Forum Discussion
Microsoft Azure's map can identify incorrect postal codes - where data?
Azure Maps geocoding is a black-box service: Power BI sends your location fields to the geocoder and gets back coordinates. Microsoft/Azure doesn’t publish the full country+postal reference dataset used for geocoding, and Power BI doesn’t expose it.
What you’re seeing is normal geocoder behavior: if the postal code is invalid for the supplied country (or the country hint isn’t applied strongly enough), it may fallback and resolve the postal code somewhere else (often the US if it’s a valid US ZIP).
Practical ways to reduce wrong matches:
Use the correct field category: set Country to Country/Region and Postal to Postal code.
Prefer 2-letter ISO country codes (AT) over 3-letter (AUT) if possible; some geocoders handle them more reliably.
Add more context (City/State/Region) so the geocoder has less ambiguity.
Best: bring your own lat/long (or a reference table that maps valid postal+country to lat/long) and plot by coordinates. That bypasses geocoding entirely.
Azure Maps geocoding is a black-box service: Power BI sends your location fields to the geocoder and gets back coordinates. Microsoft/Azure doesn’t publish the full country+postal reference dataset used for geocoding, and Power BI doesn’t expose it.
What you’re seeing is normal geocoder behavior: if the postal code is invalid for the supplied country (or the country hint isn’t applied strongly enough), it may fallback and resolve the postal code somewhere else (often the US if it’s a valid US ZIP).
Practical ways to reduce wrong matches:
Use the correct field category: set Country to Country/Region and Postal to Postal code.
Prefer 2-letter ISO country codes (AT) over 3-letter (AUT) if possible; some geocoders handle them more reliably.
Add more context (City/State/Region) so the geocoder has less ambiguity.
Best: bring your own lat/long (or a reference table that maps valid postal+country to lat/long) and plot by coordinates. That bypasses geocoding entirely.