API reference

Get cell position

Look up a cell using its network identifiers.

Community coverage

OpenCellID relies on community observations, so coverage varies. A missing result can mean an unobserved cell, changed identifiers or a network-identifier mismatch. See Coverage and missing cells.

Getting cell position

GET https://opencellid.org/cell/get

Also accepts POST requests.

Parameters

NameTypeRequiredDescription
keystringYesAPI key assigned to the user
mccintegerYesMobile country code
mncintegerYesMobile network code or system identifier
lacintegerYesLocal area code, tracking area code or network id
cellidintegerYesCell id or base station id
radiostringNoYou can specifiy GSM, UMTS, LTE, NBIOT, NR or CDMA as the radio of returned cell. Otherwise first matched cell will be returned.
formatstringNoYou can specifiy xml, at or json as output. Default is xml.

Example request

Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your key.

curl "https://opencellid.org/cell/get?key=YOUR_API_KEY&mcc=260&mnc=2&lac=10250&cellid=26511&radio=UMTS&format=json"

Response

Successful requests return HTTP 200. See Errors for error statuses and response formats.

Coordinates are rounded to up to 4 decimal places (2 for MCCs 404–406). Trailing zeros may be omitted. samples uses a positive upstream sample count when available, otherwise 1.

XML

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rsp stat="ok"><cell lat="39.5691" lon="-105.0026" mcc="310" mnc="410" lac="7033" cellid="17811" averageSignalStrength="0" range="1695" samples="1" changeable="1" radio="GSM" rnc="0" cid="0" tac="0" sid="0" nid="0" bid="0" message=""/></rsp>

JSON

{
  "lat": 39.5691,
  "lon": -105.0026,
  "mcc": 310,
  "mnc": 410,
  "lac": 7033,
  "cellid": 17811,
  "averageSignalStrength": 0,
  "range": 1695,
  "samples": 1,
  "changeable": 1,
  "radio": "GSM",
  "rnc": 0,
  "cid": 0,
  "tac": 0,
  "sid": 0,
  "nid": 0,
  "bid": 0,
  "message": null
}

AT

+Location:39.5691,-105.0026,1788663346

message passes through an upstream success message when present; otherwise it is null.

Availability

Each user receives 1,000 API request credits per day. For more credits or commercial plans, see Access and limits.


API overview · Measurement fields · Errors

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