Overview
A cities API built on GeoNames: every place in the world with at least 1,000 residents, about 135,000 cities. Pass a city name, optionally narrowed to a two-letter country code, and it matches every city whose name contains your text, ranks them by population and drops repeats of the same name in the same country. Each match has its name, alternative name, country code and name, GeoNames feature code, population and a size category from village to major. The Free plan returns the most populous match; paid plans return up to 20 and add the region (admin1) code, a capital-city flag and longitude-latitude coordinates.
Live Test Look Up City Data Source →
Formula
One function covers the whole catalog: the first argument names the source, the next are its inputs, and the field after them says which single value lands in the cell. Formulas covers the grammar that applies to all of them.
=VERVE("citieslookup", A2, "search")=VERVE.CALL("citieslookup", A2, "search")A2 holds the city you are looking up. Drag the formula down and each row resolves on its own.
With literal values
Nothing has to come from a cell — typed values work the same way.
=VERVE("citieslookup", "San Francisco", "search")=VERVE.CALL("citieslookup", "San Francisco", "search")Inputs
Required inputs are positional, in the order below, followed by the field. Everything else is passed as a "name", value pair after that — the same shape as SUMIFS. Premium inputs are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them.
| Input | Type | Where it goes | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
cityRequired | string | argument 2 (A2) | The city name for which you want to get the data (e.g., New York) |
countryOptional | string | "country", value | Two-letter ISO country code to restrict matches to one country (e.g., US) length 2–2 |
limitOptionalPremium | integer | "limit", value | Limit number of cities that match your search criteria default 1 · range 1–20 |
Passing an option
=VERVE("citieslookup", A2, "search", "country", "US")=VERVE.CALL("citieslookup", A2, "search", "country", "US")What lands in your sheet
The field — the argument after the inputs — is what makes the formula resolve to one cell. Its value is a dot-path from the table below, so swapping it is how you pull a different value — one formula per column.
Seeing everything at once
Leave the field out and the formula returns the whole response instead: two columns, field name on the left and value on the right, spilling from the cell you typed in.
=VERVE("citieslookup", A2)=VERVE.CALL("citieslookup", A2)The second row's table would land on top of the first's, and every cell after the first reads #REF! (#SPILL! in Excel). Keep one per sheet, or name a field, and leave the cells below and to the right empty.
Response fields
Paths are relative to data. Each one is exactly what the field argument accepts, so swapping it is how you pull a different value into a cell. On a plan without a Premium field the cell reads #PREMIUM(field) rather than a value, so a locked field never looks like a real answer.
| Use as the field | Type | Example cell value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
search | string | San Francisco | The search query used to find cities |
foundCities | array[1] | Array of city objects matching the search criteria | |
foundCities.0.name | string | San Francisco | Official city name |
foundCities.0.altName | string | | Alternative city name or alias if available |
foundCities.0.country | string | US | Two-letter ISO country code (e.g., US) |
foundCities.0.featureCode | string | PPLA2 | Geonames feature code for city classification type |
foundCities.0.population | number | 864816 | City population as published by GeoNames |
foundCities.0.loc | object | {…} | |
foundCities.0.loc.type | string | Point | GeoJSON geometry type (always Point) |
foundCities.0.loc.coordinatesPremium | array | [-122.41942,37.77493] | GeoJSON coordinates as [longitude, latitude] pair |
foundCities.0.regionCodePremium | string | CA | GeoNames first-level administrative (admin1) code: the state abbreviation in the US (e.g., CA), a numeric or letter code elsewhere; null when unknown |
foundCities.0.countryName | string | United States | Full country name (e.g., United States) |
foundCities.0.populationCategory | string | large | City size classification based on population ranges |
foundCities.0.isCapitalPremium | boolean | false | Whether the city is its country's capital (GeoNames feature code PPLC) |
Filling a whole column
Both platforms make one batched call for a column rather than one request per cell, and both cost the same — 2 credits per row looked up. How you write it differs, because the two runtimes batch at different points.
=VERVE("citieslookup", A2:A100, "search")In Google Sheets, give the arguments ranges and the answers spill down from the cell you typed in. Custom functions there run synchronously and in isolation, so dragged cells cannot be coalesced — the range form is how a column becomes one call. The field is required here: a per-row two-column table has nowhere to spill. Use a full column per input (A2:A100, not A2) — a single-cell reference is read as row 1 only and the rest of the column comes back blank.
In Excel, type the formula once and fill down — no range form and none needed, because its runtime is asynchronous and the add-in coalesces the calls a fill produces into a single batched request. Do not hand VERVE.CALL a range: Excel flattens it into positional arguments, so A2:A100 arrives as a hundred separate arguments and the cell reads #ERR rather than filling.
Either way, column A holds your city values and the answers land beside them, one row each, blank rows skipped.
When a cell doesn't fill
A failed lookup returns readable text starting with #ERR rather than a spreadsheet error, because Excel cannot show a custom message on a real error — you would get a bare #VALUE! with no reason. The trade-off is that IFERROR() will not catch it; test with LEFT(cell, 4) = "#ERR" instead. Error handling covers the rest.
| Cell reads | What happened |
|---|---|
#ERR Not connected | No API key saved. Open the side panel and connect your account. |
#ERR Replace <name> with a cell or value | A preview formula was copied as-is. Swap the placeholder for a cell reference. |
#ERR No "x" in citieslookup | An option name this source does not take. The message lists the ones it does. |
#ERR No data point "…" | The field path is not in the response. Check it against the table above. |
#PREMIUM(field) | The field exists but your plan does not include it. |
#ERR Out of credits | The cycle's credits are spent. Usage resets on your billing date. |
Before the formula works
The add-in reads the API key you saved once in the side panel — the key never goes in the formula, so a shared sheet does not leak it and a collaborator without access simply sees the last calculated values.
- Install the add-in for Google Sheets or Excel.
- Open the side panel and sign in, or paste a key from your dashboard.
- Type the formula above into any cell.
Use cases
- Checkout Address Validation
- When customers enter a city name during checkout, match official country codes and alternative names to standardize shipping records.
- Retail Expansion Sizing
- Retail analysts evaluate new store candidates by querying population figures and city size categories across international regions.
- Fleet Dispatch Routing
- For regional delivery scheduling, dispatchers convert destination city names into exact longitude and latitude coordinates on paid tiers.
- Travel Destination Filtering
- To help users discover vacation spots, travel search engines group destinations by population tier and resolve local alias spellings.
Other ways to use Look Up City Data
Set up Look Up City Data on VerveSheets, or reach the same source a different way. Your VerveSheets account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.
Related
More in Geography: