Plus Codes vs GPS Coordinates: What's the Difference?

Plus Codes, also known as Open Location Codes (OLC), were developed by Google DeepMind to solve a very specific problem: how do you give someone directions to a place that has no street address? In rural areas, remote villages, and developing regions, Plus Codes provide a human-readable, shareable location reference that works everywhere.

What a Plus Code Looks Like

A Plus Code looks like this: 8FW4V75V+8Q. The + separates the first 8 characters (which narrow to a roughly 14 km × 14 km area) from the last 2 characters (which refine to about 14 m × 9 m). Full 10-digit codes like 8FW4V75V+8Q are precise to roughly 14 metres.

How Plus Codes Differ from Lat/Long

Traditional GPS coordinates like 48.8584, 2.2945 are exact but not human-friendly — they're hard to read aloud, easy to transpose, and meaningless without context. Plus Codes trade some mathematical directness for memorability and shareability.

Where Plus Codes Are Used

Google Maps displays Plus Codes for every location and uses them as a fallback when no street address exists. Emergency services in some countries have adopted Plus Codes as a lightweight alternative to what3words. The format is open-source and free to use.

Converting Plus Codes

Our Plus Code to Decimal Degrees converter decodes any Plus Code to standard lat/lon, and our full converter handles Plus Code input alongside all other formats. If you're working with coordinates in multiple formats and need to include Plus Codes, paste any format into our converter and Plus Code output is included automatically.