Overpass Turbo
Web-based query tool for OpenStreetMap data. Extract hospitals, roads, buildings, or any mapped feature from the world's largest open geographic database.
What should journalists know about Overpass Turbo?
Overpass Turbo is a power tool, not a consumer product. It gives you a web interface to query OpenStreetMap's database of billions of geographic features — every road, building, hospital, bridge, military installation, and park that OSM's volunteer community has mapped worldwide. You write queries in the Overpass Query Language (or use the built-in Wizard for simple searches), and results render on an interactive map that you can export as GeoJSON, GPX, or KML. Bellingcat uses it for geolocation investigations. Data journalists use it to extract infrastructure data for entire countries. The catch: the query language is its own thing. It's not SQL, it's not a standard API — it's a domain-specific language with a learning curve. The Wizard helps for basic queries ('hospital in Damascus'), but complex queries require reading the documentation. The data itself is crowdsourced, so completeness varies by region. Western Europe and urban areas are mapped exhaustively. Rural areas in developing countries may have gaps. For journalism, the key advantage is that this data is open, free, and not controlled by any government or corporation. No one can revoke your access or change the terms.
Extracting geographic datasets for investigations. Finding all features of a specific type in a region (hospitals, schools, military bases, bridges). Comparing infrastructure before and after events. Supporting geolocation and verification work. Feeding data into QGIS or other GIS tools for further analysis.
Making publication-ready maps (use Felt, Datawrapper, or QGIS for that). Real-time data — OSM data has variable update frequency. Areas with sparse volunteer mapping coverage. Journalists who need point-and-click simplicity with no learning curve.
Security & Privacy
Data is scrambled while being sent to their servers
Data is scrambled when stored on their servers
Where servers are located — affects which governments can request your data
Privacy policy summary
Overpass Turbo uses tracking cookies for basic analytics. No user accounts exist — no personal data is collected beyond standard web server logs. All data you query is public OpenStreetMap data. Your queries are sent to public API servers and are not encrypted beyond standard HTTPS. There is no privacy policy in the traditional sense because the tool collects almost nothing.
How to protect yourself:
Queries are sent over HTTPS but reveal what geographic features and locations you're researching. If your investigation is sensitive, use a VPN when querying. Download results and work offline in QGIS for analysis. Verify crowdsourced data against authoritative sources before publishing — OSM data can be incomplete or outdated. Be aware that query patterns could theoretically reveal investigation targets if monitored at the network level.
No user accounts, no personal data collection, no data storage — the attack surface is minimal. All queried data is public. HTTPS in transit. The privacy consideration is that your queries reveal what locations and features you're investigating, which matters for sensitive geolocation work. Use a VPN for sensitive queries. The tool itself is open-source (MIT license) and auditable. Adequate for journalism use with basic network-level precautions.
Who Owns This
Pricing
Completely free. No accounts, no plans, no limits beyond server capacity.
This is an editorial assessment based on publicly available information as of 2026-04-11, using our published methodology. Independent security review is pending. Security posture can change at any time. This is not a guarantee of safety.
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