Coordinates & places · 4 min
Find the coordinates of any place
Three quick ways to get the latitude and longitude of a spot, an address or a pin on a map.
Coordinates & places
Three ways in
Coordinates come from one of three places: you click the spot on a map, you look up an address and the map finds it for you, or someone copies them out of an app and sends them to you.
Looking up an address has a proper name, geocoding. Going the other way, from coordinates to an address, is reverse geocoding.
Lesson notes
Everything from the cards above, on one page to come back to.
Three ways in
Coordinates come from one of three places: you click the spot on a map, you look up an address and the map finds it for you, or someone copies them out of an app and sends them to you.
Looking up an address has a proper name, geocoding. Going the other way, from coordinates to an address, is reverse geocoding.
Click the map
The quickest way when you can see the place: click it. In MapGO's coordinate converter, a click shows the point in decimal degrees, degrees-minutes-seconds, UTM and MGRS at once.
On Google Maps on a computer, right-click a spot. The coordinates are the first line of the menu, and clicking them copies them.
Look up an address
When you only have an address, an address search turns it into coordinates. The more of it you give, the better: a street name alone can match dozens of towns.
A good result also says how exact it is. A rooftop match points at the building. A street or town match only points at the middle of the street or the town.
“Main Street” could be anywhere. “12 Main Street, Galway, Ireland” is one building.
Check before you trust it
Copied coordinates go wrong in two ways: latitude and longitude swapped, or a minus sign lost. Both put the point in the wrong place, often in another country.
The fix takes seconds: paste the pair back onto a map and see if it lands where you expect.
Questions
How do I find the coordinates of an address?
Use an address search (geocoding). MapGO's address search needs a free account; on Google Maps, search the address and right-click the pin.
How do I get coordinates from Google Maps?
On a computer, right-click the spot: the coordinates are the first line of the menu and a click copies them. On a phone, drop a pin and look in its details.