Place IDs

Place IDs uniquely identify a place in the Google Places database and on Google Maps.

Find the ID of a particular place

Are you looking for the place ID of a specific place? Use the place ID finder below to search for a place and get its ID:

Alternatively, you can view the place ID finder with its code in the Maps JavaScript API documentation.

Overview

A place ID is a textual identifier that uniquely identifies a place. The length of the identifier may vary (there is no maximum length for Place IDs). Examples:

  • ChIJgUbEo8cfqokR5lP9_Wh_DaM
  • GhIJQWDl0CIeQUARxks3icF8U8A
  • EicxMyBNYXJrZXQgU3QsIFdpbG1pbmd0b24sIE5DIDI4NDAxLCBVU0EiGhIYChQKEgnRTo6ixx-qiRHo_bbmkCm7ZRAN
  • EicxMyBNYXJrZXQgU3QsIFdpbG1pbmd0b24sIE5DIDI4NDAxLCBVU0E
  • IhoSGAoUChIJ0U6OoscfqokR6P225pApu2UQDQ

Place IDs are available for most locations, including businesses, landmarks, parks, and intersections. It is possible for the same place or location to have multiple different place IDs. Place IDs may change over time.

You can use the same place ID across the Places API and a number of Google Maps Platform APIs. For example, you can use the same place ID to reference a place in the Places API, the Maps JavaScript API, the Maps Geocoding API, the Maps Embed API and the Roads API.

Retrieve place details using the place ID

Place IDs are exempt from the caching restrictions stated in Section 3.2.3(b) of the Google Maps Platform Terms of Service. Once you've identified the place ID for a place, you may reuse that value the next time you look up that place. For more information, see Save place IDs for later use below.

A common way of using place IDs is to search for a place (using the Places API or the Places library in the Maps JavaScript API, for example) then use the returned place ID to retrieve place details. You can store the place ID and use it to retrieve the same place details later. Read about saving place IDs below.

Example using the Places API

Using the Places API, you can find a place ID by doing a Place Search request.

The following example is a search request for places of type 'restaurant' within a 1500m radius of a point in Sydney, Australia, containing the word 'cruise':

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/nearbysearch/json?location=-33.8670522,151.1957362&radius=1500&type=restaurant&keyword=cruise&key=YOUR_API_KEY

The response includes a place ID in the place_id field, as shown in this snippet:

{
  "html_attributions" : [],
  "results" : [
    {
      "geometry" : {
        "location" : {
          "lat" : -33.870775,
          "lng" : 151.199025
        }
      },
      ...
      "place_id" : "ChIJrTLr-GyuEmsRBfy61i59si0",
      ...
    }
  ],
  "status" : "OK"
}

For a description of all the fields in the response, see the Place Search documentation.

Now you can send a Place Details request, putting the place ID in the placeid parameter:

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/details/json?placeid=ChIJrTLr-GyuEmsRBfy61i59si0&key=YOUR_API_KEY

Save place IDs for later use

Place IDs are exempt from the caching restrictions stated in Section 3.2.3(a) of the Google Maps Platform Terms of Service. You can therefore store place ID values for later use.

Refreshing stored place IDs

We recommend refreshing place IDs if they are more than 12 months old. You can refresh Place IDs free of charge, by making a Place Details request, specifying only the place_id field in the fields parameter. This will trigger the Places Details - ID Refresh SKU. However, this request might also return NOT_FOUND status code. One strategy is to store the original request that returned each place ID. If a place ID becomes invalid, you can re-issue that request to get fresh results. These results may or may not include the original place. The request is chargeable.

Error codes when using place IDs

The INVALID_REQUEST status code indicates that the specified place ID is not valid. INVALID_REQUEST may be returned when the place ID has been truncated or otherwise modified, and is no longer correct.

The NOT_FOUND status code indicates that the specified place ID is obsolete. A place ID may become obsolete if a business closes or moves to a new location. Place IDs may change due to large-scale updates on the Google Maps database. In such cases, a place may receive a new place ID, and the old ID returns a NOT_FOUND response.

In particular, some types of place IDs may sometimes cause a NOT_FOUND response, or the API may return a different place ID in the response. These place ID types include:

  • Street addresses that do not exist in Google Maps as precise addresses, but are inferred from a range of addresses.
  • Segments of a long route, where the request also specifies a city or locality.
  • Intersections.
  • Places with an address component of type subpremise.

These IDs often take the form of a long string (there is no maximum length for Place IDs). For example:

EpID4LC14LC_4LCo4LCv4LGN4LCo4LCX4LCw4LGNIC0g4LC44LGI4LCm4LGN4LCs4LC-4LCm4LGNIOCwsOCxi-CwoeCxjeCwoeCxgSAmIOCwteCwv-CwqOCwr-CxjSDgsKjgsJfgsLDgsY0g4LCu4LGG4LCv4LC_4LCo4LGNIOCwsOCxi-CwoeCxjeCwoeCxgSwg4LC14LC_4LCo4LCv4LGNIOCwqOCwl-CwsOCxjSDgsJXgsL7gsLLgsKjgsYAsIOCwsuCwleCxjeCwt-CxjeCwruCwv-CwqOCwl-CwsOCxjSDgsJXgsL7gsLLgsKjgsYAsIOCwuOCwsOCxguCwsOCxjSDgsKjgsJfgsLDgsY0g4LC14LGG4LC44LGN4LCf4LGNLCDgsLjgsK_gsYDgsKbgsL7gsKzgsL7gsKbgsY0sIOCwueCxiOCwpuCwsOCwvuCwrOCwvuCwpuCxjSwg4LCk4LGG4LCy4LCC4LCX4LC-4LCjIDUwMDA1OSwg4LCt4LC-4LCw4LCk4LCm4LGH4LC24LCCImYiZAoUChIJ31l5uGWYyzsR9zY2qk9lDiASFAoSCd9ZebhlmMs7Efc2NqpPZQ4gGhQKEglDz61OZpjLOxHgDJCFY-o1qBoUChIJi37TW2-YyzsRr_uv50r7tdEiCg1MwFcKFS_dyy4