---
title: "Transform coordinates | Guides"
description: "Search coordinate systems and convert coordinates between various standards."
---

> For AI agents: a documentation index is available at [/llms.txt](https://docs.maptiler.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of all pages are available by appending .md to any URL.

# Transform coordinates

Geographical coordinates specify where something is located on Earth, and thus where to find it on a map. A [coordinate system](https://docs.maptiler.com/guides/how-maps-work/coordinate-systems/) defines the exact method of encoding a physical location into coordinates. Common map coordinate systems are based on a combination of longitude and latitude, but there are other standards as well. Our service lets you search these systems and convert coordinates from one to another.

## When you need it

Although most web maps and services today use the [Mercator](https://docs.maptiler.com/google-maps-coordinates-tile-bounds-projection/#Spherical_Mercator) coordinate system, geodata can come in many other flavors. If you have data in a different system, you’ll need to transform the coordinates to Mercator first – this is required for example by our [geocoding](https://docs.maptiler.com/guides/location-services/geocoding-search/) and [IP geolocation](https://docs.maptiler.com/guides/location-services/ip-geolocation/) services.

These are the most typical scenarios when you need to convert coordinates:

-   Transform data for a tool or task that requires the standard Mercator system
-   Unify data collected from various national coordinate systems
-   Merge multiple datasets from different projections

## How it works

Our coordinates service is powered by an open-source database of geographic coordinate systems used in maps worldwide. That makes it possible to provide programmatic access to more than 10,000 coordinate systems, from simple search to batch-converting data between them.

## How to use

The coordinate systems service is available via the [**Coordinates API**](https://docs.maptiler.com/cloud/api/coordinates/). The API page explains basic integration options and lists the API reference. Examples of how to use the API are here:

-   [How to search coordinate systems](https://docs.maptiler.com/guides/location-services/coordinates/search-coordinate-systems)
-   [How to transform coordinates](https://docs.maptiler.com/guides/location-services/coordinates/convert-coordinates)
-   [How to transform coordinates in batch](https://docs.maptiler.com/guides/location-services/coordinates/convert-coordinates-in-batch)

## Links

-   [Coordinates API](https://docs.maptiler.com/cloud/api/coordinates/)
-   [Coordinates API – JS client](https://docs.maptiler.com/client-js/#-coordinates)
-   [About coordinate systems](https://docs.maptiler.com/guides/how-maps-work/coordinate-systems/)