Google Places API Pricing: Rates and Real Cost Examples

Current Google Places API rates

Google Places API pricing depends on the operation, fields, and monthly usage for the resulting SKU. This guide covers Places API (New) under the standard global pay-as-you-go schedule, with official documentation checked on September 30, 2026. Prices are in USD; India pricing, negotiated contracts, subscriptions, taxes, and separate map services require their own calculation. All workload examples are hypothetical.

The following are selected standard global rates from Google's core services pricing list. The paid rate shown covers usage after the free cap through 100,000 monthly events for that SKU; higher-volume bands have separate rates.

Google calculates applicable monthly volume across projects linked to the billing account. Search and detail operations remain separate SKUs. A forecast should therefore count the operations in your application flow, rather than multiplying page views by one assumed request price.

Keep Legacy and New API estimates separate. If an existing integration still uses a Legacy service, inspect its own billing documentation before applying this table.

Pay-as-you-go or a subscription?

Google's pricing page also offers subscriptions with bundled calls for included products and pay-as-you-go charges for additional usage. Check the included SKUs against your feature before comparing a subscription with the estimates here. A bundle labelled Essentials is not a blanket allowance for every Places operation. This article's calculations use the standard global pay-as-you-go table; they do not apply a subscription allowance or a new-customer trial credit.

Begin a forecast with an operation ledger: search requests, standalone Details requests, session-ending Details requests, photo requests, and any separately billed map loads. Monthly visitors are an input to that ledger, not the billable unit for all these services.

What the free tier covers

The Google Places API free tier is a set of SKU-specific allowances. The former general $200 monthly credit ended on February 28, 2025, as stated in Google's usage and billing documentation. Do not subtract that credit from a new estimate using today's free caps.

Google lists unlimited free usage for Place Details Essentials (IDs Only) and Text Search Essentials (IDs Only). The fields permitted by those SKUs determine whether they meet your task. A response limited to identifiers cannot replace a response requiring a business's display name, phone number, and website.

Fields can change the price

For a standard Place Details request, the field mask determines the highest applicable SKU. Google's Place Details field list provides these examples:

• Identifier or resource name. Example field: id, name. Details tier triggered: Essentials IDs Only.

• Formatted address or coordinates. Example field: formattedAddress, location. Details tier triggered: Essentials.

• Human-readable business name. Example field: displayName. Details tier triggered: Pro.

• Phone, website, or rating. Example field: nationalPhoneNumber, websiteUri, rating. Details tier triggered: Enterprise.

In the New API, name is a resource name such as places/PLACE_ID. Use displayName for the human-readable name. Confusing these fields can produce an incorrect estimate and an incomplete interface.

Specify the output your feature actually needs, then inspect its field list. Adding one higher-tier field can change the rate and the free allowance for the request. The field examples above describe ordinary Details requests; Autocomplete session termination has additional rules discussed below.

Calculate search, details, photos, and volume discounts

The first three examples use the first paid pricing band; the fourth shows how to cross into the next band. They assume the listed workloads are the entire relevant monthly SKU usage in the billing account, with no subscription, contract adjustment, or additional paid operation.

Example 1: 20,000 standalone address lookups

Suppose a feature makes 20,000 Place Details Essentials requests for addresses and coordinates. It does not ask for Pro or Enterprise fields and does not use these calls to terminate Autocomplete sessions.

20,000 requests − 10,000 free = 10,000 paid events
10,000 ÷ 1,000 × $5 = $50

The estimated charge for that workload is $50. This calculation covers those Details requests only.

Example 2: Search followed by selected-place details

Suppose the application makes 10,000 Text Search Pro requests, then makes 8,000 standalone Place Details Pro requests when users open selected results.

Text Search Pro: (10,000 − 5,000) ÷ 1,000 × $32 = $160
Place Details Pro: (8,000 − 5,000) ÷ 1,000 × $17 = $51
Combined estimate: $211

If each of those 8,000 detail views also fetches one photo, add 8,000 Place Details Photos events: (8,000 − 1,000) ÷ 1,000 × $7 = $49. That makes the selected search, details, and photo workload $260. Any map-rendering charges still need a separate line. The photo request is additional to obtaining its reference from an eligible search or details response.

The two free caps apply to their respective SKUs. Count every actual search request, including additional page requests where applicable. Count details requests according to how your interface actually uses them. If the search response already provides the required fields, avoid assuming an additional Details call is always necessary.

Example 3: Adding a phone number to a detail view

For 20,000 standalone Place Details requests, compare a Pro field set with an Enterprise field set that includes a phone number:

Pro: (20,000 − 5,000) ÷ 1,000 × $17 = $255
Enterprise: (20,000 − 1,000) ÷ 1,000 × $20 = $380
Difference: $125

Both the allowance and the paid rate change. In the second case, Enterprise is the applicable tier for that request; do not add a separate Pro charge for the same Details request.

Example 4: 200,000 billable Autocomplete Request events

Suppose the billing account records 200,000 events under Autocomplete Requests, before applying the free monthly allowance. This count has already applied any session rules; it is not simply the raw number of all Autocomplete calls.

