Styles API

The Mapbox Styles API lets you read and change map styles, fonts, and images. This API is the basis for Mapbox Studio.

If you use Studio, Mapbox GL JS, or the Mapbox Mobile SDKs, you are already using the Styles API. This documentation is useful for software developers who want to programmatically read and write these resources. It isn't necessary for you to read or understand this reference to design or use Mapbox maps.

You will need to be familiar with the Mapbox Style Specification to use the Styles API. The Mapbox Style Specification defines the structure of map styles and is the open standard that helps Studio communicate with APIs and produce maps that are compatible with Mapbox libraries.

Mapbox styles

The following Mapbox-owned styles are available to all accounts using a valid access token. Click a style name below to learn more about the style, or copy a style URL to use the style in a project:

Style name	Style URL	Style image
Mapbox Streets	mapbox://styles/mapbox/streets-v12
Mapbox Outdoors	mapbox://styles/mapbox/outdoors-v12
Mapbox Light	mapbox://styles/mapbox/light-v11
Mapbox Dark	mapbox://styles/mapbox/dark-v11
Mapbox Satellite	mapbox://styles/mapbox/satellite-v9
Mapbox Satellite Streets	mapbox://styles/mapbox/satellite-streets-v12
Mapbox Navigation Day	mapbox://styles/mapbox/navigation-day-v1
Mapbox Navigation Night	mapbox://styles/mapbox/navigation-night-v1

The style object

A style object is an object that conforms to the Mapbox Style Specification, with some additional account-related properties:

A style object must conform to the following rules:

• Must be valid JSON
• Must be aligned to the most recent version of the Mapbox Style Specification
• Can be composed of no more than 15 sources
• Cannot contain any keys in the body of the style beyond those listed in the Style Specification
• The url property in the source object must be a valid Mapbox tileset ID
• Only raster and vector sources are supported

You can use the gl-style-validate CLI tool with the --mapbox-api-supported flag to validate a style object. Invalid styles will produce a descriptive validation error.

Example style object

{
  "version": 8,
  "name": "{name}",
  "metadata": "{metadata}",
  "sources": "{sources}",
  "sprite": "mapbox://sprites/{username}/{style_id}",
  "glyphs": "mapbox://fonts/{username}/{fontstack}/{range}.pbf",
  "layers": ["{layers}"],
  "created": "2015-10-30T22:18:31.111Z",
  "id": "{style_id}",
  "modified": "2015-10-30T22:22:06.077Z",
  "owner": "{username}",
  "visibility": "private",
  "protected": false,
  "draft": true
}

Drafts

The Styles API supports drafts, so every style can have both published and draft versions. This means that you can make changes to a style without publishing them or deploying them in your app. For each style-related endpoint, you can interact with the draft version of a style by placing draft/ after the style ID, like /styles/v1/{username}/{style_id}/draft/sprite.

Please note that the style you see in Studio's style editor is always the draft version. If you make changes to the published version of a style or sprite by calling the API without draft/ in the URI, those changes will not be reflected in the draft version.

Retrieve a style

Retrieve a style as a JSON document.

Example request: Retrieve a style

$ curl "https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/examples/cjikt35x83t1z2rnxpdmjs7y7?access_token=YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN"

Response: Retrieve a style

The returned style object will be in the Mapbox Style format.

Example response: Retrieve a style

{
  "version": 8,
  "name": "Meteorites",
  "metadata": {
    "mapbox:origin": "basic-template-v1",
    "mapbox:autocomposite": true,
    "mapbox:type": "template",
    "mapbox:sdk-support": {
      "js": "0.45.0",
      "android": "6.0.0",
      "ios": "4.0.0"
    }
  },
  "center": [
    74.24426803763072,
    -2.2507114487818853
  ],
  "zoom": 0.6851443156248076,
  "bearing": 0,
  "pitch": 0,
  "sources": {
    "composite": {
      "url": "mapbox://mapbox.mapbox-streets-v8,examples.0fr72zt8",
      "type": "vector"
    }
  },
  "sprite": "mapbox://sprites/examples/cjikt35x83t1z2rnxpdmjs7y7",
  "glyphs": "mapbox://fonts/{username}/{fontstack}/{range}.pbf",
  "layers": [
    {
      "id": "background",
      "type": "background",
      "layout": {},
      "paint": {
        "background-color": [ ]
      }
    },
    { }
  ],
  "created": "2015-10-30T22:18:31.111Z",
  "id": "cjikt35x83t1z2rnxpdmjs7y7",
  "modified": "2015-10-30T22:22:06.077Z",
  "owner": "examples",
  "visibility": "public",
  "protected": true,
  "draft": false
}

Supported libraries: Retrieve a style

Mapbox wrapper libraries help you integrate Mapbox APIs into your existing application. The following SDK supports this endpoint:

• Mapbox JavaScript SDK

See the SDK documentation for details and examples of how to use the relevant methods to query this endpoint.

