Azure Maps: Understanding View vs. Routing Coordinates

When you work with Azure Maps long enough, you will eventually run into a subtle but important detail: the platform returns two different types of coordinates for the same address. And while they may look interchangeable, they behave very differently once you start routing, calculating travel times, or dropping pins on a map. Let’s break down what each represents and how to use them correctly when building location‑intelligent applications.

Why azure maps has more than one coordinate for A PLACE Geocoders, including Azure Maps, are designed to satisfy two competing needs: 1. Show the place in the visually “accurate” spot on a map. Get people or goods to a real, accessible point on the road network.

The coordinate that satisfies the first need is rarely the same answer for the second, in fact it can be wildly off. If you have ever visited a National Park or other large location where the entrance is far from where you would display the center of the park, you will note that the difference between these coordinates can be many miles apart and often you can't drive to the exact center, so we would say the View coordinate is not Routable. So Azure Maps provides them separately; one to power the visual map experience, the other to power the routing engine.

The view coordinate: Your visual anchor point Think of the Azure Maps view coordinate as “the place where the map pin should sit..