How to compare Australian address APIs
An Australian address API is a service that turns a partly typed address into a verified, structured one with coordinates, and the useful ones all read the same open dataset, G-NAF. Coverage rarely differs. What differs is where your customers’ keystrokes are processed, what counts as one billable event, and whether you need an address that exists or an address Australia Post will deliver to.
Answer this first, because it decides the category
Do you need to know an address is real, or that mail will arrive at it? Those are two different products. Addresses that exist come from G-NAF, the open national address file. Deliverability comes from Australia Post’s PAF, through an AMAS-certified provider. WattleAddr is the first kind. The long version, with each dataset described in its owner’s words, is AMAS and PAF vs G-NAF.
What differs, by category of provider
We compare categories, not brands. Other providers’ prices and features change, so we do not publish their prices. These differences hold whoever is cheapest this quarter.
| Criterion | Global platform autocomplete | AU postal / mail-house | WattleAddr |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where a lookup is processed Autocomplete sends raw keystrokes before anyone presses submit. | Globally distributed; usually not Australian-resident | Typically Australian | Sydney primary, Melbourne standby, no offshore edge |
| Underlying dataset Decides what can and cannot be matched at all. | Proprietary global index incl. businesses and landmarks | Australia Post PAF (delivery points) | G-NAF, refreshed quarterly, release named in every response |
| Billing unit The biggest driver of the bill on a busy form. | Per session, but only if the session completes; abandoned ones revert to per-request | Usually per record or an annual licence | Per completed session. Abandoned address searches are free |
| Currency and tax Determines who carries FX and whether you can claim the GST. | Commonly USD, GST treatment varies | AUD | AUD, GST included; the 10% is itemised on a compliant tax invoice |
| PO Boxes A predictable share of any Australian address form. | Not as validated postal addresses | Yes. This is what PAF is for | No. Returns a notice instead of an empty list, not billed |
| Mail deliverability (AMAS/PAF, DPID, barcodes) Required for bulk-mail lodgement discounts. | No | Yes, when AMAS-certified | No. Out of scope |
| International addresses Matters the moment you sell outside Australia. | Yes, worldwide | No | No. Australia only |
| Residency attestation, DPA, SLA, PO billing What procurement and security reviews ask for. | Enterprise agreements, often offshore-governed | Varies | DPA + residency attestation published, every account; SLA and PO billing on Enterprise and Government (see /government) |
Billing for the global-platform column is from Google’s published session-pricing documentation. It states that an autocomplete session reverts to per-request billing when it is not ended by a details call. Check current rates with the provider. We only quote our own prices.
Why the billing unit matters more than the rate
A person typing “1 martin place sydney” fires a request on roughly every keystroke after the third. Whether those requests count as one billable event or a dozen is not on the rate card.
The abandoned-search trap
Session pricing that only applies when the session completes means every customer who starts typing and gives up is billed per keystroke instead. On a checkout, that adds up. A WattleAddr session that never reaches a retrieve costs nothing. The arithmetic is in session vs per-request pricing.
What we charge
$0 for 5,000 lookups a month, ongoing and without a card. $53.90/month for 50,000, $163.90/month for 250,000. That is $0.66 per 1,000 at the Growth tier. Overage is $2.75 and $1.65 per 1,000, with no forced upgrade. AUD, GST included ($49 and $149 ex-GST).
Currency and GST
A USD rate card moves with the exchange rate and lands on your statement as a foreign transaction. We invoice in Australian dollars, add 10% GST once, and itemise it on a tax invoice with our ABN. Your bookkeeper needs that to claim the credit.
The migration cost is small
Address autocomplete touches one field. It is a script tag, an npm package or three REST calls. The OpenAPI spec is public, so you can generate a client before you talk to us. Read the Google Places migration guide. Evaluating an Australian provider instead? See the AddressFinder alternative page, or, if you are weighing self-hosting, Addressr vs a hosted G-NAF API.
Where WattleAddr is the wrong choice
If any of these describe you, use another provider.
- You post mail in bulk and want lodgement discounts. That needs Australia Post AMAS certification against PAF. We have no certification and issue no DPIDs or barcodes. No G-NAF provider can do this, because AMAS certifies against Australia Post’s PAF, a separately licensed dataset. You need a PAF-licensed product.
- You need PO Boxes validated. No G-NAF provider can do this. G-NAF contains no PO Boxes, GPO Boxes, Locked Bags or Private Bags. You need a PAF-licensed provider. We detect these queries and return a
postal_address_unsupportednotice, and we do not bill for it. See how to handle a PO Box in your form. - You have customers outside Australia. We return Australian addresses only. A global provider, or a second provider alongside us, will suit you better.
- You need reverse geocoding or a bulk-cleansing endpoint today. The address API has four endpoints: autocomplete, retrieve, verify and status. There is no coordinates-to-address call and no batch upload.
