GeoIP Legacy Web Services

The GeoIP web services allow you to look up information about a given IP address using an HTTP-based API.

Release Notes

Changes to the GeoIP web services are documented in our release notes.

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.

HTTP-based API

The HTTP API requires you to pass a set of parameters as an HTTP GET or POST. Results are returned in a simple text format documented below.

We offer several different services, each providing a different amount of information about the IP address.

All of the services take the same parameters as inputs. The only difference between them is the URI they use and the data they return. The two parameters that each service takes are the IP address to look up and your MaxMind license key.

The parameters should be passed in a query string or as a form post (application/x-www-form-urlencoded). The IP address parameter should be named i (lower case "I") and the license key should be named l (lower case "L").

The IP address should be passed as a string like "44.55.66.77" or "2001:db8::2:1".

Per-Service URIs

The URIs for each service are as follows:

The geoip.maxmind.com hostname automatically picks the data center geographically closest to you.

Security

We require TLS 1.2 or greater for HTTPS requests to our servers to keep your data secure. We also recommend you access this service via HTTPS.

Output

All services return data as a set of comma-separated fields. The ISP name, Organization name, and AS number fields are quoted, since they may contain a comma. The other fields are not escaped or quoted, but they will never contain a comma.

All strings are returned in the ISO-8859-1 encoding. This encoding is also referred to as latin1.

Output field order

Since all output is returned as a comma separated string, the order in which fields are returned must be known in order to parse the result. If the request is successful, the error field may be omitted entirely, since it always comes last.

Client Code Examples

The examples below are all for the Insights or City/ISP/Org web services. Client code for other services will be very similar. The only differences are the URI path and the fields which are returned.

Perl

This is an example for the Insights web service.

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use Encode qw( decode );
use Getopt::Long;
use LWP::UserAgent;
use Text::CSV_XS;
use URI;
use URI::QueryParam;

my @fields = qw(
    country_code
    country_name
    region_code
    region_name
    city_name
    latitude
    longitude
    metro_code
    area_code
    time_zone
    continent_code
    postal_code
    isp_name
    organization_name
    domain
    as_number
    netspeed
    user_type
    accuracy_radius
    country_confidence
    city_confidence
    region_confidence
    postal_confidence
    error
);

my $license_key = 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY';
my $ip_address  = '24.24.24.24';

GetOptions(
    'license:s' => \$license_key,
    'ip:s'      => \$ip_address,
);

my $uri = URI->new('https://geoip.maxmind.com/e');
$uri->query_param( l => $license_key );
$uri->query_param( i => $ip_address );

my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new( timeout => 5 );
my $response = $ua->get($uri);

die 'Request failed with status ' . $response->code()
    unless $response->is_success();

my $csv = Text::CSV_XS->new( { binary => 1 } );
$csv->parse( decode( 'ISO-8859-1', $response->content() ) );

my %insights;
@insights{@fields} = $csv->fields();

binmode STDOUT, ':encoding(UTF-8)';

if ( defined $insights{error} && length $insights{error} ) {
    die "MaxMind returned an error code for the request: $insights{error}\n";
}
else {
    print "\nMaxMind Insights data for $ip_address\n\n";
    for my $field (@fields) {
        print sprintf( "  %-20s  %s\n", $field, $insights{$field} );
    }
    print "\n";
}

PHP

This is an example for the Insights web service.

#!/usr/bin/env php

<?php

$params = getopt('l:i:');

if (!isset($params['l'])) $params['l'] = 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY';
if (!isset($params['i'])) $params['i'] = '24.24.24.24';

$query = 'https://geoip.maxmind.com/e?' . http_build_query($params);

$insights_keys =
  array(
    'country_code',
    'country_name',
    'region_code',
    'region_name',
    'city_name',
    'latitude',
    'longitude',
    'metro_code',
    'area_code',
    'time_zone',
    'continent_code',
    'postal_code',
    'isp_name',
    'organization_name',
    'domain',
    'as_number',
    'netspeed',
    'user_type',
    'accuracy_radius',
    'country_confidence',
    'city_confidence',
    'region_confidence',
    'postal_confidence',
    'error'
    );

