Google Maps API pricing, explained
Google Maps Platform charges for each request, at a price set by the API and by which fields you ask for. Each API has a free allowance every month, and the price per 1,000 falls as your monthly volume grows. This page lists the prices, shows how a bill adds up, and works through three typical apps.
Prices are in US dollars, from Google's pricing page, last checked October 22, 2026.
How Google charges
- Per request. Google calls each billable request an event. Every API, and often every tier of an API, is a separate line on the bill, called a SKU.
- Three tiers. Most APIs come in Essentials, Pro, and Enterprise tiers. The fields you request decide the tier: a Place Details request for an address and a location is Essentials, but asking for opening hours or ratings moves it to a higher tier.
- A free allowance per SKU. Every month, most Essentials SKUs include 10,000 free requests, Pro SKUs 5,000, and Enterprise SKUs 1,000. The 2D Map Tiles API includes 100,000. These replaced the $200 monthly credit on March 1, 2025, and they don't pool: free geocoding requests can't pay for map loads.
- Volume discounts. The price per 1,000 drops at 100,000, 500,000, 1 million, and 5 million requests a month. Each band is billed at its own rate, and the free allowance counts toward the first band.
- A billing account. Every project needs a Google Cloud billing account with a payment method, even to stay inside the free allowances. Google warns that charges have no limit once billing is on, so set a budget alert and daily quotas.
Prices for each API
The price is per 1,000 requests in the first paid band, which runs to 100,000 a month. The last column is the price above 5 million a month.
| API | Tier | Free each month | Per 1,000 | Above 5 million |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dynamic Maps (Maps JavaScript API) | Essentials | 10,000 | $7.00 | $0.53 |
| Static Maps | Essentials | 10,000 | $2.00 | $0.15 |
| 2D Map Tiles | Essentials | 100,000 | $0.60 | $0.045 |
| Geocoding | Essentials | 10,000 | $5.00 | $0.38 |
| Geolocation | Essentials | 10,000 | $5.00 | $0.38 |
| Places Autocomplete requests | Essentials | 10,000 | $2.83 | $0.21 |
| Place Details | Essentials | 10,000 | $5.00 | $0.38 |
| Place Details | Pro | 5,000 | $17.00 | $1.28 |
| Place Details | Enterprise | 1,000 | $20.00 | $1.51 |
| Text Search | Pro | 5,000 | $32.00 | $2.40 |
| Nearby Search | Pro | 5,000 | $32.00 | $2.40 |
| Compute Routes | Essentials | 10,000 | $5.00 | $0.38 |
| Compute Routes | Pro | 5,000 | $10.00 | $0.75 |
| Compute Route Matrix, per element | Essentials | 10,000 | $5.00 | $0.38 |
| Address Validation | Pro | 5,000 | $17.00 | $1.28 |
The 2D Map Tiles bands are different: $0.60 per 1,000 runs to 1 million tiles, and the lowest price starts at 50 million.
Volume discounts, using geocoding
Geocoding shows how the bands work. A month with 300,000 geocoding requests costs $1,250: the first 10,000 are free, the next 90,000 cost $5.00 per 1,000, and the 200,000 after that cost $4.00 per 1,000.
| Requests in the month | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|
| First 10,000 | Free |
| Up to 100,000 | $5.00 |
| 100,001 to 500,000 | $4.00 |
| 500,001 to 1 million | $3.00 |
| 1 million to 5 million | $1.50 |
| Over 5 million | $0.38 |
Autocomplete sessions
Autocomplete is the hardest API to predict. Without a session token, every request is billed as an Autocomplete request, at $2.83 per 1,000. With a session token, the session ends when you fetch the chosen place:
- If it ends with Place Details Essentials, you pay for up to 12 Autocomplete requests and for the Place Details request. Requests after the 12th are free.
- If it ends with Place Details Pro or Enterprise, or with Address Validation, the Autocomplete requests are free, but the closing request is billed as Place Details Enterprise + Atmosphere or Address Validation Enterprise, whichever fields you asked for.
- If the user leaves without picking a place, each request is billed as an Autocomplete request.
