Esri Credit Charges for Geocoding

Geocoding in ArcGIS Pro requires Esri credits, which are freely available to all Yale members. As of the academic year 2024-2025, the charge is 40 Esri credits per 1,000 addresses.

You can estimate your credit needs with this formula:(Your Esri credits / 40) x 1,000 = Number of addresses you can geocode

To check your Esri credit balance:

• Click on your username in the top right corner.
• Select "My settings."
• From the left-side menu, choose "Credits."
• If you need additional credits, please provide an estimate of the number of addresses to be geocoded.

If you need additional Esri credits, please email geospatialhelp@yale.edu with the following information:

• The number of addresses you plan to geocode
• Your Esri username (if different from yours)

If you plan to geocode more than 1 million addresses, instead we ask you to use Esri StreetMap Premium to save Esri credits for all Yale geospatial users. To request access to Esri StreetMap Premium, please email geospatialhelp@yale.edu with the following details:

• Approximate number of addresses to be geocoded
• Number of team members performing the task
• Desired dates for geocoding to avoid scheduling conflicts, as some regions have a single license for Yale users

 

In general, these are searchable databases of toponyms (geographic placenames).

Geocoding Sensitive Data

For data governed by HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) or IRB (Institutional Review Board) protocols, specific safeguards are needed to protect privacy and ensure compliance. Sensitive data—such as patient information or confidential research subjects—requires special handling to avoid exposure to external systems.

To support secure geocoding, we offer access to the locators included in Esri StreetMap Premium, a "local" dataset licensed for use in all global regions. Using this dataset keeps your data on Yale’s systems and avoids uploading it to web-based geocoding services owned by external companies, ensuring better control and compliance with privacy regulations.

To request access to Esri StreetMap Premium, please email geospatialhelp@yale.edu with the following details:

• Confirmation that you need to geocode sensitive data
• Approximate number of addresses to be geocoded
• Number of team members performing the task
• Desired dates for geocoding to avoid scheduling conflicts, as some regions have a single license for Yale users
   

Simply put, Geocoding is the process of assigning a set of coordinate pairs (combined to create points, lines or polygons) that describe the locality of some object or phenomenon. The most familiar form of geocoding is performed when you enter an address into Google Maps, MapQuest or other online street mapping platform, and a point on a map is returned to you. However, street addresses are not the only locality types that are subject to the geocoding process. Localities referring to various administrative boundary levels (state, district, province, postal code) and even localities with varying levels of specificity (directional offsets from known locations, distances along paths, etc...) can be geocoded and, importantly, qualified with some level of geometric uncertainty. In the research context, geocoding is generally done as a batch process, though it is generally an iterative one, requiring some manual quality control and fine-tuning for best results. The resources and tools listed here are those that I have found useful in various types of geocoding processes.