Street-level imagery services

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Geolocated images can be displayed on top of OpenStreetMap, as well as be used for photo mapping if the license permits it. Online photos may also be linked from OSM via photo linking.


With photosphere support

Name May be used for OSM mapping Imagery license Uploading app license Viewing app license Backend license iD overlay [a 1] JOSM Plugin Link from OSM
Wikimedia Commons depends on image license various free licenses Apache 2.0 Apache 2.0 GPLv2+ no yes wikimedia_commons=*
Panoramax[a 2] yes various[a 3] MIT MIT MIT yes no panoramax=*
OpenTrailView yes CC-BY 4.0 with OSM clause GPLv3 GPLv3 GPLv3 no no image=*
Mapillary yes CC-BY-SA Proprietary mobile[a 4] Proprietary Proprietary yes yes mapillary=*
Mapilio yes[a 5] CC-BY-SA Proprietary mobile[a 6] Proprietary[a 7] Proprietary unofficial fork no image=*
KartaView yes CC-BY-SA Proprietary mobile[a 8] Proprietary[a 9] Proprietary yes yes kartaview=*
Google Street View no Proprietary Proprietary Proprietary Proprietary no no N/A
footpath.ai yes Proprietary with OSM clause users cannot upload Proprietary Proprietary no no image=*
Bing Streetside partial[a 10] Proprietary users cannot upload Proprietary Proprietary yes[a 11] yes bubbleid=*
Apple Look Around no Proprietary users cannot upload Proprietary Proprietary no no N/A


  1. Whether iD supports the service as a photo overlay (which can be enabled under Map Data).
  2. Decentralized & federated successor of OpenTrailView, also called GeoVisio
  3. CC-BY-SA-4.0, etalab-2.0
  4. Mobile apps proprietary, command line uploader is BSD-2
  5. Mapilio commitment, terms&conditions
  6. Mobile apps proprietary, command line uploader is MIT
  7. iD fork in progress[1], web & mobile apps proprietary[2]
  8. New mobile app proprietary, archaic 2013 Mobile app MIT, command line uploader MIT
  9. Proprietary web client, new mobile app proprietary, archaic 2013 Mobile app MIT
  10. "As an additional source of corroborating ground truth within OpenStreetMap editing environments" as detailed in Bing Maps#Streetside imagery
  11. Note that the overlay had problems until 2.26. See GitHub issue #9230 for more information.

Other geotagged image hosting services

While these services do not support 360-degree panoramas, they do support geotagged photos.

Red x.svg To do: Are you allowed to use images from these services for photo mapping?


Name Imagery license Uploading app license Viewing app license Backend license Link from OSM
Flickr some free web app, API & SDK available web app, API & SDK available Proprietary flickr=*
CycleStreets Photomap some free GPLv3, API GPLv3, API Proprietary cyclestreets_id=*
Geograph CC-BY-SA 2.0 web-based API Proprietary image=*
OLMap CC0 MIT MIT MIT image=*
Freemap Slovakia CC-BY-SA web based Apache 2 Apache 2 image=*
en:DeviantArt some free web based API Proprietary image=*
en:Pixabay[b 1] almost free[b 2] web based API Proprietary image=*
en:Unsplash almost free[b 3] web based API & multiple SDK Proprietary image=*
Indafotó[b 4] some free web based web based Proprietary image=*
Google Image Search some free N/A web based Proprietary image=*
Bing Image Search some free[6] N/A web based Proprietary image=*
Metager Image Search some free[7] N/A web based Proprietary image=*
Ecosia Image Search some free N/A web based Proprietary image=*
Swisscows Image Search some free N/A web based Proprietary image=*
OpenVerse most free[8] N/A web based Proprietary image=*


  1. Also indexed by Mojeek
  2. Not completely free, but good enough according to relevant aspects[3][4]
  3. Not completely free, but good enough according to relevant aspects[5]
  4. Can't search by license and images don't seem to be georeferenced

Discontinued

  • OpenStreetPhoto: defunct
  • 500px: free licensing removed
  • Panoramio: defunct, imported only a small subset manually
  • Picasa: defunct, mostly imported to Wikimedia Commons
  • MapPIN'on OSM: it is functional to this day, but no new feeds or photos have been added since about 2010
  • OpenStreetView (2009): the source is still available, but not hosted anymore, superseded by KartaView

See also