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2025-12-17 release notes

· 4 min read

Overview

The 2025-12-17.0 release of Overture data and v1.15.0 of the Overture schema are now available. The datasets and release artifacts are available as GeoParquet files stored on both AWS and Azure.

What's new?

We added a new taxonomy property to our places schema this month, as part of our ongoing initiative to redesign the places category system. The new property offers a streamlined and logical structure with consolidated primary and alternate names and a hierarchy that makes clear the parent/child relationship between categories.

In October, we introduced the basic_category property. That property corresponds 1:1 to the primary place name in the new taxonomy property. (It also maps to the primary name in the original categories property.) The hierarchical paths in taxonomy support deeper and more logical structures. For example, in the restaurant branch, you can see a clear progression from very broad to very specific category names: restaurant > asian_restaurant > east_asian_restaurant > chinese_restaurant > cantonese_restaurant. This kind of structure makes it easier to aggregate and display POIs in meaningful ways.

The original categories property, with more than 2100 category names, will remain in the schema for the next several months so that users can compare the old system to the new taxonomy.

Examples:

  1. Original categories system
properties:
categories:
primary: greasy_diner
  1. basic_category mapped to primary category in original categories system
properties:
basic_category: casual_eatery
categories:
primary: gas_station_sushi
alternate:
- bait_and_tackle
  1. New taxonomy
properties:
basic_category: casual_eatery
taxonomy:
hierarchy: [food_and_drink, restaurant, casual_eatery, gas_station_sushi]
primary: gas_station_sushi
alternate:
- gas_station
- sushi_restaurant

Getting the data and release artifacts

You can access this month's data and release artifacts by following the process outlined here. The paths to the data and release artifacts are listed below. We encourage you to ask questions and provide feedback on the Overture Maps Discussion forum on GitHub. You can also file issues and report bugs in our data and schema repositories. If you have a suggestion for a new dataset or if you have data you'd like to contribute to Overture, you can email us at info@overturemaps.org. We’d love to hear from you.

Release data

Microsoft Azure:

az://overturemapswestus2.blob.core.windows.net/release/2025-12-17.0/

Amazon S3:

s3://overturemaps-us-west-2/release/2025-12-17.0/

Data changelog

Microsoft Azure:

az://overturemapswestus2.blob.core.windows.net/changelog/2025-12-17.0/

Amazon S3:

s3://overturemaps-us-west-2/changelog/2025-12-17.0/

Bridge files

Microsoft Azure:

az://overturemapswestus2.blob.core.windows.net/bridgefiles/2025-12-17.0/

Amazon S3:

s3://overturemaps-us-west-2/bridgefiles/2025-12-17.0/

GERS registry

Microsoft Azure:

az://overturemapswestus2.blob.core.windows.net/registry/

Amazon S3:

s3://overturemaps-us-west-2/registry/

2025-10-22 release notes

· 4 min read
warning

October 23, 2025: We detected an issue with the GERS registry generation and have temporarily removed the registry files from our public buckets while we fix it.

Overview

The 2025-10-22.0 release of Overture data and v1.13.0 of the Overture schema are now available. The datasets and release artifacts are available as GeoParquet files stored on both AWS and Azure. There are several data updates and (minor) breaking schema changes in this release.

What's new?

New basic_category property in the places schema

In the places schema this month, we introduced a simple basic_category property that maps to our original categories.primary property. This change is part of a new initiative to reimagine Overture's category taxonomy. The new property is based on a commonly-used cognitive science concept called "basic-level categories," where category names balance being specific enough to be useful while general enough to be broadly applicable.

Major data updates and GERS stability in addresses

The addresses theme has hit a new high of 455 million records, an increase of nine million records from our September release. More than 325 million of those records retained their GERS ID from the previous release, a major milestone for GERS stability as addresses moves toward General Availability next quarter.

Getting the data and release artifacts

You can access this month's data and release artifacts by following the process outlined here. We encourage you to ask questions and provide feedback on the Overture Maps Discussion forum on GitHub. You can also file issues and report bugs in our data and schema repositories. If you have a suggestion for a new dataset or if you have data you'd like to contribute to Overture, you can email us at info@overturemaps.org. We’d love to hear from you.

The paths are:

Release data

Microsoft Azure:

az://overturemapswestus2.blob.core.windows.net/release/2025-10-22.0/

Amazon S3:

s3://overturemaps-us-west-2/release/2025-10-22.0/

Data changelog

Microsoft Azure:

az://overturemapswestus2.blob.core.windows.net/changelog/2025-10-22.0/

Amazon S3:

s3://overturemaps-us-west-2/changelog/2025-10-22.0/

Bridge files

Microsoft Azure:

az://overturemapswestus2.blob.core.windows.net/bridgefiles/2025-10-22.0/

Amazon S3:

s3://overturemaps-us-west-2/bridgefiles/2025-10-22.0/

GERS registry

Microsoft Azure:

az://overturemapswestus2.blob.core.windows.net/registry/

Amazon S3:

s3://overturemaps-us-west-2/registry/

What to expect in Overture’s August release

· 5 min read
Technical Product Manager, Overture Maps

Last month we released v1.0.0 of the Overture schema and “general availability” versions of four themes: base, buildings, divisions, and places. Our addresses theme launched in alpha with 200 million addresses for 14 countries; we anticipate adding more address data each month, country by country, starting with Switzerland in the August release.