First 10,000: free
Next 90,000: 90,000 ÷ 1,000 × $2.83 = $254.70
Next 100,000: 100,000 ÷ 1,000 × $2.27 = $227.00
Total: $481.70

The 100,001–500,000 band applies only to events in that band. Google's official pricing list supplies both these rates and this 200,000-event example. Applying $2.83 to every event above the free cap would overstate this cost.

Calculate completed and abandoned Autocomplete sessions

Autocomplete has its own session rules. Google's session-pricing documentation distinguishes these cases:

• Completed with Place Details Essentials: the first 12 Autocomplete requests are charged under Autocomplete Requests; later requests in that session use the no-charge Session Usage SKU. The terminating Essentials Details request is also billed.
• Completed with Pro or Enterprise Details fields: Autocomplete requests use Session Usage. The terminating Details request is billed as Enterprise + Atmosphere, regardless of which of those fields were requested.
• Completed with IDs Only, or abandoned: Autocomplete requests revert to per-request billing.

Use a valid session token consistently across the interaction and its terminating request. The free Session Usage SKU does not make every autocomplete implementation free. Confirm the chosen termination path and count abandoned sessions in your forecast.

For example, a hypothetical Essentials session containing 15 Autocomplete requests contributes 12 billable Autocomplete events before monthly allowances; the remaining three use Session Usage. It also includes the terminating Details event. This is a count of events, rather than a flat dollar quote for every session.

A monthly forecast with abandoned sessions

Assume 10,000 session starts: 7,000 complete after 10 Autocomplete requests each; 3,000 are abandoned after 8 requests each. Each completed session has a valid token and exactly one terminating Details request. The abandoned sessions have no Details request. Assume no other usage consumes the relevant free caps, and no maps, photos, Address Validation, taxes, or contract adjustments.

• Autocomplete events from completed sessions. Essentials termination: 7,000 × 10 = 70,000. Non-Essentials termination: 0 paid-request events; Session Usage applies.

• Autocomplete events from abandoned sessions. Essentials termination: 3,000 × 8 = 24,000. Non-Essentials termination: 24,000.

• Autocomplete charge after its 10,000 free cap. Essentials termination: 84,000 ÷ 1,000 × $2.83 = $237.72. Non-Essentials termination: 14,000 ÷ 1,000 × $2.83 = $39.62.

• Terminating Details charge. Essentials termination: 7,000 Essentials events are within the 10,000 cap: $0. Non-Essentials termination: (7,000 − 1,000) ÷ 1,000 × $25 = $150.

• Total for this workload. Essentials termination: $237.72. Non-Essentials termination: $189.62.

The second column uses the official rule that a non-Essentials session-ending Details request is charged as Enterprise + Atmosphere. It does not use the standalone Pro price. The columns can require different output fields, and their relative cost changes with request counts, abandonment, and other account usage. Choose the output your feature needs, then calculate its billing path.

Diagnose an unexpectedly high bill

Compare billed SKU counts with the operation ledger. A field change can move standalone Details requests to a higher tier; a session-ending request follows the session rule above. Reused or missing tokens and incomplete sessions change the Autocomplete event count. Photo requests, search pagination, and repeat detail views can add events beyond the initial user interaction.

Practical cost controls start with application behavior:

1. Keep field masks tied to each feature's actual display needs.
2. Request additional details when the interaction requires them.
3. Track usage by SKU so a field change is visible in the forecast.
4. Review quotas and monitor billing; Google Cloud budget notifications alone should not be treated as an application spending cutoff.
5. Check Google's storage and attribution policies before using caching as a cost-saving strategy.

These are implementation recommendations. They are separate from any guarantees about a particular application's final bill.

Choose a Google Places API alternative by output

A Google Places API alternative should be evaluated against the output your feature needs. Nearby search, geographic business discovery, and Google's own place details are different requirements.

• TomTom Nearby Search. Relevant task: Find POIs around coordinates. Difference to evaluate: POI coverage, categories, returned fields, and access terms.

• Foursquare Place Search. Relevant task: Search a places database by location and query. Difference to evaluate: Its identifiers, field coverage, and ranking behavior.

• Serper local search through Glasser. Relevant task: Retrieve local records for a place-oriented query. Difference to evaluate: A distinct operation and response contract; no assumption of Google Places API compatibility.

Compare a sample of your own locations and required fields before substituting a provider. A lower nominal price is unhelpful if the replacement cannot support the interface or data rights you need. These sources have not been benchmarked against one another here.

For a Glasser operation, inspect the current endpoint schema and price through its documented search → inspect → run workflow. The existence of a local-search operation does not imply that Google's free allowances or SDK behavior carry over to that operation.

If your main objective is building a business research list, the local business data guide compares those source types more broadly.

Questions about Places API pricing

Is Google Places API free without enabling billing?

Google requires billing and an API key or OAuth token for requests. Eligible free allowances can cover usage, but those setup requirements still apply.

Is “Google Maps Places API pricing” the same as the price of a map?

Places operations and map rendering can be billed separately. Estimate each service used; this guide covers selected Places API (New) operations.

Does a search charge once for every business returned?

The Google search SKUs covered here bill the search operation. Compare that unit carefully with providers that charge per returned business.