Photo geolocation accuracy benchmarks
Im2GPS3k (2,997 photos) and YFCC4k (4,536 photos) are the two public test sets most research on photo geolocation reports. Each is a set of ordinary Flickr photos with known locations. The tables show the share of photos each system placed within 1, 25, 200, 750 and 2,500 km of where they were taken.
GeoSnoop was measured on 28 October 2026 with the system the website runs, from the pixels alone (location data in the files is never used). The other rows are figures published by each company or by independent researchers, linked to where they were published (read 28 October 2026), and the strongest published research system.
| System | Street 1 km | City 25 km | Region 200 km | Country 750 km | Continent 2,500 km |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeoSnoop | 31.5% | 60.0% | 74.2% | 86.7% | 94.2% |
| GeoSpy measured independently by Liu et al., PoPETs 2025 (Im2GPS-type sets) † | 25.0% | 53.2% | 74.0% | 89.0% | 97.3% |
| Oceanir Manta self-reported * | 22.5% | 50.8% | 66.6% | 80.9% | 91.2% |
| GeoRouter strongest published research system, 2026 | 20.8% | 50.5% | 65.7% | 80.4% | 90.7% |
| System | Street 1 km | City 25 km | Region 200 km | Country 750 km | Continent 2,500 km |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeoSnoop | 57.4% | 67.3% | 75.5% | 84.2% | 91.3% |
| Oceanir Manta self-reported * | 35.0% | 47.4% | 58.5% | 73.2% | 84.6% |
| GeoRouter strongest published research system, 2026 | 33.0% | 46.0% | 57.5% | 72.0% | 83.0% |
The test rules
Research systems are trained and searched on public Flickr photo collections (most often MP-16, about 4.7 million photos). Under the benchmark's standard rules, each test photo is kept out, but other photos by the same photographer can stay in, including ones taken at the same place. GeoSnoop's rows follow those rules: every test photo is removed from GeoSnoop's reference library, which holds hundreds of millions of photos.
Notes on the other rows
- * Self-reported by the company. The companies don't publish their test rules, for example whether their reference data contains the test photos or other photos by the same photographers, so these figures can't be checked.
- † GeoSpy's figures come from an independent study (Liu et al., "Mission: Impossible", PoPETs 2025, Table 3; linked to an archived copy while the PoPETs site is offline). The study gives one row of distance figures for its Im2GPS-type test sets together, not for Im2GPS3k alone.
- Figures are rounded to one decimal. Only systems with published figures on these test sets are listed.
Read with care
Benchmarks are public photos, often of well-known places. Your photos may be harder or easier: close-ups, indoor rooms and photos of people are harder. GeoSnoop's answers are estimates with a stated chance, never a certainty. How it works