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Hello, I am a student working on a non-commercial project.

For some next test I would need to download tiles from OSM. I have read the Tile usage policy, and I know that bulk download without consulting is discouraged.

So I'd like to ask if downloading about 2000 tiles at 2tiles/s acceptable? I have tested my apps with 20-30 tiles and it worked(sorry I didnt ask).

If possible, I'd love to know the limit for tile usage :), the tiles would probably be hosted by my own later on if the project is deployed.

I have also looked at other alternatives like University Heidelberg or Cloudmade but the quality of OSM is better for my purpose. So please help me clear my doubt.

Thanks!

asked 28 Nov '13, 16:23

saurus55's gravatar image

saurus55
26112
accept rate: 0%


Hi saurus, thank you for choosing OSM for your project :)

The tile usage policiy explais in details the technical requirements on an application to perform an download:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tile_usage_policy#Technical_Usage_Requirements
If your application fullfills all of that, everything is fine. If you are unsure, you can also use existing applications that grab the images and store it in a local folder:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Category:Tile_downloading

AFAIK the policy tries to avoid to give accurate number, because in the end devs will find ways to surround this anyway (e.g. using different agent strings, use proxies, ...). If you have enough time, just setup your box to download the tiles as slow as possible during the night ;)

If you need a lot of tiles, you can also use other (mostly free) tile providers:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/TMS
(But also they have a policy and might choose a different license on the map images itself)
Another way would be to setup your own map server (see switch2osm.org) or use a local renderer as Maperitive or TileMill.

permanent link

answered 28 Nov '13, 17:41

iii's gravatar image

iii
4.9k84082
accept rate: 10%

edited 28 Nov '13, 17:42

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question asked: 28 Nov '13, 16:23

question was seen: 7,504 times

last updated: 28 Nov '13, 17:42

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum