Free-form query string to search for.
Free-form queries are processed first left-to-right and then right-to-left if that fails. So you may search for
- [pilkington avenue, birmingham](//nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=pilkington+avenue,birmingham) as well as for
- [birmingham, pilkington avenue](//nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=birmingham,+pilkington+avenue).
+ [pilkington avenue, birmingham](https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=pilkington+avenue,birmingham) as well as for
+ [birmingham, pilkington avenue](https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=birmingham,+pilkington+avenue).
Commas are optional, but improve performance by reducing the complexity of the search.
See [Place Output Formats](Output.md) for details on each format. (Default: jsonv2)
+!!! note
+ The Nominatim service at
+ [https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org](https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org)
+ has a different default behaviour for historical reasons. When the
+ `format` parameter is omitted, the request will be forwarded to the Web UI.
+
* `json_callback=<string>`
Wrap JSON output in a callback function ([JSONP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSONP)) i.e. `<string>(<json>)`.