What input does this tool accept?

It accepts a full Open Location Code, where the part before the + separator is the global block. Shortened codes that omit the leading characters require a reference location and are not supported here.

Why does it return a center and a bounding box?

A Plus Code names a rectangular cell, not a single point. The center is the best single coordinate, and the bounds tell you how large that cell is, which depends on the code length.

How precise is the decoded point?

A 10 character code resolves to about a 14 metre cell, an 11 character code to roughly 3.5 metres, and a 12 character code to under a metre. The true point lies somewhere within the reported bounds.

What if the + is in the wrong place?

The separator must always follow exactly eight characters and sit at an even position. If it is missing or misplaced the code is invalid, and the tool reports the error rather than guessing.

Which characters are valid in a Plus Code?

Only the 20 symbol alphabet 23456789CFGHJMPQRVWX is allowed, plus the single + separator and trailing 0 padding. Vowels and ambiguous characters are intentionally excluded.

Plus Code to Lat/Lng Converter

Decoding a Plus Code

This tool reverses Plus Code encoding: given a full Open Location Code it recovers the rectangle of latitude and longitude it represents and reports the center. That is what you need when an app, a sign or Google Maps gives you a code and you want raw coordinates.

How it works

The code is uppercased and its + separator and trailing padding are removed. The remaining characters are read in pairs against the base-20 alphabet. Each pair adds an offset at a coarser-to-finer resolution: 20 degrees, 1 degree, then divisions of 20, 400 and 8000. Characters beyond the tenth are decoded with the grid-refinement step, dividing the cell into 4 columns and 5 rows.

8FVC9G8F+6X  ->  center near 47.3656, 8.5249

Summing all offsets gives the cell’s lower corner; adding the final cell size gives the upper corner, and the midpoint is the reported center.

Example and tips

Longer codes decode to smaller cells and therefore tighter bounds. If decoding fails, check that the + sits right after the eighth character and that every symbol comes from the Open Location Code alphabet. Use the companion Lat/Lng to Plus Code tool to round-trip a coordinate and confirm the code you were given.