BYTETOOLS

Geohash Decoder

Decode any geohash to its centre latitude and longitude plus the exact bounding box, cell size, uncertainty and a downloadable GeoJSON polygon.

40.712779
Centre latitude
-74.005988
Centre longitude
3.6 m
Cell width
4.8 m
Cell height

Centre point

Decimal degrees
40.7127786, -74.0059876
DMS
40°42'46.00"N 74°0'21.56"W
Latitude uncertainty
± 0.00002146°
Longitude uncertainty
± 0.00002146°

Bounding box

North (max lat)
40.71280002593994
South (min lat)
40.7127571105957
East (max lon)
-74.00596618652344
West (min lon)
-74.00600910186768

GeoJSON bbox order is [west, south, east, north]: [-74.00600910186768, 40.7127571105957, -74.00596618652344, 40.71280002593994]

Cell as GeoJSON

{
  "type": "Feature",
  "properties": {
    "geohash": "dr5regw3p"
  },
  "bbox": [
    -74.00600910186768,
    40.7127571105957,
    -74.00596618652344,
    40.71280002593994
  ],
  "geometry": {
    "type": "Polygon",
    "coordinates": [
      [
        [
          -74.00600910186768,
          40.7127571105957
        ],
        [
          -74.00596618652344,
          40.7127571105957
        ],
        [
          -74.00596618652344,
          40.71280002593994
        ],
        [
          -74.00600910186768,
          40.71280002593994
        ],
        [
          -74.00600910186768,
          40.7127571105957
        ]
      ]
    ]
  }
}

Parent cells (prefixes)

Every shorter prefix is a larger cell that fully contains this one — that is what makes geohashes so handy as database keys for proximity lookups.

ddrdr5dr5rdr5redr5regdr5regwdr5regw3dr5regw3p

What is the Geohash Decoder?

Paste a geohash such as dr5regw3p and this decoder returns the coordinate it represents — the centre of the cell in decimal degrees and DMS — along with the exact bounding box of that cell: its north, south, east and west edges.

  • Decodes any geohash to centre point plus full bounding box
  • Reports cell width, height and per-axis uncertainty in real units
  • GeoJSON bbox array and downloadable polygon of the cell
  • Lists every parent prefix that contains the cell
  • Explains exactly which character is invalid when decoding fails
  • 100% client-side — the geohash never leaves your browser

How to use the Geohash Decoder

  1. 1

    Paste or type the geohash into the input field — case does not matter.

  2. 2

    Read the centre coordinate in decimal degrees and DMS.

  3. 3

    Check the bounding box edges and the cell's ground width and height.

  4. 4

    Copy the bbox array, or download the cell as a .geojson polygon.

About the Geohash Decoder

Paste a geohash such as dr5regw3p and this decoder returns the coordinate it represents — the centre of the cell in decimal degrees and DMS — along with the exact bounding box of that cell: its north, south, east and west edges. It also reports the cell's real ground dimensions and the ± uncertainty on each axis.

Because a geohash is a box rather than a point, the bounding box is usually the number you actually need. This tool gives it to you in GeoJSON bbox order ([west, south, east, north]) and as a downloadable GeoJSON polygon you can drop into QGIS, Leaflet or a validation script.

It is handy for debugging location indexes, inspecting geohashes pulled from logs or a database, and explaining to a colleague why two records fell into different buckets. The parent-prefix list shows every larger cell that contains yours. Decoding is 100% local — nothing is uploaded.

Frequently asked questions

How do you decode a geohash to latitude and longitude?

Each character maps to five bits that alternately halve the longitude and latitude ranges. Replaying those bits narrows −180…180 and −90…90 down to a small box; the decoded coordinate is the centre of that box. Paste your hash above and the tool does it instantly.

Why does a geohash decode to a box instead of a single point?

Because encoding is lossy by design. Every point inside the cell produces the same string, so decoding can only recover the cell. The centre is the best single estimate, and the ± values tell you how far the true point could be from it.

What order is the GeoJSON bbox in?

RFC 7946 specifies [west, south, east, north] — that is minimum longitude, minimum latitude, maximum longitude, maximum latitude. Note that this is longitude-first, the opposite of how people usually write coordinates in prose.

Why does my geohash fail to decode?

Almost always because it contains a, i, l or o. Those four letters are deliberately excluded from the geohash base-32 alphabet, so a string containing them was never a valid geohash — often it is a truncated ID or a different encoding entirely.

What are the parent prefixes shown below the result?

Every shorter prefix of a geohash is a larger cell that completely contains it. That nesting is what makes prefix queries work for proximity search, and truncating a hash is the standard way to aggregate points into coarser tiles.

Is the geohash I paste uploaded anywhere?

No. Decoding runs entirely in your browser with JavaScript, so nothing is transmitted, logged or stored. The tool also works offline once the page has loaded.

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