🗺️ OSRM Routing Scraper

🚀 Compute driving, cycling, and walking routes anywhere on Earth in seconds. Distance, duration, geometry polylines, and turn-by-turn directions for any origin/destination pair, plus alternative routes and per-segment annotations. No sign-up, no map-tile licence.

🕒 Last updated: 2026-05-15 · 📊 17 fields per record · 🌍 Global OSM coverage · 🚗 3 travel profiles · 🛣️ Up to 3 alternatives per route

The OSRM Routing Scraper wraps the open-source Project OSRM routing engine and returns 17 fields per route, including distance, duration, GeoJSON geometry, snap-to-road waypoints, and detailed turn-by-turn legs. OSRM is the routing engine behind countless mapping products, logistics apps, and academic mobility studies because it ships pre-built world graphs based on OpenStreetMap.

The catalogue covers every road on OpenStreetMap, with three profiles tuned for car, bicycle, and pedestrian travel. This Actor makes routing downloadable as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML in under a minute. Every input runs server-side, so you skip the OSM extract, the contraction-hierarchies build, and the engine deploy entirely.

🎯 Target Audience	💡 Primary Use Cases
Logistics teams, delivery startups, GIS analysts, mobility researchers, travel-tech apps, urban planners, hobbyist developers	Last-mile route optimization, ETA calculation, distance matrices, travel-time isochrones, OD pair analytics, map-app prototypes

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📋 What the OSRM Routing Scraper does

Three travel profiles in a single run:

• 🚗 Driving. Car-friendly roads with realistic speed profiles.
• 🚴 Cycling. Bike-friendly paths, lanes, and shared roads.
• 🚶 Foot. Pedestrian routes including footways and crossings.

For each origin/destination pair you can request alternative routes, turn-by-turn step instructions, per-segment annotations (node IDs, durations, distances, speeds), and three levels of geometry detail (full, simplified, or none).

💡 Why it matters: routing infrastructure is hard. Self-hosting OSRM means downloading 60+ GB of OSM extracts, running multi-hour graph builds, and operating a high-availability service. This Actor skips the operational toil and gives you ready-to-use routes per request.

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🎬 Full Demo

🚧 Coming soon: a 3-minute walkthrough showing how to compute a global route batch from a CSV.

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⚙️ Input

Input	Type	Default	Behavior
maxItems	integer	10	Routes to return. Free plan caps at 10, paid plan at 1,000,000.
routes	array	2 example routes	List of route requests. Each item needs startLat, startLon, endLat, endLon, optional via array of intermediate lat/lon pairs.
profile	string	"driving"	Travel mode: driving, cycling, or foot.
alternatives	boolean	false	Request up to 3 alternative routes per pair.
steps	boolean	true	Include turn-by-turn step instructions.
annotations	boolean	false	Include per-segment node IDs, durations, distances, and speeds.
overview	string	"simplified"	Geometry detail: full, simplified, or false.

Example: San Francisco to Los Angeles by car with alternatives.

{
    "maxItems": 5,
    "routes": [
        { "startLat": 37.7749, "startLon": -122.4194, "endLat": 34.0522, "endLon": -118.2437, "label": "SF → LA" }
    ],
    "profile": "driving",
    "alternatives": true,
    "steps": true,
    "overview": "full"
}

Example: walking route across central London.

{
    "maxItems": 1,
    "routes": [
        { "startLat": 51.5007, "startLon": -0.1246, "endLat": 51.5074, "endLon": -0.0877, "label": "Big Ben → St Paul's" }
    ],
    "profile": "foot",
    "steps": true,
    "overview": "simplified"
}

⚠️ Good to Know: OSRM is built on OpenStreetMap, so route quality reflects OSM coverage in your region. Major cities and highways are excellent; remote dirt roads and recently built developments may lag behind reality. For safety-critical navigation, cross-check against an official map provider.

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📊 Output

Each route record contains 17 fields. Download the dataset as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML.