$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array(
    $curl,
    array(
        CURLOPT_URL => $query,
        CURLOPT_USERAGENT => 'MaxMind PHP Sample',
        CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true
    )
);

$resp = curl_exec($curl);

if (curl_errno($curl)) {
    throw new Exception(
        'GeoIP request failed with a curl_errno of '
        . curl_errno($curl)
    );
}

$insights_values = str_getcsv($resp);
$insights_values = array_pad($insights_values, sizeof($insights_keys), '');
$insights = array_combine($insights_keys, $insights_values);

print_r($insights);

Python 2

This is an example for the Insights web service.

#!/usr/bin/env python

import argparse
import csv
import requests
import sys

fields = ['country_code',
          'country_name',
          'region_code',
          'region_name',
          'city_name',
          'latitude',
          'longitude',
          'metro_code',
          'area_code',
          'time_zone',
          'continent_code',
          'postal_code',
          'isp_name',
          'organization_name',
          'domain',
          'as_number',
          'netspeed',
          'user_type',
          'accuracy_radius',
          'country_confidence',
          'city_confidence',
          'region_confidence',
          'postal_confidence',
          'error']

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='MaxMind Insights web service client')
parser.add_argument('--license', default='YOUR_LICENSE_KEY')
parser.add_argument('--ip', default='24.24.24.24')

args = parser.parse_args()

payload = {'l': args.license, 'i': args.ip};
response = requests.get('https://geoip.maxmind.com/e', params=payload)

if response.status_code != requests.codes.ok:
    sys.stderr.write("Request failed with status %s\n" % response.status_code)
    sys.exit(1)

reader = csv.reader([response.content])

insights = dict(zip(fields, [unicode(s, 'latin_1') for s in reader.next()]))
if len(insights['error']):
    sys.stderr.write("MaxMind returned an error code for the request: %s\n" % insights['error'])
    sys.exit(1)
else:
    print "\nMaxMind Insights data for %s\n\n" % args.ip
    for (key, val) in insights.items():
        print "  %-20s  %s" % (key, val)
    print "\n"

Python 3

This is an example for the Insights web service.

#!/usr/bin/env python

import argparse
import csv
import requests
import sys

fields = ['country_code',
          'country_name',
          'region_code',
          'region_name',
          'city_name',
          'latitude',
          'longitude',
          'metro_code',
          'area_code',
          'time_zone',
          'continent_code',
          'postal_code',
          'isp_name',
          'organization_name',
          'domain',
          'as_number',
          'netspeed',
          'user_type',
          'accuracy_radius',
          'country_confidence',
          'city_confidence',
          'region_confidence',
          'postal_confidence',
          'error']

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='MaxMind Insights web service client')
parser.add_argument('--license', default='YOUR_LICENSE_KEY')
parser.add_argument('--ip', default='24.24.24.24')

args = parser.parse_args()

payload = {'l': args.license, 'i': args.ip};
response = requests.get('https://geoip.maxmind.com/e', params=payload)

if response.status_code != requests.codes.ok:
    sys.stderr.write("Request failed with status %s\n" % response.status_code)
    sys.exit(1)

reader = csv.reader([response.text])

insights = dict(zip(fields, next(reader)))
if len(insights['error']):
    sys.stderr.write("MaxMind returned an error code for the request: %s\n" % insights['error'])
    sys.exit(1)
else:
    print("\nMaxMind Insights data for %s\n\n" % args.ip)
    for (key, val) in insights.items():
        print("  %-20s  %s" % (key, val))
    print("\n")

Ruby 1.9

This is an example for the Insights web service.

