Directions

Overview

Directions API returns the real road route between two points (or ordered waypoints): distance (meters), estimated duration (seconds), route geometry (polyline or GeoJSON), and optional turn-by-turn steps.

Want to try it first? Open the Live Demo and drag the A/B markers on the map.

Endpoint

GET https://api.justrouting.tech/route/v1/{profile}/{coordinates}

URL parameter	Description
`profile`	`driving` (car) or `motorcycle`
`coordinates`	`{lng},{lat};{lng},{lat}[;...]`, visited in order, up to 100

Quickstart

curl "https://api.justrouting.tech/route/v1/driving/103.708362,1.357371;103.984748,1.352212?overview=full&steps=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

import justrouting

client = justrouting.Client("YOUR_API_KEY")

route = client.routes.get(justrouting.RouteRequest(
    origin=[103.708362, 1.357371],
    destination=[103.984748, 1.352212],
    steps=True,
))

print(f"{route.distance / 1000:.1f} km, {route.duration / 60:.0f} min")

import { Client } from '@justrouting/client';

const client = new Client("YOUR_API_KEY");

const route = await client.routes.get({
  origin: [103.708362, 1.357371],
  destination: [103.984748, 1.352212],
  steps: true,
});

console.log(`${(route.distance / 1000).toFixed(1)} km, ${Math.round(route.duration / 60)} min`);

route, err := client.Routes.Get(ctx, &justrouting.RouteRequest{
    Origin:      []float64{103.708362, 1.357371},
    Destination: []float64{103.984748, 1.352212},
    Steps:       true,
})

Request Parameters

Service options

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`overview`	string	`simplified`	`full` (full geometry) / `simplified` (display-precision geometry) / `false` (no geometry) / `by_legs` (geometry split by leg)
`steps`	bool	`false`	Return per-leg turn instructions (see Turn-by-Turn)
`alternatives`	bool/int	`false`	Alternative routes; `alternatives=2` requests up to 2 (not guaranteed)
`geometries`	string	`polyline`	`polyline` / `polyline6` / `geojson`
`annotations`	string	`false`	Per-coordinate metadata along the route geometry: `true`, or a comma-separated list of `nodes`, `distance`, `duration`, `datasources`, `weight`, `speed`
`continue_straight`	string	`default`	Force straight continuation at waypoints, constraining U-turns there even if it would be faster; default depends on the profile
`waypoints`	string	—	Indices of input coordinates to treat as waypoints in the response, e.g. `0;3`. Default is to treat all input coordinates as waypoints

General options

These options apply to all routing services. Options that take one value per coordinate use the array-like encoding {option}={element};{element}[;...] — the number of elements must match the number of coordinates (except generate_hints and exclude). Pass an empty element to use the default for that coordinate, e.g. bearings=;90,20;.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`bearings`	string	—	Limit snapping to segments with the given bearing; each element is `{value},{range}` with value 0–360° clockwise from true north and range 0–180°
`radiuses`	string	—	Limit snapping to the given radius in meters per coordinate, `unlimited` for no limit
`generate_hints`	bool	`true`	Add a `hint` to each response waypoint for reuse in later requests via `hints`
`hints`	string	—	Base64 `hint` from a previous response; speeds up snapping significantly
`approaches`	string	—	Restrict the road direction at a waypoint; per element `curb` / `opposite` / `unrestricted` (default)
`exclude`	string	—	Additive list of road classes to avoid, e.g. `exclude=motorway`
`snapping`	string	`default`	`any` snaps to any edge in the graph; `default` avoids edges that cannot be used as start/end points
`skip_waypoints`	bool	`false`	Remove waypoints from the response (they are still calculated, just not serialized)

Examples

Waypoints (multi-stop)
Avoid motorways
GeoJSON geometry

# A → B → C, in order
curl "https://api.justrouting.tech/route/v1/driving/103.708362,1.357371;103.8514,1.2897;103.984748,1.352212" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

curl "https://api.justrouting.tech/route/v1/driving/103.708362,1.357371;103.984748,1.352212?exclude=motorway" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

curl "https://api.justrouting.tech/route/v1/driving/103.708362,1.357371;103.984748,1.352212?geometries=geojson&overview=full" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Response

response-example.json

{
  "code": "Ok",
  "data_version": "2025-06-01T21:43:02Z",
  "routes": [
    {
      "legs": [
        {
          "steps": [],
          "weight": 2222.6,
          "summary": "",
          "duration": 2225.6,
          "distance": 36911.2
        }
      ],
      "weight_name": "routability",
      "geometry": "_bhGmo~wRPMNKNIXQvHsErAw@...",
      "distance": 36911.2,
      "duration": 2225.6
    }
  ],
  "waypoints": [
    { "name": "", "location": [103.708362, 1.357371] },
    { "name": "", "location": [103.984748, 1.352212] }
  ]
}

Response fields

Field	Type	Unit	Description
`code`	string	—	`Ok` on success; see Errors otherwise
`data_version`	string	—	Timestamp of the OpenStreetMap data used (optional)
`routes`	array	—	Alternative routes, best first
`routes[].distance`	float	meters	Total route distance
`routes[].duration`	float	seconds	Estimated travel time
`routes[].weight`	float	—	Routing weight (engine-internal; usually equals duration)
`routes[].weight_name`	string	—	Name of the weight profile used during extraction
`routes[].geometry`	string	—	Encoded polyline (precision 5) that decodes to `[lat, lng]` pairs; with `geometries=geojson` this is a GeoJSON LineString
`routes[].legs`	array	—	One entry per waypoint pair; contains steps when `steps=true`
`routes[].legs[].summary`	string	—	Names of the two major roads used (with `steps=true`, else empty)
`routes[].legs[].annotation`	object	—	Per-coordinate metadata when `annotations` is set; see the Annotation object below
`routes[].legs[].steps[]`	array	—	Turn instructions with `maneuver` (direction), `name` (street name), `distance`, `duration`
`waypoints[]`	array	—	Each input coordinate snapped to the road network; `distance` is the snap offset in meters, `hint` is reusable via the `hints` parameter

Decoding geometry

Precision-5 polyline — decodable with any polyline library:

import polyline
coords = polyline.decode(route["geometry"])  # -> [(lat, lng), ...]

import polyline from '@mapbox/polyline';
const coords = polyline.decode(route.geometry); // -> [[lat, lng], ...]

Note the decoded pairs are [lat, lng] — the opposite order of the lng,lat request input.

Annotation object

When annotations is requested, each leg gets an annotation object with arrays aligned to the route geometry coordinates:

Field	Description
`distance`	Distance between each pair of coordinates, in meters
`duration`	Duration between each pair of coordinates, in seconds (excludes turn costs)
`weight`	Routing weight between each pair of coordinates (excludes turn costs)
`speed`	Convenience field: `distance / duration` rounded to one decimal place
`nodes`	OSM node id of each coordinate along the route
`datasources`	Index of the speed source for each segment (`0` = the profile); names are in `metadata.datasource_names`

{
  "distance": [5, 5, 10, 5, 5],
  "duration": [15, 15, 40, 15, 15],
  "weight": [15, 15, 40, 15, 15],
  "speed": [0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3],
  "nodes": [49772551, 49772552, 49786799, 49786800, 49786801, 49786802],
  "datasources": [1, 0, 0, 0, 1],
  "metadata": { "datasource_names": ["traffic", "lua profile", "lua profile", "lua profile", "traffic"] }
}

Coordinates use lng,lat order, and all coordinates in one request must be in the same country. See Coverage.

Errors

HTTP	code	Meaning
401	—	Authentication failed (`error` field in the body), see Authentication
400	`NoRoute`	No route between the points
400	`NoSegment`	A coordinate could not be snapped to a road
400	`TooBig`	More than 100 coordinates
429	`rate_limited`	Quota exceeded, see Rate Limits

Recipes

Draw a line: geometries=geojson + Draw a Route on a Map
Navigation: steps=true + Turn-by-Turn Navigation
Multi-stop ordering: route 3+ waypoints in order, or let Fleet Optimization solve the optimal sequence

Distance Matrix

Travel time and distance between many points in one call

Fleet Optimization

VROOM vehicle routing with time windows and capacity

Map Matching

Snap GPS traces to real roads

Getting Started

API Reference

MCP

OpenAPI

Guides

Overview

Endpoint

Quickstart

Request Parameters

Service options

General options

Examples

Response

Response fields

Errors

Recipes

Distance Matrix

Fleet Optimization

Map Matching

​Overview

​Endpoint

​Quickstart

​Request Parameters

​Service options

​General options

​Examples

​Response

​Response fields

​Errors

​Recipes

​Related

Distance Matrix

Fleet Optimization

Map Matching

Overview

Endpoint

Quickstart

Request Parameters

Service options

General options

Examples

Response

Response fields

Errors

Recipes

Related