Amazon Location Service
A location service that provides integrated map display, geocoding, route calculation, geofencing, and device tracking capabilities
Overview
Amazon Location Service is a fully managed location service that provides integrated map display, address-to-coordinate conversion (geocoding), optimal route calculation, geofence (virtual boundary) configuration, and device position tracking. With map styles such as Standard and Satellite available, it enables embedding location features into applications at significantly lower cost compared to Google Maps API. Collected location data is retained within your AWS account with no third-party sharing, featuring a privacy-by-design architecture.
Map Display and Geocoding API
Location Service's map feature integrates with MapLibre GL JS (Web) and MapLibre Native (iOS/Android) to embed customizable vector tile maps in applications. Map styles can be selected from multiple presets including road maps, satellite imagery, and dark mode, with color and label customization available. The geocoding API supports both forward geocoding (returning latitude/longitude from address strings) and reverse geocoding (returning the nearest address from coordinates). The developer guide lists data coverage and quality by country and region. The autocomplete feature enables implementing incremental search that presents candidates as users type addresses. The FAQ describes including the Geocode API in ETL pipelines or other batch workloads to convert large numbers of addresses into coordinates.
Route Calculation and Fleet Optimization
The route calculation API computes optimal routes, travel times, and distances given an origin, destination, and optional waypoints. It supports travel modes such as car, truck, and walking, with truck mode returning routes that account for vehicle height, width, and weight restrictions. Avoidance conditions such as toll roads, ferries, and highways, as well as real-time traffic information based on departure time, can also be specified. The matrix routing API calculates travel times and distances between multiple origins and destinations in bulk. The developer guide also lists optimizing the order of visits to multiple destinations (the traveling salesman problem) as a Routes feature (as of October 2026).
Geofencing and Device Tracking
The geofence feature defines circular or polygon virtual boundaries on the map, firing events when tracked devices enter (ENTER) or exit (EXIT) those boundaries. Events are sent to EventBridge, enabling flexible downstream processing including Lambda notification handling, Step Functions workflow triggering, and SNS push notifications. Device trackers accumulate position information periodically sent from mobile apps or IoT devices, used for movement history visualization and real-time position display. Position filtering allows configuring updates only when a device moves beyond a certain distance, suppressing unnecessary updates while stationary and helping reduce costs. Example uses include delivery tracking, employee safety management, and rental car return confirmation.
References (Official AWS Resources)
The primary sources for this page are the official AWS website and documentation. Check the official pages below for the latest specifications and pricing.
- Amazon EventBridge official page
- AWS Lambda official page
- Amazon Cognito official page
- AWS Documentation (official)
If this page and the official documentation disagree, treat the official documentation as authoritative.