Get OpenStreetMap data without the Overpass API
The Overpass API is the standard way to query OpenStreetMap, and it's powerful — but it's built for developers. To use it directly you write queries in Overpass QL, a language of its own; broad queries over a big city often time out on the public servers; and what comes back is raw OpenStreetMap elements (nodes, ways and relations with tags), not a clean list of businesses with addresses. For a one-off "give me every pharmacy in Chicago," that's a lot of friction.
There's a no-code path that uses OpenStreetMap's data without any of that. You name an area, pick what you're after, and get tidy rows back.
What's hard about raw Overpass — and what replaces it
- Query language → You write none. Instead of Overpass QL, you pass a plain place name and a list of categories.
- Timeouts on big areas → The work is split and retried across multiple mirrors with backoff, so a whole-city pull completes instead of erroring out.
- Raw map elements → You get flat rows — one per place — with a ready-made full_address, map_url, coordinates, brand and contact, instead of tagged geometry you have to post-process.
- Merging duplicates → A place mapped twice (say, once as a point and once as a building outline) is merged into one richer row.
How to do it (no API key, no QL)
Run the dataquarry OpenStreetMap Places Scraper on Apify. Search by area, by radius around a point, or by bounding box, and filter by category (and optionally by name):
{"area":"Chicago, Illinois","categories":["pharmacy","clinic"]}
You'll get rows like this:
| name | category | full_address | phone | opening_hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walgreens | pharmacy | 757 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, USA | +1 312-664-8686 | Mo-Su 08:00-22:00 |
| CVS Pharmacy | pharmacy | 1201 S State St, Chicago, IL 60605, USA | +1 312-924-0850 |
Run the OpenStreetMap Places Scraper on Apify →
Want the data in a spreadsheet? It exports as CSV, JSON or Excel — see exporting OpenStreetMap data.
Why OpenStreetMap?
It's the same open data the Overpass API serves — published under the ODbL, free to use and redistribute with attribution to © OpenStreetMap contributors. The difference is the path to it: no query language, no timeouts to manage, and clean rows instead of raw elements. Unmapped fields stay null instead of being guessed. Pricing is pay-per-result: $3 per 1,000 rows.
FAQ
Do I have to learn Overpass QL to get OpenStreetMap data?
No. You give the tool a place name (or radius, or bounding box) and a list of categories — there's no query language to write. It handles the OpenStreetMap querying for you.
Why does my Overpass query keep timing out?
Large areas or broad filters make a single Overpass request do a lot of work, and the public servers cap query time to stay fair to everyone. A tool that splits the work and retries across mirrors avoids that.
How much does it cost?
Pay-per-result: $3 per 1,000 rows — you only pay for the rows you actually get.