Learn more about the changes to Google’s pricing and billing by going through the following general questions and answers:
General Pricing Questions
- How exactly has the pricing plan changed?
There’s a new pricing plan for Maps, Routes, and Places which is now in effect. It lets you have control on the way you use Google’s APIs and pay only for what you use monthly regardless of how much or little you use. Also, there’s a new pricing plan for Maps, Routes, and Places products. Check out the API-specific Billing Changes review and the guide to Understanding Billing for more detailed information.
- What do Premium Plan customers need to do to switch to the new pricing plan?
Premium Plan customers can transition to the new Google Maps Platform pricing plan as soon as their current Premium Plan contract terminates, for more information check out, Maps Platform Migration Guide.
- Is the Google Maps Platform still available for free?
Certainly. Once you enable billing, you are given $200 monthly free credit for Maps, Routes, or Places. Most of Google’s Google Map users continue using the Google Maps Platform free of charge with this credit.
- What products exactly does the $200 monthly free credit apply to?
You can use Google core Maps, Routes, and Place products with your $200 monthly free credit
- What is the pricing plan for those who exceed the free credit?
You simply pay for what you have used. Go to your Google Cloud Platform Console to review rates and your spending. Plus, you can protect from unexpected elevations by adjusting daily quotas. Similarly, you can set billing alerts to get notifications once the charges reach a threshold predetermined by you.
- How can I roughly calculate my future bill?
First, check out the email Google would have sent you if you are already using an API key. The email will provide you information on whether your future bill will change. Then, go to the Google Cloud Platform Console and look into the Billing Reports section for a better understanding of your current usage by SKU. Finally, calculate your costs based on your usage with the help of the pricing calculator and the SKU information in the guide to Understanding Billing.
Moreover, make sure you are aware of the new SKUs that have been introduced including Dynamic Street View, Directions Advanced, Distance Matrix Advanced, Places Details, Find Place, and Autocomplete by Session.
- Can I use other APIs or SDKs free of charge?
Yes. Apart from the $200 monthly free credit all of our users are given Free Maps for Embed and Free Maps URLs.
- Can I try Google Maps Platform before purchasing it?
Of course. You just need a billing account, but remember, you’ll be given $200 monthly free credit first. And, if you want to ensure that you don’t exceed this credit, you can set usage caps.
- Am I required to have a credit card or billing account?
Namely, all Google Maps Platform services require a billing account or credit card although you get a $200 monthly free credit. This is needed to cover the costs if you exceed the free monthly usage.
- When do I need an Enterprise account?
An Enterprise account is needed for businesses who are looking for volume pricing discounts (since they already have a high-volume usage), enterprise-grade customer support, and/or offline contracts.
- How is the pricing plan designed for the Maps product?
Depending on whether the map load is static or dynamic or static or dynamic Street View load, there’s a pre-load cost. But, customers can zoom in and out, pan, or change layers free of additional charge.
- What will happen with the nonprofit (or other) organizations that currently have Google grants? Will they continue to receive Google Maps Platform grants?
Certainly. All of the nonprofit users who receive Google Maps Platform grants will migrate to Google Maps Platform credits. And, additional Google Maps Platform credits are available through these programs:
- Google for Nonprofits – for nonprofits
- Google Cloud Startup Program – for startup organizations
- Crisis Response efforts – for crisis response organizations
- Google News Initiative – for news media organizations
- Can I use my new Google Cloud Platform credit for Google Maps Platform?
Yes. All users can apply their GCP $300 credit to Google Maps Platform.
