Find OSM features within a bounding box
openstreetmap_query_bboxRead-onlyIdempotent
Find OSM features within a rectangular geographic area (bounding box) via the Overpass API. Useful for area surveys where you want everything in a region, not proximity searches. Use amenity for common POI types (hospital, pharmacy, cafe, school, etc.) or tag_key + tag_value for other OSM categories (leisure=park, shop=supermarket, natural=peak). Exactly one of amenity or tag_key/tag_value must be provided. Every feature includes its full OSM tag set; the extratags flag (used by the Nominatim-backed openstreetmap_search_places, openstreetmap_reverse_geocode, and openstreetmap_lookup_objects tools) does not apply here. For proximity searches centered on a point, use openstreetmap_query_nearby instead.
Input Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| east | Yes | Eastern boundary longitude (maximum longitude). A value below west describes an antimeridian crossing rather than an inverted box. | |
| west | Yes | Western boundary longitude (minimum longitude). A west greater than east is valid, not an error: Overpass reads it as an antimeridian-crossing box and returns the union of west..180 and -180..east. | |
| limit | No | Maximum results to return. Applied after the Overpass query — if the area has more features, they are truncated. | |
| north | Yes | Northern boundary latitude (maximum latitude). | |
| south | Yes | Southern boundary latitude (minimum latitude). | |
| offset | No | Number of matching features to skip before applying limit, for paging through a large result set. The full match set is fetched and cached ~10 minutes keyed by the query, so re-paging at a new offset is deterministic and costs no extra upstream request. Pass the nextOffset value from a prior truncated response. | |
| amenity | No | OSM amenity tag value shortcut (e.g., "cafe", "bench", "hospital"). Cannot be combined with tag_key/tag_value. | |
| tag_key | No | OSM tag key for non-amenity queries (e.g., "leisure", "shop", "natural"). Use with tag_value. Cannot be combined with amenity. | |
| tag_value | No | OSM tag value paired with tag_key (e.g., "park", "supermarket", "peak"). | |
| element_types | No | OSM element types to search, at least one. Ways cover most buildings and areas; nodes cover most standalone POIs. Add "relation" for complex structures. Omit the field to search nodes and ways; an empty array is rejected because it can only match nothing. | |
| timeout_seconds | No | Overpass query timeout in seconds. Increase for large bounding boxes or dense areas. |
Output Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| error | No | Present when the call failed. Absent on success. | |
| notice | No | Guidance when the page came back empty. Distinguishes a query that matched nothing (try a different bounding box or tag) from an offset past the end of a non-empty result set (retry at a lower offset). Absent when results were returned. | |
| elements | No | Matching OSM features within the bounding box, up to the limit. | |
| truncated | No | True if results were cut at the limit. Reduce bbox area, add more specific tags, or page with offset to retrieve the rest. | |
| nextOffset | No | Offset to pass on the next call to retrieve the following page of features. Present only when more features remain beyond this page. | |
| totalFound | No | Total features returned by Overpass before limit truncation. | |
| attribution | No | Required data attribution: Data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0. | |
| effectiveTag | No | The OSM tag filter applied (key=value, e.g. "amenity=cafe" or "leisure=park"). | |
| data_timestamp | No | OSM data freshness timestamp from the Overpass response. Absent when the endpoint reported no freshness metadata. | |
| servingEndpoint | No | Overpass endpoint that produced this response, as origin and path. Differs from the first configured endpoint when a mirror answered after the primary failed, and names the endpoint that served a cached response rather than the one this call would have tried. Pair it with data_timestamp when a result looks unexpectedly slow, sparse, or stale. |