Mapbox Pricing 2026: Free Tier, Map Loads, Geocoding, and Mapbox vs Google Maps on Real Bills
Mapbox is free up to 50,000 web map loads, 100,000 geocoding requests and 100,000 routing requests or matrix elements a month, as of October 23, 2026, then $5 per 1,000 map loads and $2 per 1,000 routing calls. Address Autofill is the expensive line at $12.50 per 1,000 sessions. Here are the same three workloads priced on Mapbox and Google Maps, and the geocoding rule that matters for a CRM.
How much does Mapbox cost? The short answer
As of October 23, 2026, Mapbox is pay as you go with a free tier on almost every product. A web map is free up to 50,000 map loads a month, then $5 per 1,000; geocoding is free up to 100,000 requests; routing and drive-time matrices are free up to 100,000 requests or elements, then $2 per 1,000. Address autofill is the expensive part: 1,000 free sessions, then $12.50 per 1,000. Against Google Maps, Mapbox is cheaper for maps and routing and dearer for form autocomplete.
We read Mapbox's pricing page on October 23, 2026 and ran the same three workloads we priced in our Google Maps guide: address autocomplete on an intake form, an interactive map on a website, and a dispatch tool comparing drive times. Mapbox lists a per-1,000 rate for each volume band; our bills apply each band's rate to the usage inside it, the way tiered metering normally works, and are our arithmetic, not Mapbox quotes.
Is Mapbox free?
For a small business site, usually yes. The free allowances are large: 50,000 web map loads, 100,000 temporary geocoding requests, 100,000 Directions requests, 100,000 Matrix elements, 50,000 static map images and 25,000 monthly active users on the mobile Maps SDKs, every month. A local company with one map on its contact page and a few thousand visitors will not see a bill. The two products with small free tiers are Address Autofill (1,000 sessions) and the Search Box sessions meter (500 sessions at the introductory rate), and Permanent Geocoding has no free tier at all.
Mapbox price list (the products businesses use)
| Product and meter | Free a month | First paid band | Next bands |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mapbox GL JS web maps, per 1,000 map loads | 50,000 | $5.00 (50,001 to 100,000) | $4.00 to 200,000; $3.00 to 1M; $2.50 to 5M |
| Mapbox GL JS Seats, per monthly user | 3 users | $4.00 (4 to 125) | $3.20 to 250; $2.40 after |
| Mobile Maps SDKs, per 1,000 monthly active users | 25,000 | $4.00 | $3.20; $2.40 |
| Static Images API, per 1,000 | 50,000 | $1.00 | $0.80; $0.60 |
| Temporary Geocoding API, per 1,000 | 100,000 | $0.75 | $0.60; $0.45 |
| Permanent Geocoding API, per 1,000 | None | $5.00 (to 500,000) | $4.00 after; sales past 1M |
| Address Autofill, per 1,000 sessions | 1,000 | $12.50 (to 25,000) | $10.00 to 100,000; $7.50 after |
| Search Box sessions, introductory preview rate | 500 | $3.00 (to 100,000) | $2.75; $2.50 |
| Search Box sessions, standard rate | 2,500 | $11.50 (to 100,000) | $10.00; $8.40; $6.60 |
| Directions, Matrix (per element), Optimization, Isochrone | 100,000 | $2.00 | $1.60; $1.20 |
A Mapbox map load counts each time Mapbox GL JS starts on a page and includes unlimited tile requests, so panning and zooming cost nothing extra. A Search Box session bundles up to 50 suggestion calls and one retrieve call and expires after two minutes of inactivity. Mapbox labels the lower Search Box rate "introductory preview pricing" and prints the standard rate beside it; the page does not say when the preview rate ends, so budget on the standard rate.
Mapbox vs Google Maps: the same three workloads
| Workload | Mapbox | Google Maps Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Intake form, 3,000 completed addresses a month | $25 (Address Autofill) or $7.50 (Search Box, preview rate) | $0 (sessions + address fields) |
| Intake form, 15,000 completed addresses a month | $175 (Autofill), $43.50 (Search Box preview) or $143.75 (Search Box standard) | $25 |
| Website map, 40,000 interactive loads | $0 | $210 pay as you go, or the $100 Starter plan |
| Website map, 150,000 interactive loads | $450 | $910 pay as you go, or $555 on the Essentials plan |
| Dispatch matrix, 105,600 elements a month | $11.20 | $297.40 to $472.40 without traffic; $994.80 with live traffic |
| Geocode and keep 50,000 customer addresses once | $250 (Permanent Geocoding) | $200, but results may not be cached except place IDs |
The pattern is consistent. Mapbox's free bands are five to ten times larger on maps, geocoding and routing, so a busy locator page or a dispatch board costs a fraction of Google's bill. Google wins the intake form, because its Autocomplete sessions are free when they end in an address lookup and that lookup is free for the first 10,000 a month. The full Google side, including the field-mask trap that can multiply a Places bill, is in our Google Maps API pricing breakdown.
On routing, check features before you switch for price. Mapbox's page prices the Matrix API at one rate and describes Directions as traffic- and incident-aware; Google bills live-traffic matrices at its Pro rate. Test your real job list on both before you commit a dispatch tool to either.