List styles

Retrieve a list of styles for a specific account. This endpoint supports pagination. Since styles are generally quite large, it's likely that a response to this endpoint will start paginating sooner than other list endpoints. If you have many styles in your account, you may need to repeatedly use the next link relation in the Link header of the response to retrieve all of them.

You can further refine the results from this endpoint with the following optional parameters:

Example request: List styles

$ curl "https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/{username}?access_token=
YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN
This endpoint requires a token with styles:list scope.
"

Response: List styles

This endpoint returns style metadata instead of returning full styles.

Example response: List styles

[
  {
    "version": 8,
    "name": "My Awesome Style",
    "created": "{timestamp}",
    "id": "cige81msw000acnm7tvsnxcp5",
    "modified": "{timestamp}",
    "owner": "{username}"
  },
  {
    "version": 8,
    "name": "My Cool Style",
    "created": "{timestamp}",
    "id": "cig9rvfe300009lj9kekr0tm2",
    "modified": "{timestamp}",
    "owner": "{username}"
  }
]

Supported libraries: List styles

Mapbox wrapper libraries help you integrate Mapbox APIs into your existing application. The following SDK supports this endpoint:

• Mapbox JavaScript SDK

See the SDK documentation for details and examples of how to use the relevant methods to query this endpoint.

Retrieve a style ZIP bundle

Retrieves a ZIP file containing the style JSON, sprite images, referenced custom fonts, and a license file. After retrieval, the style ZIP bundle response is cached for a few minutes, so later requests may return the same content even if the style has been modified in the interim.

Example request: Retrieve a style ZIP bundle

# Request the style bundle for a published style
$ curl "https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/{username}/cjikt35x83t1z2rnxpdmjs7y7.zip?access_token=
YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN
This endpoint requires a token with styles:download scope.
"

# Request the style bundle for a draft style
$ curl "https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/{username}/cjikt35x83t1z2rnxpdmjs7y7/draft.zip?access_token=
YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN
This endpoint requires a token with styles:download scope.
"

Response: Retrieve a style ZIP bundle

The response will be a ZIP file named for the downloaded style. It will contain the relevant style.json, sprite images, referenced custom fonts, and a license.txt file. The hierarchy is illustrated below.

Monochrome-draft(cjikt35x83t1z2rnxpdmjs7y7)/
├── fonts/
│   ├── My Font Bold.ttf
│   └── My Font Regular.ttf
├── license.txt
├── sprite_images/
│   ├── aquarium-11.svg
│   ├── bank-15.svg
│   ├── car-11.svg
│   └── ...
└── style.json

Create a style

Creates a style in your account. The posted style object must conform to the rules outlined in the style object section of this documentation. Invalid styles will produce a descriptive validation error.

Additionally, when you create a style using the Styles API:

• The glyphs field will be overwritten to point to your user glyph endpoint, unless it's referring to the Mapbox glyph endpoint, mapbox://fonts/mapbox/{fontstack}/{range}.pbf.
• If the sprite field does not include your username, and the sprite field points to the sprite of a style that either belongs to mapbox or is public, the Styles API will copy all images to the new style's spritesheet and overwrite the sprite value to point to the new style's sprite.
• If the optional name property is not used in the request body, the name of the new style will be automatically set to the style's ID.

Example request: Create a style

$ curl -X POST "https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/{username}?access_token=
YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN
This endpoint requires a token with styles:write scope.
" \
  --data @basic-v9.json \
  --header "Content-Type:application/json"

Example request body: Create a style

{
  "version": 8,
  "name": "My Awesome Style",
  "metadata": { },
  "sources": {
    "myvectorsource": {
      "url": "mapbox://{tileset_id}",
      "type": "vector"
    },
    "myrastersource": {
      "url": "mapbox://{tileset_id}",
      "type": "raster"
    }
  },
  "glyphs": "mapbox://fonts/{username}/{fontstack}/{range}.pbf",
  "layers": [ ]
}

Response: Create a style

The style you get back from the API will contain new properties that the server has added: created, id, modified, owner, and draft.

