Google Introduces Uncomplicated Pay-As-You-Go Model For Its Maps API

The Google Maps API has been a mess when it comes to pricing. The company is making moves to clean that up with a newly announced pay-as-you-go model.

Here’s what the team said today about it:

In this new purchasing structure, the Google Maps Geocoding, Directions, Distance Matrix, Roads, Geolocation, Elevation, and Time Zone APIs remain free of charge for the first 2,500 requests per day, and developers may now simply pay $0.50 USD per 1,000 additional requests up to 100,000 requests per API per day. Developers requiring over 100,000 requests per day should contact us to purchase a premium licence.

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The Maps API is arguably one of the most useful ones, as you see Google Maps pop up in tons of your favorite apps. It can also be quite a lucrative business for Google if this new pricing structure works.

Onboarding is impossible if developers don’t even know how they’re going to be charged. This kind of elastic pricing allows services to get started right away and then expand as they scale without fear of waking up to a huge bill one morning.