Similar to Maps Raster Tile, the Maps Vector Tile serves data on zoom levels ranging from 0 to 22.  For zoom level 0, the entire earth is displayed on a single tile, while at zoom level 22, the world is divided into 2⁴⁴ tiles (see: Zoom Levels and Tile Grid ).
The Maps Vector Service delivers geographic map data packaged in a vector representation of squared sections called vector tiles. Each tile includes pre-defined collections of map features (points, lines, road shapes, water polygons, building footprints, ect.) delivered in one of the specified vector formats. Format of the tile is formally described using protobuf schema.

Tiles Layers and Styles

The Vector Maps Service service supports the following tile layers: basic, hybrid and labels.

Unlike raster tiles there is no difference in data served between main and night styles. The vector data consists of layers with their own names and geometry. The client determines how to present this data to the end user, for example which colours to use for which features.

• The basic vector tiles contain mapping data such as polygons, road shapes, borders, labels and road icons.
• The labels vector tiles provide the same label information as the basic vector tiles. The labels are precisely placed to align with the labels on the basic vector tiles.
• The hybrid vector tiles provide all the features from the basic layer except geographic polygons. It contains borders, road networks, labels and road icons.

Tiles Resolution

Visible geometry is stored as coordinates in range 0-4095. Coordinate 0,0 is defined as the top left corner of the tile.

TomTom Vector Format

TomTom Vector Tile format is a proprietary binary format created by using Google Protocol Buffers to serialize the data according to the schema defined here. The data is mapped to feature layers.  At this moment there are known following layers in protobuf format.

2D Areas (Polygons)

Points (Points Of Interest)

Cartographic Labels

Roads

Tunnels

Toll roads

Toll tunnels

Other lines

¹ - layer for future use. Not supported yet.
² - deprecated layer. Please use Cartographic Label equivalent.

Request Parameters

Format

The generic tile call format is as follows:

<http|https>://<baseURL>/map/<versionNumber>/tile/<layer>/<style>/<zoom>/<X>/<Y>.<format>?key=<apiKey>[&view=<view>][&language=<language>]

Communication through both HTTP and HTTPS is supported.

Common Parameters

These elements are used in calls to generate all vector tile layers.

Default language algorithm

The best match will be chosen based on following algorithm:

1. Every IETF language subtag provided in "language" parameter is being matched from left to right. Partial match is allowed.

For example:

• all requested language subtags match - exactly the requested language is selected
• if requested primary language subtag does not have match for a region, but script subtag is available for other primary language subtag then this other laguage will be used

2. If there are multiple matches for region, then the one with highest priority is used.

3. If there is no match then NGT is used.

Default view mapping

Default view is recognized based on the country the request came from.

List of supported languages

Host Name Cycling

Most web browsers have a default limitation on the number of active connections that can be allowed to each host. This means if map tiles are being loaded via the api.tomtom.com host name, they will be loaded one at a time. A trick that can be used to get around this limitation is to cycle through the hosts we have created as aliases. These host names are a.api.tomtom.com, b.api.tomtom.com, c.api.tomtom.com and d.api.tomtom.com. By cycling through these four different host names, the web browser will be tricked into retrieving four map tiles at a time rather than just one. This will speed up performance of map rendering greatly.

For instance, if four map tiles are being requested at zoom level one, you would request the first one as:

http://a.api.tomtom.com/map/1/tile/basic/main/1/0/0.pbf?key=<apiKey>

The second would be:

http://b.api.tomtom.com/map/1/tile/basic/main/1/0/0.pbf?key=<apiKey>

...and so on up until d.api.tomtom.com. When more than four tiles are being requested, start back again at a.api.tomtom.com.

For more information go here.

Response

The Vector Maps API, for a single request, returns a binary response body which must be deserialized by client code generated by the Google Protocol Buffers compiler.

The example responses below use a simple textual representation of the serialized binary vector tile data to illustrate the response content

Response examples

Example 1

Whole world at zoom = 0, basic-main style

http://api.tomtom.com/map/1/tile/basic/main/0/0/0.pbf?
 key=<apiKey>

layers:3
 lake:
   version: 2
   extent: 255
   features: 371
   keys: 0
   values: 0
   geometry summary:
     total: 3339
     commands: 1113
     move_to: 371
     line_to: 742
     close: 371
     degenerate polygons: 371
     empty geoms: 0
 ocean:
   version: 2
   extent: 255
   features: 5313
   keys: 0
   values: 0
   geometry summary:
     total: 47817
     commands: 15939
     move_to: 5313
     line_to: 10626
     close: 5313
     degenerate polygons: 5313
     empty geoms: 0
 country border:
   version: 2
   extent: 255
   features: 199
   keys: 1
   values: 0
   geometry summary:
     total: 3162
     commands: 398
     move_to: 199
     line_to: 1183
     close: 0
     degenerate polygons: 73
     empty geoms: 0

Example 2

Zoom level = 5, hybrid-main style

http://api.tomtom.com/map/1/tile/hybrid/main/5/4/8.pbf?key=<apiKey>

layers: 1
state border:
   version: 2
   extent: 16384
   features: 200
   keys: 3
   values: 0
   geometry summary:
     total: 8384
     commands: 400
     move_to: 200
     line_to: 3792
     close: 0
     degenerate polygons: 23
     empty geoms: 0

Example 3

Zoom level = 4, labels-main style

http://api.tomtom.com/map/1/tile/labels/main/4/9/5.pbf?key=<apiKey>

layers: 8
ocean name:
   version: 2
   extent: 16384
   features: 3
   keys: 3
   values: 1
   geometry summary:
     total: 18
     commands: 6
     move_to: 3
     line_to: 3
     close: 0
     degenerate polygons: 3
     empty geoms: 0
country name:
   version: 2
   extent: 16384
   features: 7
   keys: 2
   values: 14
   geometry summary:
     total: 21
     commands: 7
     move_to: 7
     line_to: 0
     close: 0
     degenerate polygons: 0
     empty geoms: 0
capital city:
   version: 2
   extent: 16384
   features: 7
   keys: 2
   values: 14
   geometry summary:
     total: 21
     commands: 7
     move_to: 7
     line_to: 0
     close: 0
     degenerate polygons: 0
     empty geoms: 0

Http Response Codes

Response Headers

The table below lists HTTP response headers of particular interest to clients of the Maps Vector Tile API.