What is Open-Elevation?

Open-Elevation is a free and open-source alternative to the Google Elevation API and similar offerings.

This service came out of the need to have a hosted, easy to use, and easy to set up elevation API. While there are some alternatives out there, none of them work out of the box and most point to outdated datasets. Open-Elevation is easy to set up, has its own Docker image, and provides scripts to easily acquire datasets. We offer coverage for the entire world with our public API.

The code is fully open-source (GPLv2). Please consider submitting a pull request if you have improvements!

Public API

Open-Elevation remains free up to 1,000 requests/month.
For more requests and increased resolution, see our plans

Pricing

For higher volumes and increased resolution, choose a plan that fits your needs.

Plan Monthly Requests Price Features
Free Up to 1,000 €0 Basic elevation data, rate limits
Basic Up to 10,000 €10/month Priority support, usage analytics, no rate limit
Professional Up to 100,000 €50/month Higher resolution, plus all basic features.
Enterprise Over 100,000 Custom All Pro features + custom integrations, 24/7 support

Host your Own

You can easily host your own instance of Open-Elevation, and there are multiple ways of doing so:

  • With Docker. We offer a Docker image and a handy tutorial on how to use it.
  • On your own machines. There’s a simple tutorial on how to set up all dependencies if you don’t want to use Docker.

Check the documentation here.

What about the data? The service won’t do anything useful without the right dataset. Check this section of the documentation on how to set up your own dataset.

Hosting it yourself is too confusing? Consider using our free API.