Example response: Create a style

{
  "version": 8,
  "name": "My Awesome Style",
  "metadata": { },
  "sources": {
    "myvectorsource": {
      "url": "mapbox://{tileset_id}",
      "type": "vector"
    },
    "myrastersource": {
      "url": "mapbox://{tileset_id}",
      "type": "raster"
    }
  },
  "sprite": "mapbox://sprites/{username}/{style_id}",
  "glyphs": "mapbox://fonts/{username}/{fontstack}/{range}.pbf",
  "layers": [ ],
  "created": "2015-10-30T22:18:31.111Z",
  "id": "{style_id}",
  "modified": "2015-10-30T22:22:06.077Z",
  "owner": "{username}",
  "draft": true
}

Supported libraries: Create a style

Mapbox wrapper libraries help you integrate Mapbox APIs into your existing application. The following SDK supports this endpoint:

• Mapbox JavaScript SDK

See the SDK documentation for details and examples of how to use the relevant methods to query this endpoint.

Update a style

Updates an existing style in your account with new content. The request body must be a style object that conforms to the rules outlined in the style object section of this documentation. Invalid styles will produce a descriptive validation error.

Additionally, when you update a style using the Styles API:

• The name property, which is optional for creating a style, is required in the request body to update a style.
• If you request a style and then use the unaltered response to update the style, this action will fail. You must remove the created and modified properties before updating a style.
• The glyphs field will be overwritten to point to your user glyph endpoint, unless it's referring to the Mapbox glyph endpoint, mapbox://fonts/mapbox/{fontstack}/{range}.pbf.
• If the sprite field does not include your username, and the sprite field points to the sprite of a style that either belongs to mapbox or is public, the Styles API will copy all images to the updated style's spritesheet and overwrite the sprite value to point to the updated style's sprite.

Cross-version PATCH requests are rejected.

Example request: Update a style

$ curl -X PATCH "https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/{username}/{style_id}?access_token=
YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN
This endpoint requires a token with styles:write scope.
" \
  --data @basic-v9.json \
  --header "Content-Type:application/json"

Example request body: Update a style

{
  "version": 8,
  "name": "New Style Name",
  "metadata": { },
  "sources": { },
  "sprite": "mapbox://sprites/{username}/{style_id}",
  "glyphs": "mapbox://fonts/{username}/{fontstack}/{range}.pbf",
  "layers": [{
    "id": "new-layer",
    "type": "background",
    "paint": {
      "background-color": "#111"
    },
    "interactive": true
    }],
    "owner": "{username}",
    "draft": true
  }

Response: Update a style

A successful request to this endpoint will return the updated style object.

Example response: Update a style

{
  "version": 8,
  "name": "New Style Name",
  "metadata": { },
  "sources": { },
  "sprite": "mapbox://sprites/{username}/{style_id}",
  "glyphs": "mapbox://fonts/{username}/{fontstack}/{range}.pbf",
  "layers": [{
    "id": "new-layer",
    "type": "background",
    "paint": {
      "background-color": "#111"
    },
    "interactive": true
  }],
  "created": "2015-10-30T22:18:31.111Z",
  "id": "{style_id}",
  "modified": "2015-10-30T22:22:06.077Z",
  "owner": "{username}",
  "draft": true
}

Supported libraries: Update a style

Mapbox wrapper libraries help you integrate Mapbox APIs into your existing application. The following SDK supports this endpoint:

• Mapbox JavaScript SDK

See the SDK documentation for details and examples of how to use the relevant methods to query this endpoint.

Delete a style

Delete a style. All sprites that belong to this style will also be deleted, and the style will no longer be available.

Example request: Delete a style

$ curl -X DELETE "https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/{username}/{style_id}?access_token=
YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN
This endpoint requires a token with styles:write scope.
"

Response: Delete a style

HTTP 204 No Content

Supported libraries: Delete a style

Mapbox wrapper libraries help you integrate Mapbox APIs into your existing application. The following SDK supports this endpoint:

• Mapbox JavaScript SDK

See the SDK documentation for details and examples of how to use the relevant methods to query this endpoint.

Protect a style

Updates the protected status of a style. The request body must be a plain text string either true or false.

Changing the status is only valid for styles without an active draft (which has a modified field ahead of the published version). This update will not change the style's modified field or sprite hashes. Protected styles cannot be edited and deleted using the Styles API or in Mapbox Studio.

Example request: Protect a style

$ curl "https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/{username}/cjikt35x83t1z2rnxpdmjs7y7/protected?access_token=
YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN
This endpoint requires a token with styles:protect scope.
" \
  --data-raw "true" \
  --header "Content-Type: text/plain"

Response: Protect a style

{
    "protected": true
}

Response to invalid request: Protect a draft style

You cannot protect a style with an active draft. This endpoint will return a 400 Bad Request error.

