, but less accurate than, MaxMind’s GeoIP2 databases. The GeoLite2 Country and City databases are updated twice weekly, every Tuesday and Friday. The GeoLite2 ASN database is updated daily. GeoLite2 data is also available as a web service in the GeoLite2 Country and GeoLite2 City web services. Users of the GeoLite2 web services are limited to 1000 IP address lookups per service per day.
Accessing GeoLite2 Free Geolocation Data
You will need a free GeoLite2 account to download the GeoLite2 databases or to query the GeoLite2 web services. MaxMind also offers our GeoLite data on Snowflake.
From the side menu in your account portal, you can select “Download Files” to download GeoLite2 databases in binary or CSV format. You can select “Manage License Keys” to generate a license key, which can be used to automate GeoLite2 binary database downloads with the GeoIP Update program or query the web services.
For more information about using GeoLite2, see our section on integration below.
You may also be interested in our testing and integrations guides for our geolocation databases and web services on our knowledge base.
IP Geolocation Accuracy
IP Geolocation Usage
IP geolocation is inherently imprecise. Locations are often near the center of the population. Any location provided by a GeoIP database should not be used to identify a particular address or household.
Use the Accuracy Radius as an indication of geolocation accuracy for the latitude and longitude coordinates we return for an IP address. The actual location of the IP address is likely within the area defined by this radius and the latitude and longitude coordinates.
You can compare accuracy of the GeoLite2 data and MaxMind’s paid GeoIP2 products by selecting a country on our GeoIP2 City Accuracy page.
Integration
GeoLite2 databases and web services use nearly the same integration steps as our paid GeoIP2 databases and web services. In fact, our client API libraries can be used for both GeoIP2 and GeoLite2 products, making transitioning from the free GeoLite2 product line to the paid GeoIP2 product line extremely easy.
Learn more about upgrading from GeoLite to GeoIP on our Knowledge Base.
Databases
See our Database Documentation page for a list of available APIs. GeoIP2 APIs may be used with GeoLite2 binary databases (MMDB). You can also use the GeoIP Update program to automatically keep your GeoLite2 binary format databases up to date.
GeoLite2 CSV databases are released in the same basic format as our GeoIP2 CSV databases, but they may contain fewer data points. To support a seamless upgrade to GeoIP2, and to allow the GeoIP databases to continue to be drop-in replacements for GeoLite database, GeoLite 2 CSV databases include the Anycast field as a data point. This field is left intentionally blank and will not be populated in GeoLIte2 CSV databases.
Web services
See our Web Services Documentation page for a list of available web service APIs. GeoIP2 web service APIs may be used with the GeoLite2 web services by changing the hostname to the appropriate GeoLite2 web service URI. Using the wrong host will result in a permission error.
You can also review our brief tutorial on how to integrate the GeoLite2 City web service using PHP on our blog.
License
The GeoLite2 end-user license agreement incorporates components of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The attribution requirement may be met by including the following in all advertising and documentation mentioning features of or use of GeoLite2 data:
1This product includes GeoLite2 data created by MaxMind, available from
2<a href="https://www.maxmind.com">https://www.maxmind.com</a>.
Support
MaxMind does not provide official support for the free GeoLite2 web services or databases. If you have questions about the GeoLite2 web services or databases, or GeoIP2 APIs, please see stackoverflow’s GeoIP questions and answers or the GeoIP and GeoLite section of our knowledge base.
GeoLite2 Commercial Redistribution
We also offer redistribution licenses for GeoLite2 databases that allow you to package the databases with your commercial products without the need for attribution. For more information, please visit the GeoLite2 Commercial Redistribution page.
Earn a Commission with Your Integration
If you’re using GeoLite2 data to develop an integration or application for IP geolocation, you may wish to become a MaxMind developer affiliate and add compatibility with our paid GeoIP2 databases or web services.
MaxMind developer affiliates can earn a 10% commission on all qualified purchases by new customers referred to MaxMind. You can build your plugin packaged with GeoLite2 data, and offer your users a way to sign up with MaxMind to get our more accurate, paid IP geolocation data.
You can learn more about the MaxMind affiliate program for developers on our Knowledge Base.