CARTO makes a cloud platform for maps and spatial analysis, and CARTO Basemaps is its service for background maps. A basemap is the reference map of streets, water and place names drawn under an application's own data; it is delivered as map tiles, small square images or vector data for each area and zoom level.
CARTO Basemaps serves raster PNG tiles for Leaflet, OpenLayers or any tile client, and vector tiles with a MapLibre style file for MapLibre GL JS and deck.gl; one API key covers both. There are three styles, Voyager, Positron and Dark Matter, each with or without labels, and the vector styles can be edited. The cartography is drawn on OpenStreetMap data, every tile is cached on a global CDN, and each map must show the attribution to OpenStreetMap contributors and CARTO. A dashboard shows requests per key, and a key can be locked to given websites, apps or server IP addresses.
A key is free up to a monthly number of tile requests, with a higher limit for non-commercial use; above it, paid monthly or yearly plans apply. Basemaps are included in every CARTO platform plan.