# openvenues/libpostal

A C library for parsing/normalizing street addresses around the world. Powered by statistical NLP and open geo data.

Repository: https://github.com/openvenues/libpostal
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/libpostal
Language: C
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: address-parser, machine-learning, nlp, address, international, c, deduplication, record-linkage, deduping, natural-language-processing
Last push: 2026-05-13T11:06:02+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 60/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 82, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4202, "days_push": 112, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 4879, forks 470 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:01.782579+00:00)

## What it is
libpostal is a C library for parsing and normalizing street addresses from around the world using statistical NLP and open geo data. It converts free-form address strings into clean, normalized forms suitable for machine comparison, deduplication, and full-text indexing.

## Use cases
- parse street addresses into components like house number, street, and city
- normalize address strings for deduplication and record linkage
- preprocess addresses before geocoding
- index addresses in a full-text search engine
- handle international addresses in many languages and formats
- clean up messy user-entered address data

## When to choose
- you need to parse or normalize addresses across many countries and languages
- you want a fast C library with bindings for other languages
- you're building geocoding, delivery, or place-search features that need address preprocessing
- you need address deduplication or record linkage at scale

## When to avoid
- you need a full geocoder that returns coordinates - libpostal is not a geocoder itself
- you can't accommodate its large trained model data downloads
- you only need simple US-only address parsing with minimal dependencies
- you need a pure high-level-language solution without C compilation

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: nlp, parser, machine-learning, search-engine
- domain: -
- platform: windows, cross-platform, c
- tags: address-parsing, address-normalization, geocoding, internationalization, record-linkage, deduplication, natural-language-processing, maps, geospatial, search, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- openvenues/libpostal (main) score 60

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:01.782579+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:18:16.958172+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/openvenues/libpostal (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:01.782579+00:00, sha 9a1e9d2961bd)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.