📍Random Coordinate Generator

About this tool

Choose an area (anywhere on Earth, a preset box such as Great Britain or the contiguous USA, a custom latitude/longitude box, or a radius around a point), how many points you want (up to 1,000), the precision and the format. Copy the results as a list, CSV or GeoJSON, or open any point on OpenStreetMap. Nothing is stored.

How random coordinates are generated

Picking a random latitude between −90 and 90 sounds simple, but it bunches points near the poles. Lines of longitude converge there, so equal bands of latitude cover less and less area. To spread points evenly over the Earth's surface, the tool picks the sine of the latitude uniformly, so each square kilometre is equally likely. In a test of 20,000 points, 13.3% fell beyond 60° north or south, matching the true share of the Earth's area. Radius mode picks a random bearing and an angular distance weighted so points fill the circle evenly on the curved surface, rather than clustering at the centre. Boxes that cross the 180° meridian (for example 170°E to 170°W) are handled. Decimal degrees with five decimal places locate a point to about a metre. Degrees, minutes and seconds (DMS) is the traditional format. GeoJSON lists coordinates as longitude then latitude, as the standard requires. Uses include test data for maps and location apps, geography games such as "where in the world", random hikes and geocaching-style adventures, and sampling in research. Honest limits: about 71% of the Earth is ocean, so "anywhere" points mostly land at sea, and preset areas are rectangles, so they include sea and parts of neighbouring countries. Map links open openstreetmap.org only when you click them. The coordinate converter and the distance between coordinates tool are related.

Frequently asked questions