Publish the draft style or revert to its last published version before protecting.

Request embeddable HTML

Request embeddable or shareable HTML.

The embeddable HTML that is returned can be further modified with the following optional query parameters:

Example: Request embeddable HTML

<!-- Map is centered on San Francisco at z15, with a bearing of 45° and a pitch of 70°. -->
<iframe
  src='https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/mapbox/streets-v12.html?title=true&zoomwheel=false&access_token=YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN#15/37.771/-122.436/45/70' />

Supported libraries: Request embeddable HTML

Mapbox wrapper libraries help you integrate Mapbox APIs into your existing application. The following SDK supports this endpoint:

• Mapbox JavaScript SDK

See the SDK documentation for details and examples of how to use the relevant methods to query this endpoint.

Retrieve a map's WMTS document

Mapbox supports access via the WMTS standard, which lets you use maps with desktop and online GIS software like ArcMap and QGIS.

Example request: Retrieve a map's WMTS document

$ curl "https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/mapbox/streets-v12/wmts?access_token=YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN"

Response: Retrieve a map's WMTS document

The response to a request to this endpoint will be a map's WMTS document.

Sprites

Sprites are the way that Mapbox GL JS and the Mapbox mobile SDKs efficiently request and show images. Sprites are collections of images that can be used in styles as icons or patterns in symbol layers. An image in a sprite can be an icon, a pattern, or an illustration. These SVG images can be added and removed from the sprite at will. The Styles API automatically collects these SVG images and renders them into a single PNG image and a JSON document that describes where each image is positioned.

The sprite JSON document is specified as part of the Mapbox Style Specification.

Sprites are managed on a per-style basis. Each sprite belongs to a style, so the sprite limit of 1,000 images is also a per-style limit.

Sprite images are PNG-8 files that are optimized to have a limited color palette. Usually, visual differences from the source SVG files are not noticeable but you may in some cases notice slight changes in colors or dithering when inspecting sprite images closely.

All sprite-related API methods require a {style_id} parameter that refers to the style to which the sprite belongs.

Retrieve a sprite image or JSON

Retrieve a sprite image or its JSON document from a Mapbox style.

You can further refine the results from this endpoint with the following optional parameters:

Example request: Retrieve a sprite image or JSON

# Request the sprite image as a png

$ curl "https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/{username}/{style_id}/sprite.png?access_token=YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN"

# Request json for a 3x scale sprite

$ curl "https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/{username}/{style_id}/sprite@3x?access_token=YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN"

# Request the immutable sprite image as a png

$ curl "https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/{username}/{style_id}/{sprite_id}/sprite.png?access_token=YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN"

Response: Retrieve a sprite image or JSON

The response to a successful request to this endpoint is either a sprite image or its JSON response, depending on which was requested.

Example response: Retrieve a sprite image or JSON

{
  "default_marker": {
    "width": 20,
    "height": 50,
    "x": 0,
    "y": 0,
    "pixelRatio": 2
  },
  "secondary_marker": {
    "width": 20,
    "height": 50,
    "x": 20,
    "y": 0,
    "pixelRatio": 2
  }
}

How to retrieve a sprite ID

Because sprites tend to stay static for long durations, we offer immutable sprites with unique URLs. This allows us to have long cache durations resulting in faster load times. This also prevents styles from breaking if the sprites are updated "beneath" them. These unique urls are possible because of the sprite_id that can be placed in the URL.

After you have uploaded your sprite images using the Add new image to sprite endpoint or the Add multiple new images to sprite endpoint, make a request to update your style. The response payload for the style update will contain the unique sprite URL on the sprite payload.

Note: Mapbox Studio does all this work for you automatically.

Supported libraries: Retrieve a sprite image or JSON

Mapbox wrapper libraries help you integrate Mapbox APIs into your existing application. The following SDK supports this endpoint:

• Mapbox JavaScript SDK

See the SDK documentation for details and examples of how to use the relevant methods to query this endpoint.

Add new image to sprite

Add a new image to an existing sprite in a Mapbox style. The request body should be raw SVG data.

Example request: Add new image to sprite

# Add a new image (`aerialway`) to an existing sprite

$ curl -X PUT \
  "https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/{username}/{style_id}/sprite/aerialway?access_token=
YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN
This endpoint requires a token with styles:write scope.
" \
  --data @aerialway-12.svg

Response: Add new image to sprite

The response to a successful request to this endpoint will be the updated sprite.

