Google Maps API Pricing 2026: Is It Free, Places API Costs, and What a Real Bill Looks Like

How much does the Google Maps API cost? The short answer

As of October 23, 2026, the Google Maps API is pay as you go per SKU, with a free monthly allowance on each one: 10,000 calls on Essentials SKUs, 5,000 on Pro and 1,000 on Enterprise. After that, an interactive map load costs $7 per 1,000, a geocode $5 per 1,000 and a Place Details lookup $5 to $25 per 1,000 depending on which fields you ask for. Fixed subscriptions start at $100 a month for 50,000 calls. The old $200 monthly credit ended on March 1, 2025.

We read Google's Maps Platform pricing page, its global price list, the subscriptions documentation and the Places and Routes billing pages on October 23, 2026. The bills below are our arithmetic on those published rates, for three things small and mid-sized businesses actually build: address autocomplete on an intake form, a map on the website, and a dispatch tool that compares drive times.

Is the Google Maps API free?

For a lot of small sites, effectively yes, but not because there is a free plan. Billing has to be enabled on every project, and each SKU then gets its free monthly calls before the meter starts. Three things are free without a cap: the Maps Embed API (the simple embedded map most contact pages need), the mobile Maps SDKs, and Autocomplete sessions that end in a Place Details or Address Validation call. New customers also get a $300 trial credit.

One trap when you read Google's own docs: the summary box on the Places and Routes billing pages still mentions a $200 monthly credit "until February 28, 2025". The pricing FAQ is the current word. Since March 1, 2025, the credit is gone and the free calls per SKU replace it.

Google Maps API price list (the SKUs small businesses use)

Prices fall again past 500,000 and 1,000,000 calls, and Google's FAQ says the online volume discounts start at 20% above 100,000 monthly requests for most products and reach 80% past 5 million. Usage is added up across every project on the same billing account before the tier is picked.

Google Places API pricing: the field mask decides the bill

The Places API (New) does not have one price. Place Details, Text Search and Nearby Search are billed at the highest SKU any requested field triggers, so the same lookup can cost up to five times more because of one extra field.

The surprise for most builders is that the place's name, displayName, is a Pro field. An intake form that only needs the street address should ask for formattedAddress and location and nothing else.

Worked bill 1: address autocomplete on an intake form

A home-service company puts Google's address autocomplete on its quote form so every job arrives with a clean, geocoded address. We priced it at 3,000 and 15,000 completed addresses a month:

Two settings move the bill ten-fold at the same traffic. With a session token, the keystroke suggestions are free and only the final Place Details call is billed; without one (or if the token is reused), every keystroke request is charged at $2.83 per 1,000 after the first 10,000. And the field list decides whether that final call costs $5, $17 or $20 per 1,000.

Worked bill 2: a map on the website

If the map only shows where you are, use the Maps Embed API: it is free with no cap. Billing starts when the site loads the interactive Maps JavaScript API, for a store locator, a service-area map or a "find your nearest location" page.

Google does not block calls past a plan's limit. The extra calls bill at the pay-as-you-go rate for your total monthly usage, which is why the 150,000-load month pays $5.60 per 1,000 on the overage. Google emails the billing owner at 80% and 90% of the plan.

Worked bill 3: a dispatch tool comparing drive times

Route Matrix bills per element, and an element is one origin times one destination. Twelve technicians checked against 40 open jobs is 480 elements; re-run ten times a day across 22 working days, that is 105,600 elements a month.

• Without live traffic (Essentials): $472.40 pay as you go, or $297.40 on the $275 Essentials subscription plus 5,600 elements of overage.
• With live traffic (Pro): any request using the TRAFFIC_AWARE or TRAFFIC_AWARE_OPTIMAL modifiers bills as Pro: $994.80 pay as you go. The Pro subscription is $1,200, so at this volume pay as you go wins.

The habit that cuts this bill is fewer re-runs, not a cheaper SKU: recompute when a job is added or a tech goes off route, not on a timer. We assume each element counts as one call against a subscription plan, as it does on the pay-as-you-go meter.

Google Maps subscriptions: Starter, Essentials and Pro

Plans can be changed or cancelled any time with prorated billing and take up to three business days to activate. Enterprise SKUs, such as the phone and rating fields above, are not in any self-serve plan. Google's own cancellation example labels Essentials at "$100/month" even though the plan table says $275, so read the table, not the example.

Google Maps API vs Mapbox on price

The two vendors meter differently. Mapbox gives 50,000 free web map loads a month against Google's 10,000, and its routing matrix is free up to 100,000 elements, but its address autofill costs $12.50 per 1,000 sessions after the first 1,000, where Google's session-based autocomplete is close to free. Our Mapbox pricing breakdown runs these same three workloads on Mapbox. One storage rule matters for any CRM: Google's Geocoding policies restrict caching results except place IDs, while Mapbox sells a Permanent Geocoding API at $5 per 1,000 for results you keep.

If you landed here because your business does not show up on Google Maps, that is a listing problem, not an API bill; our guide on why a business is not showing up on Google covers the fixes.

Who can build Google Maps features for a business?

A plain embedded map and a basic autocomplete field are an afternoon for any web developer. Bring in a builder when the map is part of a system: an intake form that checks the service area and routes the lead, a locator tied to live inventory or schedules, or a dispatch board that ranks jobs by drive time. SuperDupr, Justin McKelvey's company, builds these as part of custom web design and development, published at $10,000 to $30,000 with a three-to-six-week build, or as AI workflow automation ($10,000 to $25,000, most live in 2 to 4 weeks) when the map feeds dispatch. Ongoing costs for AI systems run $200 to $2,000 a month depending on volume, and the business owns the code and the Google Cloud account. We do not resell Google Maps Platform, and we set field masks and session tokens so the API bill stays in the first rows of the tables above. For how a build fits a full website budget, see how much a website costs, and for how build prices compare across shops, our AI automation pricing guide. The first step is a free 30-minute strategy session.

Sources

• Google Maps Platform pricing, mapsplatform.google.com/pricing, read October 23, 2026: Starter $100 / 50,000 calls, Essentials $275 / 100,000, Pro $1,200 / 250,000, Enterprise custom; 10K / 5K / 1K free calls per SKU on Essentials / Pro / Enterprise; $300 trial credit; FAQ on the March 1, 2025 change replacing the $200 monthly credit; volume discounts from 20% above 100K to 80% past 5M; Embed and Maps SDK unlimited.
• Google Maps Platform core services pricing list (global), developers.google.com/maps/billing-and-pricing/pricing, last updated October 21, 2026, read October 23, 2026: per-1,000 prices and free caps for every SKU above, and Google's worked Autocomplete example (200,000 requests = $481.70).
• Google Maps Platform Subscriptions, developers.google.com/maps/billing-and-pricing/subscriptions, read October 23, 2026: included SKUs, overage at pay-as-you-go rates by total usage, 80% / 90% alerts, prorated changes and cancellation, three business days to activate.
• Places API Usage and Billing and Place Details (New), developers.google.com/maps/documentation/places/web-service, read October 23, 2026: field-mask billing at the highest SKU, session rules, fields per SKU (displayName Pro; phone, rating, website Enterprise).
• Routes API Usage and Billing, developers.google.com/maps/documentation/routes/usage-and-billing, read October 23, 2026: Route Matrix billed per element (origins times destinations), traffic-aware modifiers bill as Pro.
• Geocoding API Policies, developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geocoding/policies, read October 23, 2026: caching restricted except place IDs.
• Mapbox figures: mapbox.com/pricing, read October 23, 2026, as used in our Mapbox pricing breakdown.
• Worked examples: SuperDupr's arithmetic on the published prices above, for assumed workloads.