Google Places API pricing, explained covers which fields put a request in each tier.
What three apps pay
Each example is a month of use. Google's totals use the bands above.
A store locator with 30,000 map loads and 15,000 geocoded searches:
| Google Maps Platform | Mapricot | |
|---|---|---|
| Map loads | 20,000 paid at $7.00: $140 | Free map tiles |
| Geocoding | 5,000 paid at $5.00: $25 | Inside the free 250,000 |
| Total | $165 | $0 |
A checkout address form with 50,000 orders, where each customer types about five times before picking an address:
| Google Maps Platform | Mapricot | |
|---|---|---|
| Autocomplete | 250,000 requests: $595.20 | 250,000 requests, inside the free 250,000 |
| Address and location of the pick | 50,000 Place Details Essentials: $200 | Included in the autocomplete result |
| Total | $795.20 | $0 |
A delivery app's backend with 500,000 geocoded addresses and 500,000 routes:
| Google Maps Platform | Mapricot | |
|---|---|---|
| Geocoding | $2,050 | 500,000 requests |
| Routes, Essentials | $2,050 | 500,000 requests |
| Total | $4,100 | $75: 250,000 free, then 750,000 at $0.10 per 1,000 |
Routes that account for live traffic, or have more than 10 stops in between, cost more: traffic-aware routes are billed as Compute Routes Pro, at twice the price. Mapricot's routes don't use live traffic, and take up to 20 stops at the same price.
How to lower a Google Maps bill
- Ask for fewer fields. Place Details and Routes use a field mask. Requesting only Essentials fields keeps a request in the cheapest tier.
- Use session tokens for autocomplete, and end each session with Place Details Essentials.
- Cache what the terms allow. Google's terms allow keeping place IDs, but most other content, including coordinates, for at most 30 days.
- Use static maps where nothing moves. Static Maps cost $2.00 per 1,000 against $7.00 for a dynamic map.
- Set quotas and a budget alert in the Google Cloud console, so a bug or a scraper can't run up the bill.
A cheaper option for the common cases
Most apps use Google Maps Platform for a map, geocoding, address autocomplete, nearby places, and routes. Mapricot does those on open data, at one price: 250,000 free requests every 30 days, shared by every API, then $0.10 per 1,000, with free map tiles for MapLibre. There's no card needed to start.
It doesn't have Google's reviews, photos, opening hours, live traffic, or Street View. The Google Maps comparison maps each Google API to its Mapricot endpoint and lists what changes when you switch.
An address search:
curl "https://api.mapricot.com/v1/search?q=128+SW+3rd+Ave,+Portland&limit=1" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $MAPRICOT_KEY"{ "attribution": [ { "source": "openaddresses", "text": "OpenAddresses", "url": "https://openaddresses.io" } ], "results": [ { "id": "mp_b3BlbmFkZHJlc3NlczphZGRyZXNzOnVzL29yL211bHRub21haDpkZjdlYzM3YWJiYTJiNWM0", "type": "address", "name": "128 SW 3rd Avenue", "label": "128 SW 3rd Avenue, Portland, OR, USA", "lat": 45.521736, "lon": -122.673276, "address": { "houseNumber": "128", "street": "SW 3rd Avenue", "postalCode": "97204", "locality": "Portland", "region": "Oregon", "regionCode": "OR", "country": "United States", "countryCode": "US" }, "source": "openaddresses" } ]}Questions
Is the Google Maps API free? Not entirely. Each API has a free allowance every month, such as 10,000 geocoding requests, and Google charges for everything past it. A billing account is required even for free use. Is the Google Maps API free? covers the free tier in detail.
Does Google still give $200 a month in free credit? No. Since March 1, 2025, each SKU has its own free allowance instead.
How much does the Google Geocoding API cost? $5.00 per 1,000 requests after 10,000 free a month, falling to $4.00 above 100,000 and to $0.38 above 5 million.
How much does a Google map load cost? $7.00 per 1,000 dynamic map loads with the Maps JavaScript API after 10,000 free a month. The Maps Embed API and the mobile Maps SDKs have no charge for map loads.