- You want businesses, landmarks or points of interest. G-NAF holds physical addresses. If you need “Sydney Opera House” to resolve, you want a places index, not an address file.
Where WattleAddr is the right choice
- Australian data residency. Every lookup is served from Sydney with a Melbourne standby and no offshore edge. We publish a data-residency attestation you can give to procurement.
- Per-session billing. One lookup per completed address search however many characters were typed. Nothing for an address search the customer abandons. The 5,000-lookup free tier is ongoing.
- Procurement paperwork. The DPA and the data-residency attestation are published and apply to every account. An SLA with service credits and purchase-order billing are available on Enterprise and Government.
- Parsed fields with a per-field verdict. The address comes back split into components you can store.
verifyadds a status per field, so a checkout can re-prompt for the one field that disagreed. - Australian support, in your timezone. You talk to the people who run it.
Questions buyers ask
What is the best address autocomplete API for Australian addresses?
It depends on one question. Do you need to know an address exists, or that Australia Post will deliver to it? For web forms, checkouts and sign-ups, use a G-NAF-based API such as WattleAddr. G-NAF is the authoritative national address file, refreshed quarterly, and the main Australian providers build on it. For bulk mail lodgement you need an Australia Post AMAS/PAF-certified provider. WattleAddr is not one. Among G-NAF providers, the differences are where the lookup is processed, whether you pay per keystroke or per completed address, and whether you can get a data-residency attestation, a DPA and purchase-order billing.
What is the cheapest Australian address validation API?
Compare the billing unit, included allowance and overage rate for your expected traffic. An address search may make several autocomplete requests, but the cost difference depends on the providers’ current rates and session rules; there is no universal savings multiplier. WattleAddr bills one lookup per completed address session, with no charge for an abandoned search. Reuse a session token for each address. The Free plan includes 5,000 lookups a month with no card; Starter is $53.90/month for 50,000 and Growth $163.90/month for 250,000, in AUD including GST. Check the pricing page for overage rates and limits.
Is there an Australian alternative to Google Places Autocomplete?
Yes. WattleAddr is an Australian-owned address autocomplete and validation API hosted in Australia, using the open G-NAF dataset. The differences are data residency, billing in Australian dollars with GST itemised on a tax invoice, and one address search counts as one billable lookup whether or not the customer completes it. The trade-off is coverage. WattleAddr returns Australian addresses only. It does not return businesses, landmarks or points of interest.
Does an Australian address API need to be hosted in Australia?
Not by law in most cases, but often by contract. Australian Privacy Principle 8 makes you accountable for what an overseas recipient does with personal information you disclose to them. Government and regulated buyers often require onshore processing. Address autocomplete sends your users’ keystrokes to the provider before anyone clicks submit. So an offshore autocomplete can break a data-residency promise you have already made to a customer or an auditor. WattleAddr serves every request from Sydney with a Melbourne standby, with no foreign CDN or offshore edge in the request path. We publish a data-residency attestation for procurement.
Can any Australian address API validate a PO Box?
Not from G-NAF. The Geocoded National Address File is a register of physical addresses and contains no PO Boxes, GPO Boxes, Locked Bags or Private Bags, so no G-NAF-based provider can match one. That includes WattleAddr. PO Boxes are in Australia Post’s Postal Address File (PAF), so a provider licensed for PAF can validate them. WattleAddr detects these queries and returns a postal_address_unsupported notice instead of an empty dropdown. It does not bill for them. Your form can then offer a separate postal-address field.
When is WattleAddr the right choice?
When you need to know an Australian address exists, is correctly formatted and where it is, and it matters where the lookup is processed. Five cases. You have made a data-residency promise to a customer, an auditor or a tender, and autocomplete sends keystrokes before anyone presses submit. You sell to government, health or finance and need a DPA and a data-residency attestation you can download today. An SLA and purchase-order billing are available on Enterprise and Government. Your form is busy enough that per-keystroke billing hurts. WattleAddr bills one lookup per completed address search, nothing for an abandoned one, and the 5,000-lookup free tier is ongoing. You want the address parsed into fields you can store, with verify giving a status per field so a checkout can re-prompt for the one field that disagreed. Or you want to talk to the people who run it, in your timezone.
What is G-NAF and do all Australian address providers use it?
G-NAF is the Geocoded National Address File, the authoritative index of physical Australian addresses maintained by Geoscape Australia and published as open data. It is refreshed quarterly and contains more than 15 million addresses with coordinates. Nearly every Australia-specific address API uses it, so coverage rarely differs much between them. The differences are matching quality, hosting, billing model and contract terms. The dataset is open, and its licence requires a short attribution to Geoscape Australia wherever you show the data.
Try it free
5,000 lookups a month, ongoing, no card. Same data and infrastructure as the paid plans.