City autocomplete use case

City autocomplete for signup and profile forms

PlaceField uses the same location autocomplete API for city, region, and country fields. This page focuses on city-level forms and city geocoding use cases that should not drift into street addresses, venues, businesses, or map search.

City-level location

Use the PlaceField API for profiles, communities, marketplaces, CRMs, and directories where street-level location is too much.

Context included

Return the city with country, parent hierarchy, and coordinates so records are useful beyond a display label.

Bias without locking

Use the same country and geographic ranking options to rank likely cities while still supporting international forms.

For forms where city is enough

Many products ask for a location to support search, discovery, compliance, reporting, or personalization. A city autocomplete field can be more privacy-friendly and easier to complete than a full address field.

PlaceField focuses on administrative places, so a user typing a city name is not mixed with restaurants, shops, street names, or map pins.

City-biased request

GET https://api.placefield.dev/v1/locations/autocomplete?q=paris&typePreset=default&geoBias=none
Authorization: Bearer pf_live_xxx

Common city autocomplete fields

Use PlaceField when you need a structured location record, not a complete postal address.

Signup location

Ask where a user is based without collecting their street address.

Marketplace listing city

Store a listing's city and country for browsing, filtering, and regional discovery.

CRM or profile field

Keep normalized city and region data instead of free-text location strings.

Directory search filters

Let visitors filter by city, region, or country without exposing precise addresses.

Need UI too?

Use the same API directly or add the JavaScript location autocomplete widget when you want a complete browser field.

View location autocomplete widget

Using geocoding language?

If your team calls this city geocoding, the fit is place-level lookup: turn a city or region search into structured data and coordinates. Use a full geocoding product when you need street addresses or reverse geocoding.

View city geocoding use case

Collect less precise location data

For many profile, community, and marketplace forms, city-level location is enough. Read the location autocomplete decision guide for the broader field framework, or the street-address guide for privacy-friendly form design.

Read the guide

Tell us about your city field

Share the form you are building and whether city, region, country, or all three should be selectable.