Google Maps Platform Billing

Billing overview for Google Maps Platform products

  • Usage is tracked for each Product SKU.
  • A SKU is the combination of the Product API + the service or function called (for example, Places API - Place Details).
  • A product may have multiple SKUs billed at different rates (for example, Places API - Place Details; Places API - Autocomplete - Per Request).
  • SKU pricing is tiered, based on volume of use.
  • Cost is calculated by SKU Usage x Price per each use.

For each billing account, for qualifying Google Maps Platform SKUs, a $200 USD Google Maps Platform credit is available each month (which resets the first day of each month, at midnight Pacific time), and automatically applied to the qualifying SKUs.

When you view your billing report, each line item lists Cost Before Credit, Credit, and Cost After Credit.

Pay-as-you-go pricing

Google Maps Platform uses a pay-as-you-go pricing model. This page helps you understand the details of the pricing model and how usage charges are calculated for each API and SDK.

Assistance from Google

Google Cloud No-charge Trial

Google Cloud offers a trial where you can use up to $300 at no-charge. For more information, see Google Cloud Trial Program. The trial applies toward the first billing account you create.

During the trial, your first Cloud Billing account is in trial mode and no charges will be made against your payment method. The trial ends after the trial period elapses, or when the $300 is spent, whichever happens first.

On or before the trial ends, you must upgrade your first Cloud Billing account to a paid account to avoid any disruptions to your Google Maps Platform usage (see Upgrading to a paid account).

Google Maps Platform monthly credit

A screenshot showing the monthly Google Maps Platform credit

Google Maps Platform features a recurring $200 monthly credit (see Pricing). The monthly credit applies towards each Maps-related billing account you create. This monthly credit resets on the first day of each month, at midnight Pacific time.

On the Google Maps Platform overview page in the Google Cloud Console, you can see how your billing compares to the monthly credit amount.

A Maps-related billing account is any Cloud Billing account that includes projects with Google Maps Platform APIs or SDKs enabled; or more specifically, projects with activity that results in charges for qualifying Google Maps Platform SKUs (see Billing overview for Google Maps Platform products).

First account

If the first Cloud Billing account you create is used for a project with Google Maps Platform APIs or SDKs enabled, both the Google Cloud Platform $300 trial and the Google Maps Platform recurring $200 monthly credit apply.

This is how it works: During the trial, charges are first deducted from the Google Maps Platform recurring $200 monthly credit. If charges exceed $200 in a given month, the exceeded amount is deducted from any amount remaining from the Google Cloud Platform $300 trial.

As noted above, on or before the trial ends, you must upgrade your first Cloud Billing account to a paid account. Once you have upgraded, the $200 monthly credit will continue to be applied to your Cloud Billing account, even after the trial ends.

Multiple accounts

Creating multiple Maps-related Cloud Billing accounts is a violation of the Google Maps Platform Terms of Service.

Additional credits

Additional Google Maps Platform credits are available through Google public programs that support nonprofit, startup, crisis response, news media, and academic organizations.

If you have additional credits remaining for the month, you can see the following diagram by selecting your billing account on the Billing page in the Cloud Console.

Google Maps Platform additional credits

Nonprofit, crisis response, and news media organization grants

We’re expanding Google Maps Platform availability for Google public programs that support nonprofit, startup, crisis response, and news media organizations. Existing Google for Nonprofit users who are currently receiving Google Maps Platform grants will transition to Google Maps Platform credits.

See Public Programs to learn how to apply for Google Maps Platform credits.

Manage billing in the Cloud Console

Manage billing

  1. Select a project in the Cloud Console:

    Go to the Billing page

  2. Perform the following management tasks:

    • See an overview of your billing account, make payments, and add billing account administrators from the Overview page. We recommend having multiple Project Owners and Billing Administrators, so that you'll always have someone with these roles available to your team.
    • Create budgets and alerts on the Budgets & alerts page.
    • View your transaction history and download invoices from the Transactions page.
    • Export your billing data from the Billing export page.
    • Configure your payment account and contacts on the Payment settings page.
    • Set the method of payment on the Payment method page.

Create budgets and set alerts

You can create a budget for a Cloud project to avoid surprises on your bill and monitor all of your Cloud charges from one place. With a budget, you can create alerts that send emails to your billing administrators when charges exceed a certain amount.

Console

To create a budget and set alerts in a Cloud project:

  • In the Cloud Console, go to the Billing page:

    Go to the Billing page
  • Select Budgets & alerts and then Create budget to begin creating a budget for your Cloud project.
  • Define your budget in the Set budget section and specify the percentages for which you want to receive email alerts in the following Set budget alerts section.
  • Select Finish to set the budget and enable alerts for your Cloud project. If you have multiple Cloud projects, you must individually set budgets and alerts in each project.

gcloud

Enable the necessary API to create a billing budget.

gcloud services enable \
    --project "PROJECT" \
    billingbudgets.googleapis.com

Set a budget to alert at 50% actual spend and again at 75% of forecasted spend.

gcloud billing budgets create \
    --project "PROJECT" \
    --billing-account="BILLING_ACCOUNT" \
    --display-name="BUDGET_NAME" \
    --budget-amount=AMOUNTUSD \
    --threshold-rule=percent=0.5 \
    --threshold-rule=percent=0.75,basis=forecasted-spend

Read more about the Google Cloud SDK , Cloud SDK installation , and the following commands: