About LocateImages
A free tool that estimates where a photo was taken, and says honestly how sure it is.
Why I made it
Finding where a photo was taken used to take an expert hours, and the tools that now do it in seconds either hide how sure they are or charge for every photo. I wanted one that anyone could use for free, that showed its clues so they can be checked, that said plainly when it does not know, and that treated the photo as private from the first byte.
How it works
Two models look at every photo. GeoCLIP, an open model that runs on my own server, compares it with 100,000 places of the world and gives a first guess in about a second. A vision AI, Claude by Anthropic, reads the clues (signs, number plates, road markings, plants, buildings) and gives the answer with its radius and its confidence. GeoCLIP does not vote, it checks: when both agree the confidence goes up, when they do not it goes down, and if the AI cannot answer, GeoCLIP's rough guess is shown on its own, at region level and with low confidence.
What it never does
It never presents an answer as confirmed. It never keeps your photo or its result. It never sends a face to the AI without blurring it first. And it never pinpoints people or homes: when they appear in a photo, the precision drops on purpose to the nearest city. Using LocateImages to locate, follow or identify anyone is forbidden by its terms.
What it is made of
The map is drawn with MapLibre GL JS over the tiles of OpenFreeMap, with data from OpenStreetMap and its contributors. GeoCLIP is the work of researchers at the University of Central Florida. The typeface is Geist. Every credit and licence is in the legal notice.
How it is paid for
For now, by me. Every analysis costs me the use of the AI, and every exact search a few minutes of my server, which is why there are free credits a day: they keep the tool free for everyone. There are no ads, and nobody's data is for sale.
Who runs it
LocateImages is operated by a duly incorporated company. Its identification details are provided to anyone with a legitimate interest who asks through the contact form.