canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/foursquare.com/foursquare

# Foursquare Places API

The Foursquare Places API gives you access to Foursquare's global places database. Search for businesses and points of interest by name, category, or location, or find places near a set of coordinates. For any place you can pull rich details, user photos, and tips left by visitors. An autocomplete endpoint returns place, address, and search suggestions as a user types, and a categories endpoint lists Foursquare's place taxonomy so you can filter searches. Every response is keyed by a stable Foursquare place id, so you can look up the same venue across calls.

## For AI agents

Search Foursquare's global places database by name, category, or location; get place details, photos, and tips; and use autocomplete and the category taxonomy.

## Scope

Covers place search, details, photos, tips, autocomplete, and categories. Check-ins, user accounts, and venue management from the legacy Foursquare product are not part of this Places API.

## Capabilities

- Search for businesses and points of interest by name, category, or location
- Find places near a given set of coordinates
- Retrieve full details for a place by its Foursquare id
- Fetch user-contributed photos for a place
- Read visitor tips left for a place
- Return place and address suggestions from an autocomplete query
- List Foursquare's place category taxonomy for filtering searches

## Use cases

### AI Agent for Local Discovery

A travel or concierge agent helps a user find places to eat, visit, or shop nearby. Through Jentic it searches the Foursquare Places API by category and location, then pulls details, photos, and tips for the best matches to summarize for the user. The agent discovers the search and details operations by intent, so it returns grounded venue information without a developer wiring HTTP calls.

Example prompt: Search for highly rated dinner spots near a set of coordinates, fetch details and tips for the top three, and recommend one with its address and hours

### Location Autocomplete in a Form

An app wants type-ahead place suggestions in a search box. As the user types, the autocomplete endpoint returns matching places and addresses, and selecting one resolves to a Foursquare place id that the app uses to fetch full details. This gives users fast, accurate location entry without a custom index.

Example prompt: Send the partial query to autocomplete, present the suggestions, and on selection call the place details endpoint with the returned id

### Enriching Records with Venue Data

A pipeline has business names and rough locations and needs canonical venue data. It searches the Places API for each record, matches the best result, and stores the Foursquare place id, category, and coordinates. Later runs use the id to refresh photos and tips, keeping a clean, deduplicated place dataset.

Example prompt: For each business name and city, search places, pick the closest category and name match, and save its Foursquare id and coordinates

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| GET | `/places/search` | Search places by name, category, or location |
| GET | `/places/nearby` | Find places near a set of coordinates |
| GET | `/places/{fsq_id}` | Get full details for a place |
| GET | `/places/{fsq_id}/photos` | Fetch user photos for a place |
| GET | `/places/{fsq_id}/tips` | Read visitor tips for a place |
| GET | `/autocomplete` | Return place and address suggestions for a query |
| GET | `/places/categories` | List the Foursquare place category taxonomy |

## Key resources

- **Places** — Search, nearby lookup, and full details for businesses and points of interest
- **Place content** — User-contributed photos and tips for a given place
- **Autocomplete** — Type-ahead place, address, and search suggestions
- **Categories** — Foursquare's place category taxonomy for filtering searches

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Using the Foursquare Places API by hand means managing the Authorization header key, joining place ids across search, details, photos, and tips calls, and reading the category taxonomy yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import the API from the Directory, and your agent calls the right operation.
- **Permission scoping:** The Foursquare Places API is read-only, so you allow only the operations a task needs, such as search and details, and leave photos, tips, or autocomplete out of the allowed set. Rules run on your own instance and every call the agent makes is logged.
- **Credential handling:** Your Foursquare API key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected into the Authorization header at execution time, so it never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'find nearby restaurants' or 'get place details', and Jentic returns the matching Foursquare operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without reading reference docs.

## Related APIs

- **Yelp Fusion API** — Local business search with reviews, ratings, and hours
- **TomTom Search API** — POI and address search with fuzzy and category matching
- **HERE Maps API** — Geocoding, routing, and map rendering services

## FAQ

### What authentication does the Foursquare Places API use?

Per its OpenAPI spec it uses an API key passed as the Authorization header (keys start with fsq3). Through Jentic that key is stored encrypted on your own instance and injected into the Authorization header at call time, so it never appears in the agent's prompt or logs.

### How do I search for nearby places with the Foursquare Places API?

Call GET `/places/nearby` with coordinates, or GET `/places/search` with a query and location. Each result carries a Foursquare place id you can pass to GET `/places/{fsq_id}` for full details. Through Jentic you search for the intent 'find nearby places' and the agent gets the operation and its input schema.

### Can I get photos and tips for a place from the Foursquare Places API?

Yes. Once you have a place id, GET `/places/{fsq_id}/photos` returns user-contributed photos and GET `/places/{fsq_id}/tips` returns visitor tips. These let an agent present a richer summary of a venue than the base details alone.

### What are the rate limits for the Foursquare Places API?

The OpenAPI spec does not state numeric rate limits; they depend on your Foursquare plan. Cache place details and category data, which change rarely, and check https://foursquare.com for current plan limits.

### How do I add place autocomplete with the Foursquare Places API?

Send the user's partial input to GET /autocomplete and it returns place, address, and search suggestions as they type. When the user picks a result you receive a Foursquare place id, which you pass to the details endpoint to load the full record.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Foursquare Places API through Jentic?

Yes. The API is read-only, so you allow only the operations a task needs, such as GET `/places/search` and GET `/places/{fsq_id}`, and leave the rest out of the allowed set. Every call runs through your own instance and is logged, so the agent's access stays under your control.

### Is there a Foursquare MCP server?

You don't need a separate MCP server to give your agent the Foursquare Places API. Jentic connects it directly from the API Directory: import the API and your agent searches places and reads details on demand without loading another server's tool definitions into its context.