Set your city

Many Yandex services display information based on the user's location. For example, the Yandex Home page shows you the local weather forecast and traffic jams in your city. Your location also affects the search results: if you're looking for a gym, Yandex shows you sports clubs in your area.

If you don't allow access to your location, you'll see the Results nearby link in the search results. You can click the link to allow access to your location and get more accurate search results.

To learn how to change geolocation settings, see Configure location access.

Tip. If you're logged in to your account, the settings for widgets, feed, and blocks are stored in your Yandex ID. If you aren't logged in, the settings are stored in the browser cookies and disappear when you delete the cookies or reinstall the browser. Moreover, your home page interface will look the same on all devices if the settings are stored in your Yandex ID.
  1. Set your city manually
  2. Determine city automatically
  3. Disable location tracking
  4. How Yandex detects my city
  5. Problems with city detection

Set your city manually

Specify your city so that Yandex services can show you relevant information (for example, the local weather forecast, events, or a map) based on your location:

  1. On the top left of the Home page (or under the search bar in the mobile version), click the city name to open Location.
  2. Disable Determine city automatically.
  3. Enter your city in the text field and click Save.

Determine city automatically

  1. On the top left of the Home page (or under the search bar in the mobile version), click the city name to open Location.
  2. Click Find me and allow Yandex to access your location.
  3. Enable Determine city automatically and click Save.

How Yandex detects my city

Attention. Device location data is depersonalized and only sent with the user's permission.

Yandex can determine the location of your device in multiple ways:

By IP address

By default, the city where the device connects to the internet is determined by the device's IP addresses.

Mobile providers don't assign IP addresses to specific cities: a city's IP address may change, and the same IP address can be used in different cities. In such cases, it's impossible to determine your exact location by your IP address. That's why you may need to set the city manually.

Using LBS technology

The LBS technology provides a more accurate means to determine your device location:

  • By Wi-Fi access points. When your device's Wi-Fi adapter is on, it regularly checks the signal strength of nearby networks. The approximate location of your device can be determined if there's at least one Wi-Fi network whose location is known to Yandex. For example, it can be a Wi-Fi access point in a nearby cafe.
  • By the cell of a cellular network. The location of your mobile device is determined by the ID of the cell in the cellular network (Cell ID) where the device is located.

The received coordinates are compared with the location of Wi-Fi access points and cellular network cells.

Note. This geodata is contained in a database created with the help of Yandex Maps users. Using the built-in Yandex Locator technology, the Yandex Maps mobile app constantly sends GPS coordinates of the device and determines which base station serves the phone at these coordinates and which Wi-Fi networks are available. The data is sent with the user's permission.

Problems with city detection

My city isn't saved
If you set your city manually on the Location page, but it's reset every time you log in (or restart your computer or browser), this may be due to several reasons:
  • You disabled cookies. Enable cookies.
  • A cookie cleaner application (for example, CCleaner) is running on your device. Try disabling this function in the application.
Wrong city is detected
The city is detected automatically by your IP address, but the results are sometimes inaccurate. Set the city manually on the Location page.
Yandex.com opens in a different language
There are multiple localized versions of the Yandex website. The version is selected depending on your IP address.
Prohibit yandex.com from detecting your location
Your location is detected automatically based on your IP address. If you don't want Yandex to use this data, you can manually specify your city in Yandex settings.