Maps Experience agent tools release notes

This page lists release notes for Maps Experience agent tools (formerly Maps Grounding Lite).

November 11, 2026

General availability and REST

  • Pro options are generally available to all Google Cloud projects. The Pro options for search_places and compute_routes no longer require a project on an allowlist. For details, see Essentials and Pro.
  • Added a REST method for every tool, such as POST https://mapstools.googleapis.com/v1:searchText for search_places. For details, see Call the tools with REST.

Search along route (search_along_route)

  • Added the search_along_route tool to find places along a travel route from a natural language query.
    • Specify a route using a retrieval_token from a prior compute_routes call, route_endpoints (origin and destination), or an encoded_polyline.
    • Returns an AI-generated summary, a ranked results[] list pairing each place with its detourSummary (localizedDetourDistance and detourDuration), and a contentToken for displaying the places with Places UI Kit at no additional cost.
    • Supports DRIVE, WALK, and BICYCLE travel modes, traffic-aware routing (ROUTING_PREFERENCE_TRAFFIC_AWARE_OPTIMAL), and extended place details (include_extended_details).
  • Updated compute_routes to return a retrievalToken (valid for 10 minutes) on DRIVE routes so that agents can chain compute_routes and search_along_route.
  • Every search_along_route request is billed under the Maps Grounding Pro SKU.

Environmental capabilities in lookup_weather

  • Expanded lookup_weather to support multi-domain environmental queries across weather, air quality, and pollen through the capabilities parameter (WEATHER, AIR_QUALITY, and POLLEN):
    • Weather (WEATHER): Adds up to 24 hours of hourly weather history (when both date and hour are set) alongside current conditions and up to 10-day hourly and daily forecasts, plus weather_options.units_system and language_code. Billed under the Maps Grounding Essentials SKU.
    • Air quality (AIR_QUALITY): Returns hourly Air Quality Index (AQI) values (Universal AQI and local AQI using air_quality_options.index_region_code), optional pollutant concentrations (air_quality_options.include_pollutant_concentration), and health recommendations. Current conditions and hourly forecasts up to 4 days (96 hours) are billed under the Maps Grounding Essentials SKU. Historical air quality up to 30 days (720 hours) in the past is a Pro option billed under the Maps Grounding Pro SKU.
    • Pollen (POLLEN): Returns daily pollen forecasts for up to 5 days, starting today, including Tree, Grass, and Weed category indexes, health recommendations, and allergenic plant species details. Billed under the Maps Grounding Pro SKU.

Pricing

October 28, 2026

  • Renamed Maps Grounding Lite to Maps Experience agent tools, and renamed the Maps Grounding Lite SKU to Maps Grounding Essentials.
  • Introduced Pro options (Restricted GA) for search_places (include_extended_details and page_size from 6 to 10) and compute_routes (ROUTING_PREFERENCE_TRAFFIC_AWARE_OPTIMAL and 11 to 25 intermediate_waypoints), plus BICYCLE and TRANSIT travel modes, departure_time and arrival_time, compute_alternative_routes, include_polyline, and location_bias.
  • Launched the agentic data visualization token (Preview), returned in contentToken to display grounded places with Places UI Kit in the Maps JavaScript API at no additional cost.