Quickstart

This page takes you from an empty project to a working search request and a rendered map. Everything here runs against the live API — you only need a free account.

Create a Baato account

Sign up at baato.io/signup. Every account gets Rs. 10,000 of usage each month at no charge — around 200,000 map loads, which is plenty for development. See pricing and limits for the per-API rates.

Grab your access token

Baato creates a _default access token for you the moment you sign up, so there is nothing to configure. Find it in your dashboard.

Every Baato endpoint takes the token as a key query parameter. See Authentication for token limits and how to lock a token to your own domains.

Make your first request

Search for a place by keyword. Replace YOUR_BAATO_ACCESS_TOKEN with the token from the previous step.

curl -G https://api.baato.io/api/v1/search \
  --data-urlencode "key=YOUR_BAATO_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  --data-urlencode "q=Patan Durbar Square" \
  --data-urlencode "limit=5"

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  key: "YOUR_BAATO_ACCESS_TOKEN",
  q: "Patan Durbar Square",
  limit: "5",
});

const response = await fetch(`https://api.baato.io/api/v1/search?${params}`);
const { data } = await response.json();

console.log(data);

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.baato.io/api/v1/search",
    params={
        "key": "YOUR_BAATO_ACCESS_TOKEN",
        "q": "Patan Durbar Square",
        "limit": 5,
    },
)

print(response.json()["data"])

final uri = Uri.https("api.baato.io", "/api/v1/search", {
  "key": "YOUR_BAATO_ACCESS_TOKEN",
  "q": "Patan Durbar Square",
  "limit": "5",
});

final response = await http.get(uri);
final data = jsonDecode(response.body)["data"];

val url = "https://api.baato.io/api/v1/search".toHttpUrl().newBuilder()
    .addQueryParameter("key", "YOUR_BAATO_ACCESS_TOKEN")
    .addQueryParameter("q", "Patan Durbar Square")
    .addQueryParameter("limit", "5")
    .build()

val response = client.newCall(Request.Builder().url(url).build()).execute()

Every Baato response is wrapped in the same envelope — timestamp, status and message alongside the data you asked for:

Response

{
  "timestamp": "Thu May 14 07:35:16 NPT 2020",
  "status": 200,
  "message": "Success",
  "data": [
    {
      "placeId": 344470,
      "name": "Patan Durbar Square",
      "address": "Mangal Bazar, Lalitpur, Bagmati, Nepal",
      "type": "attraction",
      "score": 41.5
    }
  ]
}

Search results deliberately leave out coordinates to keep autocomplete responses small. Pass a result’s placeId to the Places API when you need its centroid and geometry.

Put a map on the screen

Baato serves vector map styles that any MapLibre or Mapbox GL renderer understands. The style URL is the integration — there is no separate SDK to install for the web.

<link href="https://unpkg.com/maplibre-gl@1.15.2/dist/maplibre-gl.css" rel="stylesheet" />
<script src="https://unpkg.com/maplibre-gl@1.15.2/dist/maplibre-gl.js"></script>

<div id="map" style="position: absolute; inset: 0;"></div>

<script>
  new maplibregl.Map({
    container: "map",
    style: "https://api.baato.io/api/v1/styles/breeze?key=YOUR_BAATO_ACCESS_TOKEN",
    center: [85.3240, 27.7172], // [lng, lat] — note the order
    zoom: 12,
  });
</script>

Baato query parameters take lat and lon separately, but MapLibre and GeoJSON take [lon, lat] pairs. Mixing the two up is the single most common Baato integration bug — see Core concepts.

Pick your platform

The guides below cover the same ground — display a map, search, reverse geocode, draw a route — in the idiom of each platform.

Web

MapLibre or Mapbox GL JS with the Baato JavaScript client.

Android

The Java client, plus the Navigation SDK for turn-by-turn.

iOS

BaatoSwift via CocoaPods.

Flutter

The baato_maps package — widgets and API client in one.

React Native

Expo and bare React Native with MapLibre React Native.

Server-side

Python and Go clients for backend workloads.

Next steps

Core concepts

Coordinate order, place IDs, encoded polylines and the response envelope.

API reference

All six endpoints, with an interactive playground.

Pricing and limits

Per-API rates, the free monthly credit, and caching rules.

Attribution

What you need to display when you use Baato maps.

Get started

Guides by platform

Server SDKs

Resources

Pick your platform

Web

Android

iOS

Flutter

React Native

Server-side

Next steps

Core concepts

API reference

Pricing and limits

Attribution

​Pick your platform

Web

Android

iOS

Flutter

React Native

Server-side

​Next steps

Core concepts

API reference

Pricing and limits

Attribution

Pick your platform

Next steps