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Providers and Cost

Postcode lookups are answered by one of two services, tried in the order you set. This article explains the two, how to order them, the Google key, and the ceiling that stops a single page view from triggering an unbounded number of lookups.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → Integration & Connections:

  • Postcode Lookup — shows the services in order, whether a Google key is set, and lets you test a postcode

The settings themselves are in Site Settings, in the Postcode Lookup group (see Site Settings).

The two services

  • postcodes (postcodes.io): free, needs no key, covers UK postcodes only, and answers up to 100 postcodes in one request. Postcodes that do not look like UK ones are never sent to it.
  • google (Google Geocoding): one request per postcode, needs a key, is a paid Google service, and is not limited to the UK.

No other services are supported. Any other name in the list is ignored, and a list containing nothing recognisable falls back to postcodes on its own.

Setting the order

  1. In Site Settings, Postcode Lookup group, set Services to try, in order as a comma-separated list. It ships as postcodes,google.
  2. For each postcode, the services are tried in that order and the first answer wins. A postcode the first service cannot find is passed to the next.
  3. To use only the free service, set it to postcodes.

For UK data, keep postcodes first: it answers almost everything, in bulk, and Google only sees what it missed. For data outside the UK, postcodes.io finds nothing, so in practice every lookup goes to Google.

The Google key

Enter the key in Google Geocoding API key. The key must have the Geocoding API enabled in your Google account. If no key is set, the google step is skipped silently, which the Postcode Lookup screen shows as "Not set - the google step is skipped". This is a separate key from any used for maps or address autocomplete in visitors' browsers.

If Google refuses a request (a key that is not authorised, or a quota reached), nothing is cached and the refusal is written to the error log, so the same postcodes are tried again next time. A test on the Postcode Lookup screen reports "No service could find" the postcode.

Limits

  • Most postcodes to look up in one go (500): the most postcodes a single page view or warm-up run will look up. On a first visit to a large browse view, postcodes beyond the ceiling wait for later visits; Warm postcode cache in the Browse View Builder fills the rest in batches of the same size.
  • Days before a postcode is looked up again (365) and Days before an unknown postcode is tried again (30): how long a cached answer counts as current. See Postcode Lookup and the Cache.

What goes wrong and how to tell

  • Non-UK postcodes are never found: Google is not in the list, or no key is set.
  • Google usage is higher than expected: Google is listed first, or the data is not UK. Put postcodes first.
  • The same failures recur: check the error log for Google refusals and the key's settings in your Google account.

Worked example

A national charity's venues are mostly in the UK, with a few in Ireland. The architect keeps postcodes,google and adds a Google Geocoding key. When the venues view is warmed, postcodes.io resolves the UK venues in a handful of bulk requests and Google answers only the Irish ones. The What Is Cached card's breakdown by service confirms that Google handled a small minority.

Recommendations

  • Keep postcodes first for UK data.
  • Add Google only if you need it, and watch its usage in your Google account.
  • Leave the ceiling at 500 unless pages are slow on first view.
  • Test a postcode after any settings change.