OpenStreetMap tiles "Access blocked" 403r - OpenStreetMap Foundation servers now enforced referer policy. (Edit)

[danallsop]

Migrated from: Leaflet#10156
Original author: danallsop
Original created: 2026-03-19T09:41:13Z

---

see for example openstreetmap/tile-attribution#279 and many of https://github.com/openstreetmap/tile-attribution/issues?q=state%3Aclosed%20label%3A%22other-tile-usage-policy-block%22 (which were misfiled there, though not all are leaflet-based)

would be fixed by #9883

note that it is at brownout stage with only some tiles failing and error rate will increase over time

https://operations.osmfoundation.org/policies/tiles/ was not changed at all, these failing requests were already in violation for years - but it is now enforced, due to scraper abuse

[danallsop]

Comments (1 total)

---

Comment by: danallsop on 2026-04-12T12:52:00Z

If you encounter this issue, here is some information that may help:

Caution

This issue occurs because the HTTP Referer header is not being sent correctly. OpenStreetMap Foundation now enforces the presence of a valid referrer header, which was not check previously: https://operations.osmfoundation.org/policies/tiles/

The problem could be caused by:

• your setup, such as using or a similar configuration
• user-specific browser settings or ad blockers

The easiest fix is to add the following at the beginning of your Leaflet code:

L.TileLayer.prototype.options.referrerPolicy = 'strict-origin-when-cross-origin';
...
const map = L.map('map').setView([51.505, -0.09], 13);