OpenRouteService

OpenRouteService Elevation API

Return elevation data for point or line geometries

GitHub OpenAPI

Operations 3

GET /elevation/point Get elevation for a point #
POST /elevation/point Get elevation for a point (POST) #
POST /elevation/line Get elevation for a line geometry #

Documentation

📖
Documentation
https://giscience.github.io/openrouteservice/api-reference/endpoints/directions/

Specifications

⚙
OpenAPI
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/openrouteservice/refs/heads/main/openapi/openrouteservice-elevation-api-openapi.yml

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OpenAPI Specification

openrouteservice-elevation-api-openapi.yml Raw ↑ 
openapi: 3.2.0
info:
  title: OpenRouteService Directions Elevation API
  description: OpenRouteService is a free, open-source geospatial API platform built on OpenStreetMap data. It provides routing directions for multiple transport modes, isochrones for reachability analysis, time-distance matrices, geocoding, elevation data, points of interest, and vehicle route optimization for logistics and humanitarian use cases.
  version: v2
  contact:
    name: OpenRouteService Support
    url: https://ask.openrouteservice.org
    email: support@smartmobility.heigit.org
  license:
    name: GNU General Public License v3.0
    url: https://github.com/GIScience/openrouteservice/blob/main/LICENSE
  x-ors-docs: https://giscience.github.io/openrouteservice/
servers:
- url: https://api.openrouteservice.org
  description: OpenRouteService Public API
security:
- ApiKeyAuth: []
tags:
- name: Elevation
  description: Return elevation data for point or line geometries
paths:
  /elevation/point:
    get:
      tags:
      - Elevation
      summary: Get elevation for a point
      description: Returns the elevation value for a single geographic point using SRTM elevation data.
      operationId: getElevationPoint
      parameters:
      - name: geometry
        in: query
        description: Coordinate as longitude,latitude
        required: true
        schema:
          type: string
          example: 8.681495,49.41461
      - name: format_in
        in: query
        description: Input geometry format (point)
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
          enum:
          - point
          default: point
      - name: format_out
        in: query
        description: Output format (point or geojson)
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
          enum:
          - point
          - geojson
          default: geojson
      - name: dataset
        in: query
        description: Elevation dataset to use
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
          enum:
          - srtm
          default: srtm
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Elevation data for the point
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/ElevationResponse'
        '400':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/BadRequest'
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
        '403':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Forbidden'
        '500':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/InternalServerError'
    post:
      tags:
      - Elevation
      summary: Get elevation for a point (POST)
      description: Returns the elevation value for a single geographic point using SRTM elevation data. POST variant for larger payloads.
      operationId: postElevationPoint
      requestBody:
        required: true
        content:
          application/json:
            schema:
              $ref: '#/components/schemas/ElevationPointRequest'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Elevation data for the point
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/ElevationResponse'
        '400':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/BadRequest'
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
        '403':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Forbidden'
        '500':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/InternalServerError'
  /elevation/line:
    post:
      tags:
      - Elevation
      summary: Get elevation for a line geometry
      description: Returns elevation values for a series of points along a line geometry using SRTM data. Supports up to 2,000 vertices per request.
      operationId: getElevationLine
      requestBody:
        required: true
        content:
          application/json:
            schema:
              $ref: '#/components/schemas/ElevationLineRequest'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Elevation data for the line geometry
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/ElevationResponse'
        '400':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/BadRequest'
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
        '403':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Forbidden'
        '500':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/InternalServerError'
components:
  responses:
    Unauthorized:
      description: Unauthorized - missing or invalid API key
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse'
    Forbidden:
      description: Forbidden - API key does not have permission for this operation
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse'
    InternalServerError:
      description: Internal server error
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse'
    BadRequest:
      description: Bad request - invalid parameters or request body
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse'
  schemas:
    ElevationPointRequest:
      type: object
      required:
      - geometry
      properties:
        format_in:
          type: string
          enum:
          - point
          default: point
        format_out:
          type: string
          enum:
          - point
          - geojson
          default: geojson
        dataset:
          type: string
          enum:
          - srtm
          default: srtm
        geometry:
          type: array
          description: Coordinate as [longitude, latitude]
          items:
            type: number
          minItems: 2
          maxItems: 2
          example:
          - 8.681495
          - 49.41461
    ElevationResponse:
      type: object
      properties:
        type:
          type: string
        geometry:
          type: object
        properties:
          type: object
          properties:
            dataset:
              type: string
    ErrorResponse:
      type: object
      properties:
        error:
          type: object
          properties:
            code:
              type: integer
              description: Error code
            message:
              type: string
              description: Human-readable error message
        info:
          type: object
          properties:
            engine:
              $ref: '#/components/schemas/EngineInfo'
            attribution:
              type: string
            timestamp:
              type: integer
              format: int64
    ElevationLineRequest:
      type: object
      required:
      - geometry
      properties:
        format_in:
          type: string
          description: Input geometry format
          enum:
          - polyline
          - polyline5
          - polyline6
          - encodedpolyline
          - geojson
          default: geojson
        format_out:
          type: string
          description: Output format
          enum:
          - polyline
          - polyline5
          - polyline6
          - encodedpolyline
          - geojson
          default: geojson
        dataset:
          type: string
          enum:
          - srtm
          default: srtm
        geometry:
          description: Line geometry as GeoJSON LineString or encoded polyline
          oneOf:
          - type: object
            description: GeoJSON LineString
          - type: string
            description: Encoded polyline string
    EngineInfo:
      type: object
      properties:
        version:
          type: string
          description: ORS engine version
        build_date:
          type: string
          format: date-time
          description: Build date of the ORS engine
  securitySchemes:
    ApiKeyAuth:
      type: apiKey
      in: header
      name: Authorization
      description: API key obtained from https://openrouteservice.org