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

require 'csv'
require 'net/http'
require 'open-uri'
require 'optparse'
require 'uri'

fields = [:country_code,
          :country_name,
          :region_code,
          :region_name,
          :city_name,
          :latitude,
          :longitude,
          :metro_code,
          :area_code,
          :time_zone,
          :continent_code,
          :postal_code,
          :isp_name,
          :organization_name,
          :domain,
          :as_number,
          :netspeed,
          :user_type,
          :accuracy_radius,
          :country_confidence,
          :city_confidence,
          :region_confidence,
          :postal_confidence,
          :error]

options = { :license => "YOUR_LICENSE_KEY", :ip => "24.24.24.24" }
OptionParser.new { |opts|
  opts.banner = "Usage: insights-geoip-ws.rb [options]"

  opts.on("-l", "--license LICENSE", "MaxMind license key") do |l|
    options[:license] = l
  end

  opts.on("-i", "--ip IPADDRESS", "IP address to look up") do |i|
    options[:ip] = i
  end
}.parse!

uri = URI::HTTP.build(:scheme => 'https',
                      :host   => 'geoip.maxmind.com',
                      :path   => '/e',
                      :query  => URI.encode_www_form(:l => options[:license],
                                                     :i => options[:ip]))

response = Net::HTTP.get_response(uri)

unless response.is_a?(Net::HTTPSuccess)
  abort "Request failed with status #{response.code}"
end

insights = Hash[fields.zip(response.body.encode('utf-8', 'iso-8859-1').parse_csv)]

if insights[:error]
  abort "MaxMind returned an error code for the request: #{insights[:error]}"
else
  puts
  puts "MaxMind Insights data for #{options[:ip]}";
  puts
  insights.each { |key, val| printf "  %-20s  %s\n", key, val }
  puts
end

Java

This is an example for the Insights web service.

import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;
import java.util.regex.Matcher;

public class InsightsReader {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        String license_key = "YOUR_LICENSE_KEY";
        String ip_address = "24.24.24.24";

        String url_str = "https://geoip.maxmind.com/e?l=" + license_key + "&i=" + ip_address;

        URL url = new URL(url_str);
        BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(url.openStream()));
        String inLine;

        while ((inLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
            // Alternatively use a CSV parser here.
            Pattern p = Pattern.compile("\"([^\"]*)\"|(?<=,|^)([^,]*)(?:,|$)");
            Matcher m = p.matcher(inLine);

            List<String> fields = new ArrayList<String>();
            String f;
            while (m.find()) {
                f = m.group(1);
                if (f!=null) {
                    fields.add(f);
                }
                else {
                    fields.add(m.group(2));
                }
            }

            String countrycode = fields.get(0);
            String countryname = fields.get(1);
            String regioncode = fields.get(2);
            String regionname = fields.get(3);
            String city = fields.get(4);
            String lat = fields.get(5);
            String lon = fields.get(6);
            String metrocode = fields.get(7);
            String areacode = fields.get(8);
            String timezone = fields.get(9);
            String continent = fields.get(10);
            String postalcode = fields.get(11);
            String isp = fields.get(12);
            String org = fields.get(13);
            String domain = fields.get(14);
            String asnum = fields.get(15);
            String netspeed = fields.get(16);
            String usertype = fields.get(17);
            String accuracyradius = fields.get(18);
            String countryconf = fields.get(19);
            String cityconf = fields.get(20);
            String regionconf = fields.get(21);
            String postalconf = fields.get(22);
            String error = fields.get(23);
        }

        in.close();
    }
}

C#

This is an example for the Insights web service.

// Contributed by Gokhan Saltik
private string GetMaxMindInsightsData(string IP) {
  System.Uri objUrl = new System.Uri("https://geoip.maxmind.com/e?l=YOUR_LICENSE_KEY&i=" + IP);
  System.Net.WebRequest objWebReq;
  System.Net.WebResponse objResp;
  System.IO.StreamReader sReader;
  string strReturn = string.Empty;

  try
    {
      objWebReq = System.Net.WebRequest.Create(objUrl);
      objResp = objWebReq.GetResponse();

      sReader = new System.IO.StreamReader(objResp.GetResponseStream());
      strReturn = sReader.ReadToEnd();

      sReader.Close();
      objResp.Close();
    }
  catch (Exception ex)
    {
    }
  finally
    {
      objWebReq = null;
    }

  return strReturn;
}

VB.Net

This is an example for the City/ISP/Org web service.

