BlenderGIS API Key Setup: Why You Need One and Where to Get It

BlenderGIS is free and open-source, but the map and terrain data it downloads comes from third-party services. If your satellite tiles come back empty or your elevation downloads fail with HTTP 403, a missing API key is almost always the cause. Here’s everything you need to know.

Why does BlenderGIS need an API key at all?

BlenderGIS itself costs nothing and collects nothing — it’s a GPL-3.0 open-source addon that has been developed since 2014 and earned over 9,400 stars on GitHub. But BlenderGIS doesn’t own the satellite imagery, street maps, or elevation datasets it downloads. Those come from external providers — primarily MapTiler (basemaps, elevation, coordinate search) and OpenTopography (high-resolution DEM data like SRTM).

These providers serve terabytes of data to thousands of users. To prevent abuse and keep their free tiers sustainable, they require every user to authenticate with a personal API key. Think of it like a free library card: the books are free, but you still need to show your card. OpenTopography introduced mandatory API keys back in 2022; MapTiler has always keyed its cloud services.

The good news: both keys are free to obtain. MapTiler offers a free account tier that is generous enough for typical personal BlenderGIS work, and OpenTopography’s API key is completely free — you just need to register and request one. There is nothing to buy.

A common misconception is that a broken installation is to blame when tiles don’t load. In the vast majority of cases, the addon is installed perfectly — the missing piece is simply the key. If you’ve already installed the latest stable release (v2.2.15, released Dec 20, 2025), grab one from our download page if you haven’t already — the first thing to check after installation is the key configuration below.

Where to get your free keys

You need two keys (or at least the one for the data you use):

Only need one type of data? Then you only need that provider’s key. Importing OpenStreetMap vector data alone (buildings, roads) typically doesn’t need either key — but the moment you want satellite imagery or real 3D terrain, the keys become essential.

Where to paste the keys in Blender

Once you have your keys, entering them takes less than a minute:

1. In Blender, go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons and expand the BlenderGIS preferences.
2. Paste your MapTiler key into the Basemaps section (and the MapTiler API key setting in v2.2.12+).
3. Paste your OpenTopography key into the Elevation section (v2.2.10+ shows a dedicated API key setting dialog).
4. Save your preferences and try your import again.

Pro tip: set your project to Web Mercator (EPSG:3857) when working with web tiles — it’s the coordinate reference system web map providers expect, and it avoids subtle alignment problems between basemaps and imported geometry.

What breaks without a key?

• Satellite/street tiles return empty or blank.
  The basemap preview shows nothing, or the imported plane has no texture. The request is rejected before any image data is sent.
• Elevation downloads fail with HTTP 403.
  A 403 “Forbidden” error is the classic signature of a missing or invalid key — the server understood your request but refused to serve it anonymously.
• Coordinate / place search returns nothing.
  The CRS and place search in recent BlenderGIS versions goes through the MapTiler API, so it needs your MapTiler key too.
• Silent failures.
  Sometimes there is no error message at all — the operator just produces no result. Always verify your keys before assuming a deeper problem.

If you’ve entered your keys and things still fail, work through our troubleshooting guide — key typos, revoked keys, and version mismatches are the usual suspects.

Frequently asked questions