Frequently Asked Questions

Should I use GET or POST?

The Address REST API requires GET requests.

How many requests per second can I perform?

The following default rate limits apply to all API tiers:

International Address API
35 requests per second
Dutch Postcode API
150 requests per second

If you require more than our default rate limits, please contact us.

Why do I receive a 404 error if the address is not found?

We use HTTP Status codes to classify success or error reasons.

200 OK
Positive result found.
404 Not found
No result found, address does not exist, etc.
400 Bad request
Missing or invalid parameters. This often indicates a request which could've been prevented by doing client side parameter syntax checks first.
401 Unauthorized
Missing, invalid or disabled credentials.
429 Too Many Requests
You are performing too many requests per time period. See the rate limits.
409 Conflict
Only relevant for the exact search, see the method documentation.

Browser clients and JSONP support

We do not support any browser client, so we don't offer support for Javascript and JSONP. We recommend to host a simple proxy script on your own server instead of making cross domain calls directly in the browser. This proxy script would hold the key and secret: It is not allowed to put your secret in publicly readable Javascript.

You're responsible for keeping the secret safe. Unwanted use could result in an upgrade of your subscription and thus extra costs.

I am getting a warning about SSLv3 when connecting

Our services are only available using safe HTTPS implementations. We do not support the older SSL(v3) protocol when communicating over HTTPS, instead use the more secure TLS protocol (v1.0-v1.2). Most internet communication libraries will support TLS automatically.

Why can't the international autocomplete handle slashes on my server?

Your server may be configured to treat slashes in the URL as path delimiters. For example, Apache Tomcat does this by default. This can break the routing for autocomplete requests that contain slashes in the term.
Configure your server to allow encoded slashes to fix the issue. See also https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/core.html#allowencodedslashes.