Free · no account · 20 credits a day
Find where a photo was taken
Drop a photo and see on the map where it was most likely taken, how sure the estimate is and which clues point there, so you can check them yourself.
- Your photo is deleted as soon as the analysis ends
- Faces are blurred before the AI sees it
- Made for places, never for finding people
Drop a photo here
or paste it with Ctrl V
JPEG, PNG, WebP or HEIC, up to 20 MB
Know something already? Add a hint
It is taken as a clue, not as the truth.
No photo at hand? Try one of these
Photo: 663highland, CC BY 2.5
Photo: Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Dan Peschio, CC BY-SA 3.0
Probable location, not confirmed
Loading the map…
Drop it to locate it
How it works
Two models look at your photo: one reads it, the other checks it. Then, if you want, street-level photos find its exact spot.
Drop a photo
From your computer or your phone, or try an example. If you are sure of the area where it was taken, draw it on the map: the search is faster and far more likely to succeed. Faces are blurred on my server before the photo goes anywhere else.
Two models look at it
GeoCLIP, an open model on my own server, draws a first guess in about a second. Then a vision AI (Claude, by Anthropic) reads the signs, plates, road markings, plants and buildings, and gives its answer. When both agree, the confidence goes up.
Check the answer
You get an area, not a pin: a circle with its radius, a confidence level in plain words, the clues behind it and two or three alternatives, all there for you to verify.
- Optional
Find the exact spot
I compare your photo with street-level photos of the area from Mapillary, Panoramax and KartaView, never Google, until the buildings line up: you see where the camera stood and which way it faced, with both photos side by side. It takes 1 to 3 minutes and only works where there are street-level photos, never with people or private homes.
What it looks at
The same clues a trained eye uses. In the result, each one says what was seen and whether it supports the answer or goes against it.
Language
The language and the alphabet of any text: Cyrillic, Thai, or Portuguese with its ã and ç.
Signs
Street names, shop signs, road signs and the typefaces each country uses.
Number plates
Their shape, colours and format, even when they cannot be read.
Driving side
Which side the traffic keeps to, and which way the signs face.
Road markings
Line colours, dashes, kerbs and bollards change from one country to the next.
Vegetation
Palms, birches, eucalyptus or rice fields narrow down the climate and the region.
Climate and light
Snow, dry grass, haze, and how high the sun stands.
Terrain
Mountains, plains, the colour of the soil and the shape of the coast.
Architecture
Roofs, materials, windows, balconies and building styles.
Landmarks
A well-known building, bridge or mountain settles it quickly.
Infrastructure
Utility poles, street lamps, power lines and street furniture.
Vehicles
Car models, taxis, buses and trams that are typical of a place.
Shops and brands
Chains, supermarkets and petrol stations that only exist in some countries.
Anything else
A flag, a menu, a timetable: whatever the photo gives away.
Probable location, not confirmed
Probable, never confirmed
An estimate made from a photo can be wrong, sometimes with confidence. So every result shows its uncertainty instead of hiding it.
A circle, not a pin
The radius marks the area where the photo was probably taken: a few kilometres when the clues are clear, hundreds when they are not.
Confidence in words
High, medium or low, with the reason behind it. Never a percentage that looks like a probability and is not one.
- HighSeveral strong clues point here.
- MediumThe clues point here, but some are weak or open to more than one place.
- LowThere are few clear clues: take it as a starting point.
What to expect
Streets with signs or shops often give the right city. Countryside, coasts and mountains, usually the region or the country. Interiors, close-ups and the sky, sometimes little more than a continent.
Metadata is not proof
If your photo carries GPS coordinates, you see them apart, as what the file says. They can be edited, so they never decide the answer.
Your photo is gone when the answer arrives
No account, no history, no gallery. There is nothing to leak, because nothing is kept.
The life of your photo, in about fifteen seconds
It arrives in memory
Never written to disk or to any database.
Faces are blurred
On my server, without recognising anyone, before anything else.
It is analysed
GeoCLIP on my server; the blurred copy, by Claude.
It is deleted
As soon as the answer is ready, and after 15 minutes at most.
Nothing kept
Not the photo, not the area you draw, not the result or its coordinates, not the street-level photos it was compared with, not its metadata. Only an anonymous count of how sure each result was and how long it took.
Never for finding people
With people or a private home in the photo, the precision drops on purpose to the nearest city, with at least 15 km around it, and the exact search is not available.
The blurred copy goes to Claude, the AI of Anthropic, only to be analysed, and the map is drawn by OpenFreeMap. If you ask for the exact search, Mapillary, Panoramax and KartaView receive only the coordinates of the areas to search, never your photo. No ads and no third-party cookies. Read the privacy policy
Who it is for
Journalism and fact-checking
Check whether a photo going round could really have been taken where they say, and which clues are worth verifying.
Travel and memories
Find where that old holiday photo was taken, or the viewpoint of a picture you love.
Learning OSINT
See the clues explained one by one and train your eye for geolocation, GeoGuessr included.
Not for locating people
Not to find out where someone lives, works or is right now. The terms forbid it, and the tool itself stops at the city when people or homes appear.
Questions
Anything else? Write to me.
Is LocateImages really free?
Yes. You get 20 free credits a day, with no account and no payment: analysing a photo costs 1, and finding its exact spot with street-level photos costs 2, 4 or 6, depending on how large the area to search is. The daily limit is what keeps it free: every analysis costs me the use of the AI, and every exact search a few minutes of my server.
How accurate is it?
It depends on the photo. With readable signs or a well-known place it often gets the city right, sometimes the neighbourhood; with countryside or the sea, usually the region or the country. It can be wrong, which is why every answer shows a radius, a confidence level and its clues, and is never called confirmed. Where there are street-level photos, the exact search can then find the very spot.
What is the exact search?
An optional step after the result. I compare your photo with street-level photos of the area, from Mapillary, Panoramax and KartaView, until the buildings line up, and show the point where the camera stood, which way it faced, and both photos side by side and overlaid. It takes 1 to 3 minutes. It only works where people have shared street-level photos, so streets and buildings, not countryside, the sea or interiors. It does not use Google, and it is never available when people or private homes appear in the photo.
Why draw the area where the photo was taken?
Because the search then looks only there: a small area is faster, much more likely to give the exact spot, and costs fewer credits. Draw it only if you are sure the photo was taken inside; if you are not, choose «I don’t know» and the AI looks everywhere.
What happens to my photo?
It is processed in memory and deleted when the analysis ends (at most 15 minutes later if nobody collects the result), and faces are blurred before it goes to the AI. I keep neither the photo, nor the area you draw, nor the result, nor its coordinates. If you ask for the exact search, Mapillary, Panoramax and KartaView receive only the coordinates of the areas to search, never your photo, and the comparison happens on my server. The details are in the privacy policy.
Does it use the GPS of my photo?
No. If the file carries GPS coordinates you see them apart, as what the file says, because metadata can be edited or faked; the answer comes only from what the photo shows. Many phones remove the location when a photo is shared, so most photos carry none.
Why does it say probable and not confirmed?
Because a photo can only suggest a place, and even the best models are sometimes wrong with confidence. The label stays on every result so that nobody takes an estimate for a fact.
Can I use it to find a person?
Which photos work best?
Outdoor photos with something to read, such as street names, shop signs, road signs or number plates, and landscapes with distinctive plants or buildings. Close-ups, interiors and the sky give it little to go on.
Which files can I use?
JPEG, PNG, WebP and HEIC (the photos of an iPhone), up to 20 MB. It works in any recent browser, on a computer or on a phone.
Got a photo? Find out where it was taken.
Free, with no account, in about fifteen seconds.
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