Example response: Add new image to sprite

{
  "newsprite": {
    "width": 1200,
    "height": 600,
    "x": 0,
    "y": 0,
    "pixelRatio": 1
  },
  "default_marker": {
    "width": 20,
    "height": 50,
    "x": 0,
    "y": 600,
    "pixelRatio": 1
  }
}

Supported libraries: Add new image to sprite

Mapbox wrapper libraries help you integrate Mapbox APIs into your existing application. The following SDK supports this endpoint:

• Mapbox JavaScript SDK

See the SDK documentation for details and examples of how to use the relevant methods to query this endpoint.

Add multiple new images to sprite

Add a batch of new images to an existing sprite in a Mapbox style. The request body must be multipart form data that uses the form field name images to reference the SVG image files.

A request can contain a maximum of 25 image files. Each individual image file in a request must be under 30 KB.

Example request: Add multiple new images to sprite

# Add two new images from local files ('star.svg' and 'square.svg') to an existing sprite:

$ curl -F images=@star.svg -F images=@square.svg
  "https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/{username}/{style_id}/sprite?access_token=
YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN
This endpoint requires a token with styles:write scope.
"

Response: Add multiple new images to sprite

The response to a successful request to this endpoint will be the updated sprite.

Example response: Add multiple new images to sprite

{
  "star": {
    "width": 15,
    "height": 15,
    "x": 0,
    "y": 0,
    "pixelRatio": 1
  },
  "square": {
    "width": 15,
    "height": 15,
    "x": 0,
    "y": 15,
    "pixelRatio": 1
  },
  "default_marker": {
    "width": 20,
    "height": 50,
    "x": 0,
    "y": 65,
    "pixelRatio": 1
  }
}

Delete image from sprite

Remove an image from an existing sprite.

Example request: Delete image from sprite

$ curl -X DELETE "https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/{username}/{style_id}/sprite/{icon_name}?access_token=
YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN
This endpoint requires a token with styles:write scope.
"

Response: Delete image from sprite

The response to a successful request to this endpoint will be the modified sprite.

Example response: Delete image from sprite

{
  "default_marker": {
    "width": 20,
    "height": 50,
    "x": 0,
    "y": 600,
    "pixelRatio": 1
  },
  "secondary_marker": {
    "width": 20,
    "height": 50,
    "x": 20,
    "y": 600,
    "pixelRatio": 1
  }
}

Supported libraries: Delete image from sprite

Mapbox wrapper libraries help you integrate Mapbox APIs into your existing application. The following SDK supports this endpoint:

• Mapbox JavaScript SDK

See the SDK documentation for details and examples of how to use the relevant methods to query this endpoint.

Delete multiple images from sprite

Remove a batch of images from an existing sprite.

The request body should be a JSON-encoded array of the names of the images you want to delete from the specified sprite.

Example request: Delete multiple images from sprite

# Delete two images named "star" and "square" from an existing sprite:

$ curl -X DELETE "https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/{username}/{style_id}/sprite/?access_token=
YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN
This endpoint requires a token with styles:write scope.
" \
  --data '["star", "square"]' \
  --header "Content-Type:application/json"

Response: Delete multiple images from sprite

The response to a successful request to this endpoint will be the modified sprite.

Example response: Delete multiple images from sprite

{
  "default_marker": {
    "width": 20,
    "height": 50,
    "x": 0,
    "y": 600,
    "pixelRatio": 1
  },
  "secondary_marker": {
    "width": 20,
    "height": 50,
    "x": 20,
    "y": 600,
    "pixelRatio": 1
  }
}

Styles API errors

Styles API restrictions and limits

• The default rate limit for the Mapbox Styles API endpoint is 2,000 requests per minute. If you require a higher rate limit, contact us.
• If you exceed the rate limit, you will receive an HTTP 429 Too Many Requests response. For information on rate limit headers, see the Rate limit headers section.
• Styles cannot reference more than 15 sources.
• Styles cannot be larger than 1 MB. This limit only applies to the style document itself, not the sprites, fonts, tilesets, or other resources it references.
• An account is allowed to have an unlimited number of styles regardless of its pricing plan.
• Responses from the Styles API set both the device and CDN TTLs to 15 minutes.
• For general information on caching, please see the Maps APIs caching troubleshooting guide.

Styles API sprites restrictions and limits

• Each image must be smaller than 400 KB.
• Mapbox supports most, but not all, SVG properties. These limits are described in our SVG troubleshooting guide.
• Images can be up to 512 pixels in each dimension.
• Image names must be fewer than 255 characters in length.
• Sprites can contain up to 1,000 images.