"Failure connecting to API: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden" error when geocoding CSV file using MMQGIS Plugin in QGIS

Question

I'm not sure what's going on, but has anyone encountered this error?

My CSV contains addresses, city, province and country, which are all found automatically by the plug-in. When I execute the request, I receive the following error message:

Failure connecting to API: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden

To my knowledge, MMQGIS does not require an API.

Here's what it looks like:

CSV table of input data

I input rows D to G in the plug-in and use OpenStreetMap's API. I tried with Google, using the free API they provide, didn't work either. The Google API was not able to geocode any location. There were no error codes.

• Taras: What if you try the default QGIS geocoder i.e. "Batch Nominatim geocoder" ?

Answer 1

MMQGIS does not require an API, as it's just a plugin. But all of the geocoding services are APIs. Hence the tool in MMQGIS is called "Geocode CSV points from a web service". The web service is an API.

There does seem to be some intermittent issues with the OpenStreetMap/Nominatim service. It is free to use, and as such has no uptime guarantees.

You can test the service on the web:

https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/ui/search.html?q=2+Leman+Street%2C+London%2C+E1W+9US

For example when I tested it now I was getting "500 Internal Server Error" message which. But earlier on it was working fine through the plugin and the website. So worth tryin again in the furture.

The other services, including Google require an API key, as they are paid for services.

You can read more about it in the MMQGIS help guide:

https://michaelminn.com/linux/mmqgis/

Search for: Geocode CSV With Web Service

For Google the relevant information is:

API Key: To use the paid services, you will need an API key:

Google

• Taras: FYI, MMQGIS will need the API Key if you work with Google Maps API