🧾 Schema

Field	Type	Example
🏷️ label	string | null	"SF → LA"
🚗 profile	string	"driving"
📍 startLatitude	number	37.7749
📍 startLongitude	number	-122.4194
📍 endLatitude	number	34.0522
📍 endLongitude	number	-118.2437
🔢 routeIndex	number	0
📏 distanceMeters	number	615321.4
🕒 durationSeconds	number	21847.6
📏 distanceKilometers	number	615.32
🕒 durationMinutes	number	364.1
📊 weight	number	21847.6
🏷️ weightName	string	"routability"
📐 geometry	object | null	{ "coordinates": [...], "type": "LineString" }
📦 legs	array	turn-by-turn legs with steps
📍 waypoints	array	snapped lat/lon plus snap distance
🕒 snapshotTime	ISO 8601	"2026-05-15T00:00:00.000Z"

📦 Sample records

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✨ Why choose this Actor

	Capability
🌍	Global coverage. Every road on OpenStreetMap is routable. No region locks.
🚗	Three travel profiles. Driving, cycling, and walking, each with profile-tuned graph weights.
🛣️	Alternative routes. Up to 3 alternatives per origin/destination pair where they exist.
📐	Detailed geometry. Full GeoJSON polylines, simplified polylines, or geometry-free responses.
🧭	Turn-by-turn legs. Maneuver type, modifier, street name, distance, duration, and bearing on every step.
📊	Per-segment annotations. Node IDs, durations, distances, and speeds on demand.
🚫	No sign-up. No map-tile licence required. Works against the public OSRM open-source routing engine.

📊 OSRM powers logistics apps, public-transport extensions, and academic mobility studies because it ships pre-built world graphs from OpenStreetMap.

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📈 How it compares to alternatives

Approach	Cost	Coverage	Refresh	Filters	Setup
⭐ OSRM Routing Scraper (this Actor)	$5 free credit, then pay-per-use	Global OSM	Live per request	profile, alternatives, steps, geometry	⚡ 2 min
Self-hosted OSRM	Free engine + servers	Global OSM	Manual graph rebuild	Same	🐢 Days of ops
Commercial routing APIs	$0.50-$5 per 1k routes	Global proprietary	Live	Many	⏳ Hours of integration
Map-app embeds	Free per user	Global proprietary	Live	App-bound	🚫 Not bulk-friendly

Pick this Actor when you want batched, queryable routing without operating your own OSRM cluster.

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🚀 How to use

1. 📝 Sign up. Create a free account with $5 credit (takes 2 minutes).
2. 🌐 Open the Actor. Go to the OSRM Routing Scraper page on the Apify Store.
3. 🎯 Set input. Add your route requests (lat/lon pairs), pick a profile, and toggle alternatives and steps.
4. 🚀 Run it. Click Start and let the Actor compute your routes.
5. 📥 Download. Grab your results in the Dataset tab as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML.

⏱️ Total time from signup to downloaded routes: 3-5 minutes. No coding required.

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💼 Business use cases

🚚 Logistics & Last-Mile Delivery Compute optimal driver routes across delivery stops Estimate ETAs for customer-facing apps Build distance and duration matrices for routing solvers Score warehouse locations by service-area drive times	🏙️ Urban Planning & Mobility Research Analyze cycling-network connectivity across a city Generate walking-time isochrones around transit stops Compare car versus bike commute times for policy briefs Evaluate accessibility of healthcare and schools
🗺️ Travel-Tech & Map Apps Power MVP routing for travel-planner prototypes Add turn-by-turn directions to a travel itinerary app Compute multi-stop walking tours for tourism guides Suggest scenic alternatives between two waypoints	📊 GIS & Data Analytics Build OD matrices for spatial accessibility studies Enrich geocoded datasets with travel-time fields Stress-test geographic clustering with real road distances Train ML models that need ground-truth route durations

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🔌 Automating OSRM Routing Scraper

Control the scraper programmatically for scheduled runs and pipeline integrations:

• 🟢 Node.js. Install the apify-client NPM package.
• 🐍 Python. Use the apify-client PyPI package.
• 📚 See the Apify documentation for full details.

The Apify Schedules feature lets you trigger this Actor on any cron interval. Daily route refreshes keep your delivery ETAs current.

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🌟 Beyond business use cases

Routing data powers more than commercial workflows. The same structured records support research, education, civic projects, and personal initiatives.