Temporary vs Permanent Geocoding: the line that matters for a CRM
Mapbox splits geocoding in two. Temporary Geocoding (100,000 free, then $0.75 per 1,000) is for looking an address up and showing it. Permanent Geocoding ($5 per 1,000 from the first request) is the one Mapbox says you may store, for your own business use, and the one that allows batch requests. If the job is "put a latitude and longitude on every customer record so we can route and report on them," that is permanent geocoding, and it is priced like Google's geocoder rather than like Mapbox's free tier. Google's policies restrict caching geocoding results except place IDs, so on Google the same job means storing place IDs and looking up again when you need coordinates.
When Mapbox is the cheaper choice
- Map-heavy public pages. Up to 50,000 loads a month cost nothing; Google charges from the 10,001st.
- Internal dispatch and routing tools. 100,000 free matrix elements covers a twelve-truck company checking drive times all day.
- Heavy pan-and-zoom use. A map load includes unlimited vector and raster tile requests, so users exploring the map add no cost.
Google stays cheaper when the main use is address autocomplete on forms, and it is the default when you need Google's business details such as phone numbers, opening hours and ratings, which Mapbox's pricing page does not list. Forms are usually the front door of the workflow; our Jotform pricing guide covers what the form itself costs before any map API is added.
Who can build Mapbox maps and routing for a business?
Dropping a styled Mapbox map on a page is a small front-end job. Bring in a builder when the map is part of a system: a service-area check on the quote form that routes the lead, a locator tied to live schedules or inventory, or a dispatch board that ranks jobs by drive time and pushes the order to the crew's phones. That is the work SuperDupr, the studio Justin McKelvey runs, takes on. On a website it is scoped as custom web design and development ($10,000 to $30,000, three to six weeks); when the map drives dispatch it is an AI workflow automation build ($10,000 to $25,000, most live in 2 to 4 weeks), with $200 to $2,000 a month in ongoing costs depending on volume. You keep the code and the Mapbox account in your name. We are not a Mapbox reseller, so if Google comes out cheaper for your traffic, as it does for form autocomplete, we build on Google. The website budget around a build is in how much a website costs, and shop-to-shop build prices are in our AI automation pricing guide. Start with a free 30-minute strategy session.
Sources
- Mapbox pricing, mapbox.com/pricing, read October 23, 2026: free bands and per-1,000 rates for Mapbox GL JS map loads and Seats, mobile Maps SDKs, Static Images, Temporary and Permanent Geocoding, Address Autofill, Search Box sessions and requests (introductory preview and standard rates), Directions, Matrix, Optimization and Isochrone APIs; definitions of a map load, a Search Box session and an Autofill session; Permanent Geocoding storage terms.
- Google Maps Platform pricing list, subscriptions, Places and Routes billing, and Geocoding API policies, developers.google.com/maps and mapsplatform.google.com/pricing, read October 23, 2026, as used in our Google Maps API pricing breakdown.
- Worked examples: SuperDupr's arithmetic on the published prices above, for assumed workloads, applying each volume band's rate to the usage inside that band.
Frequently Asked Questions
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As of October 23, 2026, Mapbox is pay as you go. Mapbox GL JS web maps are free up to 50,000 map loads a month, then $5.00 per 1,000 up to 100,000 and $4.00 up to 200,000. Temporary Geocoding is free to 100,000 requests, then $0.75 per 1,000. Directions, Matrix, Optimization and Isochrone APIs are free to 100,000, then $2.00 per 1,000. Address Autofill costs $12.50 per 1,000 sessions after 1,000 free.
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For most small business sites, yes. Every month Mapbox includes 50,000 web map loads, 100,000 temporary geocoding requests, 100,000 Directions requests, 100,000 Matrix elements, 50,000 static images and 25,000 mobile monthly active users at no charge. Address Autofill (1,000 free sessions), Search Box sessions and Permanent Geocoding (no free tier) are the lines that bill early.
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For maps and routing, usually. At 150,000 web map loads a month Mapbox costs about $450 against $555 on Google's Essentials plan or $910 pay as you go, and a 105,600-element drive-time matrix costs about $11 on Mapbox against $297 to $995 on Google. For address autocomplete on forms Google is cheaper: about $25 for 15,000 addresses against $43.50 to $175 on Mapbox.
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Mapbox counts a map load each time Mapbox GL JS initializes a map on a web page. Each load includes unlimited Vector Tiles API and Raster Tiles API requests, so panning and zooming do not add cost. Mapbox GL JS Seats is an alternative meter that bills per monthly user: 3 free, then $4.00 per seat.
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Temporary Geocoding (100,000 free a month, then $0.75 per 1,000) is for looking up and displaying results. Permanent Geocoding ($5.00 per 1,000 from the first request, $4.00 past 500,000) lets a business store results for its own use and make batch requests, which is what geocoding every customer record in a CRM requires.
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SuperDupr, Justin McKelvey's company, builds map-based systems such as service-area checks, locators and drive-time dispatch boards, as part of custom web design and development published at $10,000 to $30,000 (three to six weeks) or AI workflow automation at $10,000 to $25,000 (most live in 2 to 4 weeks). The business owns the code and the Mapbox account; SuperDupr does not resell Mapbox.