Geo Location

How to use Geo Location

Every place on Earth can be described by two numbers: latitude and longitude. This geo location tool finds your current position (only if you allow it), or converts a latitude and longitude pair into a readable address. It is useful for sharing your exact spot, filling GPS fields in forms, checking where a photo was taken or sending a location to a driver or delivery partner.

How to use the geo location finder

Press the “use my location” button and allow the browser to share your position to see your latitude, longitude and an approximate address. To look up a point, type the latitude and longitude into the two boxes and press “Reverse geocode address”; the tool then shows the address it belongs to.

Your browser asks permission before sharing your location. If you decline, nothing is read. You can still type coordinates manually to find an address.

• Allow location access only when you want to detect your position
• Enter coordinates in decimal degrees, for example 28.6139 and 77.2090
• Copy the coordinates or address to share them

Latitude and longitude in plain words

Latitude measures how far north or south of the equator a place is, from 0° to 90°. Longitude measures how far east or west of the prime meridian it is, from 0° to 180°. India lies roughly between 8° and 37° north and 68° and 97° east, so Indian coordinates are usually positive numbers such as 28.6139° N, 77.2090° E for Delhi.

Decimal degrees with four decimal places point to within about 11 metres, and six decimal places to within about 11 centimetres, so more digits make the position more precise.

Accuracy and privacy

Position accuracy depends on your device. A phone with GPS outdoors can be accurate to a few metres, while a laptop that uses Wi-Fi location may be off by hundreds of metres. Dense buildings and indoor spaces can reduce accuracy.

Your coordinates are used only to display the result in your browser and to fetch the address. Do not share exact coordinates publicly if you do not want people to find your home.

• Switch on device location and step outdoors for the best GPS fix
• Share your live location only with people you trust
• Remove location data from photos before posting them publicly

Practical uses

Use the coordinates to guide a courier to a hard-to-find address, fill in the location field in a farming, survey or insurance form, or save the position of a parked vehicle. Paste the coordinates into a maps app to open the exact spot.

What reverse geocoding means

Turning an address into coordinates is called geocoding, and turning coordinates back into an address is reverse geocoding. This tool does the second one. It takes a latitude and longitude, looks up the nearest known road, locality and city in an open map database and returns a readable address.

Because the address is the nearest match in map data and not a postal record, it may show the neighbouring road, a nearby landmark or only the locality for remote areas. In farmland, forests and new colonies the result can be general, such as a village and district. For an exact delivery address always give the house number and landmark in words as well.

• Reverse geocoding returns the nearest mapped address, not a legal address
• Remote locations may show only a village, district or state
• Use the PIN code finder to confirm the postal code for the area

Ways to write coordinates

Coordinates appear in three common styles. Decimal degrees, such as 28.6139, 77.2090, are used by this tool and by most apps. Degrees and decimal minutes, such as 28° 36.834′ N, 77° 12.540′ E, appear on some GPS devices. Degrees, minutes and seconds, such as 28° 36′ 50″ N, 77° 12′ 32″ E, appear in older surveys and maps.

To convert degrees, minutes and seconds to decimal degrees, divide the minutes by 60 and the seconds by 3600 and add them to the degrees. For example 28° 36′ 50″ is 28 + 36/60 + 50/3600, which is about 28.6139. Enter negative numbers only for places south of the equator or west of the prime meridian, which does not apply to India.

Common mistakes

The most common mistake is swapping latitude and longitude. Latitude comes first and, for India, is the smaller number (between about 8 and 37); longitude comes second and is larger (between about 68 and 97). If the address shows an ocean or a different country, check the order. Other mistakes include using a comma instead of a decimal point, adding the degree symbol or letters like N and E to the boxes, and cutting digits so much that the point shifts by several hundred metres.

• Latitude first, longitude second
• Use a decimal point and plain numbers only
• Keep at least four decimal places for street-level accuracy