Geocoder
Two free tools, built on the address and postal code layers. Neither is a full geocoding service, and neither is trying to be.
For the individual utilities — postal code to coordinates, address search, addresses in a postal code, service area check — see tools.
Address typeahead
Start typing a civic number and street, pick from the suggestions, get coordinates and the administrative hierarchy that address falls in.
Matches against the address base directly, so what it can find is exactly what is in the catalogue — no more, no less. Where coverage is thin, the typeahead is thin in the same places, and the coverage table tells you where that is before you start.
Postal code lookup
Type a postal code, get a position. Use it to zoom a map, to place a marker, or to answer a service area question without asking anyone for their street address.
Each result carries the number of addresses behind it and how far they spread, so you can tell a single blockface from a rural route and frame the map accordingly.
One direction only
Postal code in, location out. These tools do not look up the postal code for a given address, and that capability is not offered anywhere on this site or in any download.
The data carries postal codes because the National Address Register carries them. Turning that into an address-to-postal-code service is a different product with different obligations, and it is not one we provide. If that is what you need, Canada Post sells it.
What these tools are not
Not a bulk geocoder. Interactive lookups, one at a time. For a roster of forty thousand student records, download the data and match locally — geocoding with postal codes shows how, and it costs nothing per lookup.
Not rooftop-precise everywhere. Positional accuracy is whatever the source supplied, which varies. Each result carries its accuracy class rather than presenting everything as equally good.
Not address validation. Finding an address here means it exists in the register. It does not mean mail will arrive, that the building is occupied, or that anyone lives there.
Not a service level. Free tools, offered as-is, with no uptime commitment. If a business process depends on a geocoding call succeeding, it should not depend on this one.
When to use something else
Commercial geocoding services do things these tools deliberately do not: fuzzy matching against messy input, interpolation where no address point exists, international coverage, bulk throughput, and a contract behind the result.
Those are real requirements and there are good providers serving them. We are not competing for that work. What is here is the narrow, useful slice — clean Canadian addresses and postal code positions — offered free because map hosting is the business.
Building on it yourself
Everything these tools do, you can do locally against a downloaded file. The queries are short and they are all in geocoding with postal codes. No API key, no rate limit, and nothing leaves your network — which for school districts and health authorities is usually the deciding factor.