# Aeralas Maps

Print-ready annotated aerial maps of US addresses — for real estate listings,
land development, and site and engineering exhibits. Public-domain imagery,
licensed for commercial print.

## How to use it

https://maps.aeralas.com/api/v1/maps
  GET   free: request schema, worked examples, and everything below as JSON.
  POST  returns the map. $1 USDC per map via x402 on eip155:8453 (Base mainnet).

https://maps.aeralas.com/api/v1/maps/check
  POST  free. Renders the same page and returns layout warnings, every
        annotation drawn (with geometry), imagery source and quality.
        Iterate here, then buy once.

https://maps.aeralas.com/mcp
  MCP server (Streamable HTTP, no auth) with the same service as tools:
  get_service_info, check_map and preview_map (free, a watermarked image),
  make_map (paid over x402 in MCP _meta, settled only if the render
  succeeds; returns a download link) and revise_map (free for 7 days).

## Quality

The page is rendered at the DPI you ask for (150-300, default 200) at its
exact physical size. How much real ground detail it holds depends on the
imagery that covers the address, which is the best public-domain source
available there.

- New Hampshire: NH GRANIT 6-inch ortho (2021-22), about 6-inch (15 cm) per
  pixel. On 11x17 at 200 DPI it stays acceptable for frames 210 m wide or
  more, sharp from 336 m.
- New York State: NY statewide ortho (latest), about 6-inch (15 cm) per
  pixel. On 11x17 at 200 DPI it stays acceptable for frames 209 m wide or
  more, sharp from 335 m.
- Rest of the continental US: USDA NAIP (National Map), about 12-inch (30
  cm) per pixel. On 11x17 at 200 DPI it stays acceptable for frames 413 m wide
  or more, sharp from 660 m.

The example on the homepage is New Hampshire 6-inch imagery, the best case.
Most US addresses get roughly 12-inch NAIP, which is coarser. Run the free
check for your exact frame to see which source and rating you will get before
paying.

Regional frames (several km and wider) are drawn from the USGS imagery
basemap, which is sharp at that scale and renders in seconds rather than a
minute.

Ratings, reported as X-Print-Quality and by the check:
- sharp: The imagery has at least as much detail as the page asks for.
- acceptable: The page asks for up to 1.6x more detail than the imagery has: slightly soft up close, clean in print.
- insufficient: The frame is too tight for the imagery. Raise groundWidthM or lower dpi.

## What it can draw

- tenant_callout: A pin with a label box and optional second line; a brand logo where a public-domain one exists.
- subject_property: A filled, outlined polygon with a label — the property being sold or studied.
- subject_pin: A teardrop pin with an optional monogram (up to 3 characters): the property on a regional map.
- place_label: A city or town name, white with a dark halo, sized city/town/village.
- route_shield: A highway shield — interstate, US route or state route — with its number.
- water_label: A lake or river name, slanted in light blue.
- panel: A framed box with a coloured header ("PORTLAND CBD // 100,000+ JOBS") over a grid of logos, one large logo, or a photo, with an offset outline and a leader to the place it describes (`at`). A target off the page gets an arrow instead. Logos by brand `name` (looked up for a public-domain logo; printed as text when none exists), by `wikidata` id, or your own `image` as a data: URI; a `photo` the same way. Place it with `anchor` (fractions of the page), or omit it to dock beside its target.
- road_label: A road name set along the road, upright, on its longest clear stretch.
- traffic_count: A traffic count (AADT) figure at a point.

On a site map, drafts tenant callouts from OpenStreetMap (shops, restaurants,
banks, fuel, hotels, venues, wineries and breweries, golf) and road names from
Census TIGER, spread across the frame. On a regional map — groundWidthM 3000
or more, or autoLabel.mode 'regional' — drafts city names by population,
highway shields and lakes and rivers from Census TIGER instead, and pins the
address. Tune with maxTenants, maxRoads, brandsOnly, maxPlaces, maxShields and
maxWater.

Labels are placed automatically to avoid each other and the page elements.
When a label has to compromise, the response says which one and which
parameter to change.

Overlays: fema-flood (FEMA regulated floodplain. Blank means no mapped hazard: FEMA draws Zone X with no symbol.); nwi-wetlands (USFWS National Wetlands Inventory.)

Page: letter, legal or tabloid (11x17); portrait or landscape; 150-300 DPI;
frame 100 m to 40 km wide. Around 500 m suits a single property; 20-30 km a
regional amenity map. Title block, north arrow, scale bar, locator inset (USGS
topo overview), and a legend added automatically when an overlay is on.

## What you get back

- PDF: One page at the exact physical page size. The map is a single image at the requested DPI.
- PNG: The same image as a PNG.

Imagery, overlays, your annotations, the page elements you chose, and a credit
line naming the imagery source and capture year (and OpenStreetMap when
business names are used).

Annotations are drawn into the image, not delivered as editable layers. To
change one, change the request and export again — free within the revision
window.

About 10-18 MB for 11x17 at 200 DPI. About 4 seconds when the location is
cached, about 15 seconds the first time a location is requested.

## Attempts, failures and revisions

POST /api/v1/maps/check is free. It renders the same page and returns layout
warnings, every annotation it drew (with geometry, so a draft can be edited
and resent), the imagery source, capture years and quality. Iterate there; buy
once.

Payment settles only after the map renders successfully. A request that fails
— an address that cannot be found, no imagery, a server error — is not
charged.

A paid export returns X-Map-Id. Send it back as `mapId` and re-exports are
free for 7 days while the frame is unchanged: labels, styling, overlays, page
elements and title are yours to revise. X-Revisions-Used reports the count.

A different frame is a different map. Changing address or center,
groundWidthM, pageSize, orientation or dpi is a new purchase; a refused
revision comes back as a 402 with X-Revision-Refused explaining that the frame
changed.

Per caller: checks 20/minute and 300/day; the paid endpoint 30/minute and
1000/day. Over the limit you get a 429 with Retry-After. The limits protect
the shared public data services every map is drawn from.

## Limits

- Continental US only.
- Business names come from OpenStreetMap: thorough in commercial areas,
  sparse in rural ones. The check shows what was drafted.
- Logos appear only for brands with a public-domain logo on Wikimedia
  Commons; other businesses are labelled in text.
- No parcel boundaries. Draw the subject property yourself as a polygon.
- Straight-down imagery only; no oblique or 3D views.
- Up to 40 annotations per map.
- Panel images are sent inline as data: URIs (PNG, JPEG or WebP); image URLs
  are not fetched.
- Only brands with a public-domain logo get one automatically; Nordstrom and
  J.Crew, for example, print as text unless you send the image.

## For people

https://maps.aeralas.com — $39 per map, no subscription.

Aeralas LLC