For nearly 20 years, Google Maps Platform has enabled businesses to create innovative and valuable solutions for their customers—whether it’s delivering food, booking a ride, locating a store or restaurant, traveling, or searching for a home. Today, more than 10 million websites and apps are powered by Google Maps Platform, transforming user experiences, optimising operations, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.
With a constantly updated map that incorporates real-time changes, you can build solutions that stay relevant in a dynamic world. Covering over 250 million businesses and places globally, the platform processes more than 100 million updates daily. Beyond offering the freshest data, it continues to lead the way by introducing groundbreaking products to the market. Earlier this year, they made it easier to build 3D solutions, launched a service to ground LLM responses in Google Maps information, and made in-app navigation easier with Navigation SDK.
Starting March 1, 2025, Google Maps Platform will introduce enhancements designed to provide you with more opportunities to explore new products for free, easily locate the tools you need, and take advantage of automated volume discounts directly online.
Unlock more volume discounts online
Accessing volume discounts has never been simpler. With more discounts now available online, you’ll automatically enjoy savings as your usage increases. Most products still start with a 20% discount, but for certain products, you can unlock savings of up to 80% when your usage exceeds 5 million monthly calls.
Expanding free usage limits across our products
Beginning in March, you’ll receive free* monthly access to all their products—Maps, Routes, Places, and Environment APIs and SDKs—up to a set limit. Instead of the current fixed $200 monthly credit, you’ll soon be able to access up to $3,250 worth of free usage across all products. This change offers greater flexibility to develop innovative solutions and experiment with their APIs and SDKs without incurring costs.
Now, you can evaluate whether a new product is right for your business—for example, you can integrate Places Nearby or Dynamic Street View into your app to make the experience more rich and immersive—or build a proof-of-concept delivery service with Routes API before making a major investment. With this expanded free usage, you'll only pay if you exceed the limit. And further, Maps Embed API and Maps SDK—some of our most popular products—will continue to have unlimited free usage.
Let's say you're a real estate company that wants to help renters find the perfect neighbourhood. Now you can try more products for free before deciding which APIs or SDKs best suit your needs, and if your usage stays under the monthly free usage limit, provide this solution at no cost. Start with Dynamic Maps to visualise a neighbourhood. Use Data-driven styling to highlight school districts virtually or colour-code counties by the average home rental price. Help renters explore an area with Dynamic Street View and find relevant places like parks and restaurants with Nearby Search and Place Details.
Values are based on the number of monthly calls and standard pricing for products shown above (which stays the same after the March 1, 2025 updates). This table is for example purposes only, individual results may vary based on usage. Free usage refers to monthly calls available at no cost.
Easily find the right Google Maps Platform products for your solution
Google Maps Platform has streamlined its product lineup into three straightforward categories: Essentials, Pro, and Enterprise. These categories are designed around the level of customisation and features each product offers, making it easier to find solutions tailored to your business needs and usage patterns. Each category includes a set number of free monthly calls, and you can mix and match products across categories to suit your requirements.
Essentials: Ideal for beginners, this offering lets you integrate core features like Dynamic Maps or Place Details into your applications. Starting in early 2025, you’ll also gain access to low-cost, low-code tools to seamlessly bring the familiar Google Maps interface to your projects. Enjoy 10,000 free calls per SKU every month to help you get started.
Pro: Elevate your applications with advanced features like Address Validation to identify inaccurate addresses or Nearby Search to help users discover places near a specific location. Each month, you’ll receive 5,000 free calls per SKU to support these enhanced capabilities.
Enterprise: Achieve unparalleled control and flexibility to drive business transformation. Leverage advanced tools like Route Optimisation for efficient fleet management and Photorealistic 3D Tiles to deliver state-of-the-art geospatial experiences. Enjoy 1,000 free calls per SKU each month to power these innovations.
What’s next?
All these updates will take effect on March 1, 2025. Visit Google Maps Platform's pricing calculator to assess the impact of these changes. If you have any questions, please review their FAQs.
Get in touch with us today to find out how we can help you take the next step.
*Free usage refers to monthly calls available at no cost.
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