' Contributed by Rubens A. Lucca
Private Function ReturnData(ByVal IP As String) As String
        Dim objUrl As New System.Uri("https://geoip.maxmind.com/f?l=YOUR_LICENSE_KEY&i=" & IP)
        Dim objWebReq As System.Net.WebRequest
        Dim objResp As System.Net.WebResponse
        Dim sReader As System.IO.StreamReader
        Dim strReturn As String

        'Try to connect to the server and retrieve data.
        Try
            objWebReq = System.Net.WebRequest.Create(objUrl)
            objResp = objWebReq.GetResponse

            'Get the data and store in a return string.
            sReader = New System.IO.StreamReader(objResp.GetResponseStream)
            strReturn = sReader.ReadToEnd

            'Close the objects.
            sReader.Close()
            objResp.Close()
        Catch ex As Exception
        Finally
            objWebReq = Nothing
        End Try

        Return strReturn

    End Function

Cold Fusion

This is an example for the City/ISP/Org web service.

<!--- contributed by reinhard jung --->
<cfhttp method="get" url="https://geoip.maxmind.com/f?l=LicenceKey&i=#CGI.REMOTE_ADDR#"></cfhttp>
<cfset resultMaxMind = cfhttp.FileContent>

<!--- create Array --->
<cfset qMaxMindByID = structNew()/>
<cfset qMaxMindByName = structNew()/>
<cfset thisField = "country,region,city,postal,latitude,longitude,metroCode,area,ISP,organization"/>
<cfset thisPos = 1/>
<cfset thisValue = ""/>
<cfset stringField = "false"/>
<cfloop from="1" to="#Len(resultMaxMind)#" index="mmField">
        <cfif mid(resultMaxMind,mmField,1) IS ',' AND NOT stringField>
                <cfset qMaxMindByID[thisPos] = thisValue>
                <cfset qMaxMindByName['#ListgetAt(thisField,thisPos)#'] = thisValue>
                <cfset thisPos = thisPos +1/>
                <cfset thisValue = ""/>
        <cfelse>
                <cfif mid(resultMaxMind,mmField,1) IS '"'>
                        <cfset stringField = iif(stringField,"false","true")/>
                <cfelse>
                        <cfset thisValue = thisValue &mid(resultMaxMind,mmField,1)/>
                </cfif>
        </cfif>
        <cfif Len(resultMaxMind) EQ mmField>
                <cfset qMaxMindByID[thisPos] = thisValue/>
                <cfset qMaxMindByName['#ListgetAt(thisField,thisPos)#'] = thisValue>
        </cfif>
</cfloop>

<!--- access Array --->
<br /><cfoutput>#qMaxMindByID[3]#</cfoutput>
<br /><cfoutput>#qMaxMindByName['city']#</cfoutput>

<!--- dump Array for overview --->
<cfdump var="#qMaxMindByID#" label="qMaxMindByID"><br />
<cfdump var="#qMaxMindByName#" label="qMaxMindByName"><br />

ASP

This is an example for the City/ISP/Org web service.

Dim objHttp, strQuery
strQuery = "https://geoip.maxmind.com/f?l=" & license_key & "&i=" & ipaddress
set objHttp = Server.CreateObject("Msxml2.ServerXMLHTTP")
objHttp.open "GET", strQuery, false
objHttp.send
Response.Write objHttp.ResponseText
Set objHttp = Nothing

VBScript

This is an example for the City/ISP/Org web service.

Set request = Server.CreateObject("AspHTTP.Conn")
request.Url = "https://geoip.maxmind.com/f?l=" & license_key & "&i=" & ip_address
request.RequestMethod = "GET"
string = request.GetURL
data = Split(string, ",")
country = arr(0)
region = arr(1)
city = arr(2)
postal = arr(3)
latitude = arr(4)
longitude = arr(5)
metro_code = arr(6)
area_code = arr(7)
isp = arr(8)
organization = arr(9)
error = arr(10)