A string of five digits on an envelope hides a whole geography lesson. This free ZIP Code Lookup tells you exactly where a postal code lives: choose the country, type the code, and it returns the city or town, the state or region, and the latitude and longitude, with a map link for each place. It works for US ZIP codes and for postcodes around the world, from Berlin’s 10115 to Madrid’s 28001.
How the ZIP Code Lookup works
The tool queries the Zippopotam database, a free directory built from official postal and geographic sources. Every code you enter is matched against that country’s postcode register, and the answer comes back as a list of places: each with a place name, a state or region, and a pair of coordinates that pin it to the map. Because the lookup happens live, you read the register itself rather than a stale copy. Try 90210 and you get Beverly Hills, California, at 34.0901, -118.4065 — the register entry behind the famous number.
How to use it
First pick the country from the dropdown — the same digits can exist in several countries and mean completely different places, so the country is part of the question. Then type the code exactly as it appears on the letter, label or checkout form, and press Look up the code. Each matching place appears as its own card with its region, the postcode and its coordinates. Use the View on map link on any card to open that spot in OpenStreetMap and explore the streets around it.
ZIP codes are not the same as postcodes abroad
ZIP is an American word — it stands for Zone Improvement Plan, introduced by the US Postal Service in 1963 — and American ZIP codes are always five digits, sometimes followed by four more. Other countries built their own systems on their own logic. British postcodes mix letters and numbers and can point to a single street, German and Spanish codes are five digits like the American ones but follow national registers, Canadian codes alternate letters and digits, and Japanese codes run to seven digits. That is why this tool asks for the country first: a code only has meaning inside the system that issued it.
Why one code can cover several towns
Newcomers are often surprised when a single code returns three, five or a dozen places. A postcode was never meant to name one town; it names a delivery area drawn for the convenience of sorting offices, and that area can swallow several villages, a small town and its suburbs, or one district of a big city. Rural codes stretch furthest, because a post van covers a wide territory. So a list of places is not an error — it is the honest shape of the delivery round, and the coordinates on each card help you tell the places apart.
What a lookup like this is actually for
Most lookups are practical. You are filling in an address form and know the code but not the official city name the form demands. A parcel label shows a code and no town, and you want to know where it is really heading. You are checking whether a customer, a marketplace seller or a holiday rental sits where it claims to sit. The coordinates also let you drop the code into mapping software or a route planner as a point you can measure distances from.
Limitations worth knowing
The register reflects published postal data, so a brand-new code for a new housing development may take time to appear, and a code that returns no places may simply be unassigned rather than mistyped. Coordinates mark the centre of the place or area, not a specific house, so they guide you to the neighbourhood rather than the doorstep. Coverage is strongest for the countries in the dropdown; some smaller territories are missing.
ZIP Code Lookup – frequently asked questions
Is the ZIP Code Lookup free?
Yes. It is completely free, needs no sign-up, and you can look up as many codes as you like.
Can I look up postcodes outside the United States?
Yes. The country dropdown covers the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, India, Brazil, Canada, Japan and more — just choose the country before typing the code.
Why did my code return several places?
Because a postcode names a delivery area, not a single town. Every place inside that area is listed, each with its own coordinates and map link.
How accurate are the coordinates?
They mark the centre of the town or delivery area, accurate enough for maps, route planning and distance estimates, but not for finding one specific building.
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Versión en español: Buscador de códigos postales — ciudad, provincia y coordenadas de cualquier código. You may also like: Weather Forecast — Live 7-Day Outlook for Any City Worldwide · Nationality Guesser — Predict Nationality from a Name with Country Flags.
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