🎓 Research and academia Mobility studies on urban accessibility and equity Replicate published OD-matrix papers with cited data Teach geospatial analysis with real road graphs Power student transport-planning capstone projects	🎨 Personal and creative Plot a personal cycling tour around a region Render artistic route maps for portfolios Build a hiking-time calculator for trail apps Generate routes for road-trip travel blogs
🤝 Non-profit and civic Map walking-time access to clinics in low-income areas Plan disaster-response evacuation routes Score food-bank service areas by drive time Provide free routing data to journalism collectives	🧪 Experimentation Train ML models that predict travel-time variability Validate accessibility hypotheses with real route data Prototype agent pipelines that resolve location-to-location distance Test routing UIs with live OSRM responses

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🤖 Ask an AI assistant about this scraper

Open a ready-to-send prompt about this ParseForge actor in the AI of your choice:

• 💬 ChatGPT
• 🧠 Claude
• 🔍 Perplexity
• 🅒 Copilot

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions

🧩 How does it work?

Pass an array of route requests (lat/lon start and end), pick a profile, and toggle the data you want returned. The Actor calls the OSRM open-source routing engine and writes one record per route variant, with distance, duration, geometry, and turn-by-turn legs.

📏 How accurate is the data?

OSRM is built on OpenStreetMap, so accuracy depends on OSM coverage in your area. Major cities and highways are excellent. Rural and recently built roads may lag. For safety-critical navigation, cross-check against an official map provider.

🔁 How fresh is the underlying graph?

The OSRM open-source routing engine refreshes its public graphs on a regular cadence from OpenStreetMap extracts. Recent OSM edits may take a few weeks to propagate.

🛣️ Does it return alternative routes?

Yes. Set alternatives: true to request up to 3 alternative routes per origin/destination pair, where they exist.

🧭 Are turn-by-turn instructions included?

Yes. Set steps: true (default) to receive maneuver type, modifier, street name, distance, duration, and bearing for every step.

📐 Can I get a full GeoJSON polyline?

Yes. Set overview: "full" to receive every coordinate. Use "simplified" for a smoothed polyline, or "false" to skip geometry entirely.

⏰ Can I schedule regular runs?

Yes. Use Apify Schedules to refresh route batches hourly, daily, or weekly.

⚖️ Is this data legal to use?

OpenStreetMap data is published under the Open Database License (ODbL). Attribution is required. The OSRM open-source routing engine itself is permissive open source.

💼 Can I use this data commercially?

Yes, subject to OSM attribution and the ODbL share-alike clause for derived databases. Most product use cases qualify; consult the OSM licence for edge cases.

💳 Do I need a paid Apify plan to use this Actor?

No. The free Apify plan is enough for testing and small runs (10 routes per run). A paid plan lifts the limit and enables scheduling.

🆘 What if I need help?

Our support team is here to help. Contact us through the Apify platform or use the Tally form linked below.

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🔌 Integrate with any app

OSRM Routing Scraper connects to any cloud service via Apify integrations:

• Make - Automate multi-step workflows
• Zapier - Connect with 5,000+ apps
• Slack - Get run notifications in your channels
• Airbyte - Pipe route data into your warehouse
• GitHub - Trigger runs from commits and releases
• Google Drive - Export datasets straight to Sheets

You can also use webhooks to trigger downstream actions when a run finishes. Push freshly computed routes into your dispatcher, or push ETAs to a customer-facing app.

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🔗 Recommended Actors

• 🗺️ Nominatim OSM Scraper - Geocode addresses via OpenStreetMap
• ✈️ OurAirports Scraper - Global airport master data with lat/lon
• 🚇 MBTA Live Transit Scraper - Boston transit routes, stops, vehicles, and predictions
• 🚦 TfL London Live Status Scraper - Live London transport status and disruptions
• 🌍 Overpass OSM Scraper - Query arbitrary OpenStreetMap features

💡 Pro Tip: browse the complete ParseForge collection for more geospatial scrapers.

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🆘 Need Help? Open our contact form to request a new scraper, propose a custom data project, or report an issue.

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⚠️ Disclaimer: this Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Project OSRM, OpenStreetMap, or any of their contributors. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. Only publicly available open data is collected.