Google dramatically increased the cost of the Google Maps service in pricing changes announced in June 2018. They initially gave customers only 30 days notice and they increased API costs by up to 1900% in some cases (yes, that's a price increase of 19x the previous price with only 30 days notice). While they relented and gave customers up to 90 days notice after the huge outcry that this generated for businesses around the world who were stung by the price increases, they did not reduce the price increases by any measure or amount.
As a result, Google Maps customers saw their bills rise to completely unmanageable amounts, causing accusations that Google had performed a bait and switch by drawing customers in with a generous free service offering and then hitting them with massive price increases once they started using their services. So, how do you know if you're going to be charged by Google for use of their mapping service?
Firstly, each Google Platform account receives a $200 free quota each month which can be used for your usage of the Google Maps services. If you usage is under $200 each month then you pay nothing.
How the costs break down
A common question we see asked is "How many times can the web page which has my Google map be viewed each day or month before I will be charged by Google? Unfortunately, this is a tricky question to answer as it really depends on the pattern of how your visitors actually use your map and what services you have enabled. This is because your map will make various calls to the different Google Maps APIs depending on what your visitors actually do when they visit your page.
Here's how it breaks down:
- Each time the page on which your map is hosted is viewed, this counts as a 'Dynamic Map Load'.
- If you have Places autocompletion on your map (see demo here: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/examples/places-autocomplete) someone uses the address autocompletion feature by typing into the address search field, this counts as a 'Places API' call.
- If you have any other services enabled then you will incur further API costs - for example, directions, geocoding etc.
Each of the events above actually count towards your $200 free monthly quota from Google. Now, the reason why we say that it depends on usage is for example you might only have the mapping service enabled so you won't see any Places API calls made by your page.
What's the maximum number of times my map page can be viewed each day inside the free quota?
Every customer is different so depending on what features you have enabled in your map and on how your visitors use those features, your actual usage of the Google Maps API will vary and hence your expected costs will vary. Note, once the map page has been loaded in the web browser of a visitor, this counts as a single map load and any usage of the map on that page such as panning or zooming the map does not incur further costs. Similarly, once the
- If you only use the Map service, you should be able to get 28,000 map loads or approximately 900 map loads a day
- If you also use the Places autocompletion service you would be looking at closer to 16,500 map loads a month or approximately 500 a day
What Google API costs look like if the free quota is exceeded
Just to give you an idea, let's look at how the costs would change if you went over 500 page loads a day and you were using both the Maps and Places services:
- Up to 15,000 / month (500 / day): Free (included in $200 monthly free quota)
- 30,000 / month (1,000 / day): $164
- 60,000 / month (2,000 / day): $529
- 300,000 / month (10,000 / day): $3,443
What to do if you think you might exceed the Google Maps free quota
If you are a large business and / or expect high usage of your map page(s) and you are at all concerned about any additional costs using the Google API, we're here to help. Our mapping service is free for up to 100,000 map loads per month which is more than triple what Google offers.
In addition, our pricing once you go over the free tier is in some cases only 10% of what Google would charge for providing the same service. If you'd like to calculate your potential cost savings, we recommend trying our cost estimator here: https://www.expressmaps.com/mapping-service-cost-comparison.
