Access blocked - App is not following OpenStreetMap tile usage policy

[SarahMelanieM]

Description of the problem

Hi everyone,
I just rerun a previously working pygmt code and now I cannot plot OpenStreetMap anymore with tilemap. The tiles are now showing an access blocked form OpenStreetMap (see added figure). I checked it with both PyGMT version 0.17.0 and the newest version 0.19.0. Also I tried to rerun the tile maps example (https://www.pygmt.org/v0.19.0/gallery/maps/tilemaps.html). And I still get the same message as for my own code. If I use alternatively a Cartopy script to plot OpenStreetMap it works, so it seems to be an PyGMT issue.
Based on the linked webpage, PyGMT encounters a General Block: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Blocked_tiles
I would be happy if you could check if this is also happening for you. Thank you!
Greetings
Sarah

.

Minimal Complete Verifiable Example

"""
Tile maps
=========

The :meth:`pygmt.Figure.tilemap` method allows to plot
tiles from a tile server or local file as a basemap or overlay.
"""

# %%
import contextily
import pygmt
from pygmt.params import Axis

fig = pygmt.Figure()
fig.tilemap(
    region=[-157.84, -157.8, 21.255, 21.285],
    projection="M12c",
    # Set level of details (0-22)
    # Higher levels mean a zoom level closer to the Earth's
    # surface with more tiles covering a smaller
    # geographic area and thus more details and vice versa
    # Please note, not all zoom levels are always available
    zoom=14,
    # Use tiles from OpenStreetMap tile server
    source="https://{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png",
    frame=Axis(annot=True, tick=True, grid=True),
)

fig.show()

Full error message

Access blocked 403
App is not following the tile usage policy of OpenStreetMap's volunteer-run servers: osm.wiki/Blocked

System information

PyGMT information:
  version: v0.19.0
System information:
  python: 3.14.6 | packaged by conda-forge | (main, Jul 24 2026, 16:09:24) [GCC 14.3.0]
  executable: ~/.conda/envs/pygmt/bin/python
  machine: Linux-6.12.0-160000.36-default-x86_64-with-glibc2.40
Dependency information:
  numpy: 2.5.2
  pandas: 3.0.5
  xarray: 2026.7.0
  packaging: 26.3
  contextily: 1.7.1
  geopandas: None
  IPython: None
  pyarrow: None
  rioxarray: 0.23.0
  gdal: 3.13.2
  ghostscript: 10.07.1
GMT library information:
  version: 6.7.0
  padding: 2
  share dir: ~/.conda/envs/pygmt/share/gmt
  plugin dir: ~/.conda/envs/pygmt/lib/gmt/plugins
  library path: ~/.conda/envs/pygmt/lib/libgmt.so
  cores: 16
  grid layout: rows
  image layout: 

Or:
PyGMT information:
  version: v0.17.0
System information:
  python: 3.13.9 | packaged by conda-forge | (main, Oct 16 2025, 10:31:39) [GCC 14.3.0]
  executable: ~/conda/envs/seispy_env/bin/python
  machine: Linux-6.12.0-160000.36-default-x86_64-with-glibc2.40
Dependency information:
  numpy: 2.3.5
  pandas: 2.2.3
  xarray: 2025.11.0
  packaging: 25.0
  contextily: 1.7.0
  geopandas: 1.1.1
  IPython: 9.7.0
  pyarrow: 21.0.0
  rioxarray: 0.20.0
  gdal: 3.10.2
  ghostscript: 10.06.0
GMT library information:
  version: 6.5.0
  padding: 2
  share dir: ~/conda/envs/seispy_env/share/gmt
  plugin dir: ~/conda/envs/seispy_env/lib/gmt/plugins
  library path: ~/conda/envs/seispy_env/lib/libgmt.so
  cores: 16
  grid layout: rows
  image layout: 
  binary version: 6.5.0

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[seisman]

@SarahMelanieM Thank you for the detailed report. I can confirm the issue.

PR #4816 should fix the issue. I don't have time to read the OSM tile policy carefully yet, so #4816 is still WIP.

[yvonnefroehlich]

I checked it with both PyGMT version 0.17.0 and the newest version 0.19.0. Also I tried to rerun the tile maps example (https://www.pygmt.org/v0.19.0/gallery/maps/tilemaps.html). And I still get the same message as for my own code.

At the time of releasing 0.19.0, the tile maps gallery example looked good and worked as expected. However, for the dev version of the documentation (https://www.pygmt.org/dev/gallery/maps/tilemaps.html) we now face exactly the issue you report. It looks like this is a very recent problem: In PR #4809 merged on Sunday, the tile maps gallery example still looks good (https://pygmt-dev--4809.org.readthedocs.build/en/4809/gallery/maps/tilemaps.html), but in #4805 merged on Monday, it fails with the reported issue (https://pygmt-dev--4805.org.readthedocs.build/en/4805/gallery/maps/tilemaps.html). Some details are at #4816 (comment).