> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.placematic.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# How can I reduce location API costs?
> Seven patterns, ranked by the order of magnitude they move. Most teams start at number seven.
# How can I reduce location API costs?
**Short answer:** Change the unit of work. Choose the right primitive. Materialize what doesn't move. Everything else is a constant factor.
## Ranked by what they move
| Rank | Pattern | Moves | Effort |
| ---- | -------------------------- | ------------------- | ------- |
| 1 | Change the unit of work | Orders of magnitude | Low |
| 2 | Choose the right primitive | Orders of magnitude | Low |
| 3 | Precompute and materialize | Unbounded → bounded | Medium |
| 4 | Cache | Large constant | Low |
| 5 | Deduplicate | Large constant | Trivial |
| 6 | Batch | Rate difference | Medium |
| 7 | Trim the request | Small constant | Trivial |
Teams routinely start at rank 7. Setting `return` fields correctly is worth doing and **will never save a platform whose architecture calls a geocoder per GPS packet.**
## 1. Unit of work
Geocode **events**, not packets. Debounce keystrokes at 200–300ms. Match **trips**, not points.
Instrument the ratio of API calls to business events. Reverse-geocode calls ÷ detected stops should be near 1.
## 2. Right primitive
If you're writing a loop around a routing call, stop. You're building a cost table (Matrix) or an itinerary (Tour Planning). Both exist. Both are cheaper.
## 3. Materialize
Drive-time isolines around fixed locations are stable for months. A 400-store network with three delivery bands is **1,200 isoline calls per quarter** — not per session.
Compute once. Store in PostGIS. Query with `ST_Contains`, forever, for free.
## 4. Cache
Buildings are stationary.
**Normalize before hashing.** `123 Main St` and `123 Main Street` are the same address and two cache misses. Teams routinely find half their misses were the same address written three ways.
**Do not use a TTL on geocoding.** A thirty-day expiry invalidates a stable rooftop match for a building that has stood since 1904, and does nothing about the subdivision that opened yesterday.
Invalidate on map release, low confidence, correction, or a failed delivery.
## 5. Deduplicate
A raw order export contains enormous repetition. Geocoding four million rows containing nine hundred thousand distinct addresses bills for four million.
One `SELECT DISTINCT`. Free.
## 6. Batch
If the result is written to a database rather than rendered to a screen, it should have been batched. Nothing is waiting for a nightly job.
## 7. Trim
Set `return` explicitly. Nothing consumes turn-by-turn `instructions` server-side. Put a CDN in front of tiles. Coarsen isoline resolution where nobody sees the difference.
## Common misconceptions
**"We need a volume discount."**
A discount on an unbounded cost is still unbounded.
**"Caching is a small optimization."**
It's the difference between paying per order and paying per distinct customer.
**"We should migrate to a cheaper vendor."**
Fix the call pattern first, on your current platform. Re-measure. A meaningful share of teams find the bill halves without a vendor change — and now you have a clean baseline for the migration decision.
## Related
The full taxonomy, with arithmetic.
Normalization, invalidation, and the privacy question.
Materialization, in practice.
The process: instrument, fix, model.
***
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