The Coverage API returns survey metadata for a given location, letting you discover what Nearmap imagery is available, when it was captured, and at what resolution. It is also used to retrieve survey boundaries as spatial data, and to look up photo-level timestamps within a survey.

The Coverage API is most commonly used as a companion to the Tile API; query coverage to discover available surveys and obtain surveyId values, then pass those to the Tile API to request imagery for a specific capture.

Choosing the right endpoint

Goal	Endpoint
Check if coverage exists at an address or point	`/coverage/v2/point/`
Get available surveys for a map region specified by a polygon	`/coverage/v2/poly/`
Same as polygon, but with a large geometry	`POST /coverage/v2/aoi`
Get surveys for a specific tile coordinate	`/coverage/v2/coord/`
Download survey polygons to cross-reference your data	`/coverage/v2/surveyresources/boundaries.{fileFormat}`
Visualize total Nearmap coverage on a map	`/coverage/v2/aggregate/boundaries.{fileFormat}`
Get photo timestamps for imagery at a point	`/coverage/v2/point/{x},{y}/timestamp.{format}`

Endpoints

The Coverage API is organized into three groups: Coverage (survey metadata by location), Coverage Boundaries (survey polygons as GeoJSON or GeoPackage), and Photo Timestamp (per-tile photo timing within a survey).

Coverage

These endpoints return survey metadata - capture dates, resolution, resource types, and location, for a specified area of interest.

By point

GET https://api.nearmap.com/coverage/v2/point/{coord}

Returns surveys available at a longitude/latitude coordinate. Use this to check whether Nearmap coverage exists at a geocoded address or a specific location.

View endpoint reference →

By polygon

GET https://api.nearmap.com/coverage/v2/poly/{polygon}

Returns surveys that intersect a polygon area of interest. Suitable for interactive web applications where the user is viewing a map region.

View endpoint reference →

By area of interest

POST https://api.nearmap.com/coverage/v2/aoi

Equivalent to the polygon endpoint, but accepts the geometry in the request body. Use this when your polygon is too large for a query string parameter.

View endpoint reference →

By tile coordinate

GET https://api.nearmap.com/coverage/v2/coord/{z}/{x}/{y}

Returns surveys for a Web Mercator tile coordinate (z/x/y). Equivalent to querying /poly with the extent of that tile. Provided for legacy compatibility — use /poly or /point for new integrations.

View endpoint reference →

Query parameters

Pagination

Parameter	Description
`limit`	Maximum number of surveys to return. Defaults to 20.
`offset`	Zero-based index of the first survey to return. Used for paginating through results.

Date filtering

Parameter	Format	Description
`since`	`YYYY-MM-DD`	Return only surveys captured on or after this date.
`until`	`YYYY-MM-DD`	Return only surveys captured on or before this date.

Tag filtering

Tags are metadata attributes on surveys captured after notable events. Use include and exclude to filter on them.

Parameter	Description
`include`	Only include surveys that match this tag type or `type:name` pair.
`exclude`	Exclude surveys that match this tag type or `type:name` pair.

Tags follow the format type:name. The disaster type is the most commonly used. Supported tag names include: hurricane, cyclone, typhoon, tornado, tsunami, flood, blizzard, earthquake, hail, avalanche, landslide, fire, volcano, drought, wind, storm, inundation, meteor, and misc.

Example — return surveys tagged as hurricane disasters:

GET https://api.nearmap.com/coverage/v2/point/-78.294,33.922?apikey={YOUR_API_KEY}&include=disaster:hurricane&fields=id,captureDate,tags

Field selection

Parameter	Description
`fields`	Comma-separated list of response fields to include. Reduces response size when you only need specific metadata.

Output format (`boundaries` endpoints only)

Parameter	Description
`fileFormat`	`geojson` or `gpkg` (GeoPackage). Specified as a path parameter in the URL.

Response fields

Coverage responses return a surveys array, ordered from most recent to least recent, with the following fields per survey:

Field	Description
`id`	Unique survey identifier. Use this as the `surveyId` in the Tile API.
`captureDate`	The survey date, expressed in the local time zone of the survey location.
`firstPhotoTime`	UTC timestamp of the first photo taken in the survey.
`lastPhotoTime`	UTC timestamp of the last photo taken in the survey.
`onlineTime`	UTC timestamp when the survey became publicly available.
`pixelSize`	Ground Sample Distance (GSD) in meters — the spatial resolution of the imagery.
`timezone`	Universal time zone abbreviation for the survey location (e.g. `AEST`, `EST`).
`utcOffset`	Offset in seconds between UTC and the survey's local time zone.
`location`	Object containing `country`, `region`, and `state` for the survey.
`resources.tiles`	Array of tile resources for the survey, each with an `id`, `scale` (max zoom level), and `type` (content type).
`limit`	The limit applied to this response, as specified in the request.
`offset`	The offset applied to this response, as specified in the request.
`total`	Total number of surveys available for the query (before pagination).

The resources.tiles[].type field uses the same content type values as the Tile API: Vert, North, South, East, West.

The resources.tiles[].scale value is the maximum zoom level for that tile set. Tile requests beyond this zoom level require client-side upscaling.

Examples

Coverage for a point (Australia)

GET https://api.nearmap.com/coverage/v2/point/138.59707796614592,-34.91729448760797?apikey={YOUR_API_KEY}&limit=2

Coverage for a tile coordinate

GET https://api.nearmap.com/coverage/v2/coord/16/57999/39561?apikey={YOUR_API_KEY}&limit=2

Survey boundaries for a polygon

GET https://api.nearmap.com/coverage/v2/surveyresources/boundaries.geojson?polygon=138.597,-34.917,138.617,-34.917,138.617,-34.927,138.597,-34.927,138.597,-34.917&apikey={YOUR_API_KEY}

Aggregated coverage boundaries (entire Nearmap footprint)

GET https://api.nearmap.com/coverage/v2/aggregate/boundaries.geojson?apikey={YOUR_API_KEY}

Photo timestamp for a point

GET https://api.nearmap.com/coverage/v2/point/151.207,-33.865/timestamp.json?until=2024-02-25&apikey={YOUR_API_KEY}

Using Coverage with the Tile API

The Coverage and Tile APIs are designed to be used together. A typical workflow:

Call a Coverage endpoint with your area of interest to retrieve available surveys.
Inspect the response to select the survey you want (by date, resolution, or tag).
Use the survey's id as the surveyId in the Tile API's survey-specific endpoint to request tiles for that exact capture.

This pattern is essential when you need to pin your application to a specific survey. For example, to show imagery from before and after an event.

Related

Coverage Metadata Fields - full reference for all response fields
Filter Surveys - date and tag filtering in detail
Requesting Resource Types - how to request specific content types
Endpoint Examples - full request/response examples
Tile API - retrieve imagery using survey IDs from Coverage
Authentication - API key setup
Troubleshooting the Coverage API