Google maps services are now more expensive and will limit you more!
Recently, clients have started contacting us en masse with questions about Google maps because they have noticed problems with their display and functionality. What happened?
Some time ago, Google mentioned that it planned to start making more money from its maps. Since May this year, that plan has taken on a slightly more realistic form, with new pricing coming into effect in June.
What has changed?
The roughly 18 individual APIs have been combined into three branches: Maps, Routes and Places. And these three parts together make up the whole, now called the Google Maps Platform. You probably use Maps primarily on your site. The Standard and Premium plans that have worked so far have been merged into one plan, called pay-as-you-go.
What does this mean?
A pay-as-you-go system should ensure that you only pay for what you actually use. However… To access the Google Maps API you must have a newly created Google Cloud Platform account for payments, as well as a registered credit card. This also applies to users who won’t have to pay anything at the end, as their map usage will remain under the set limits. While the regular iframe map (i.e. the map you want to use for your web page embedded with an iframe HTML element) and the native mobile maps (iOS and Android) directly integrated into the app using an external library from Google will be free and unlimited, you will also need to have a registered payment account to use them.
How much will this cost me?
There’s no need to panic, because if you haven’t paid for the service up to now, you probably will. Otherwise, you’re probably going to blow a lot of air in your wallet. Google hasn’t made any direct price comparisons available yet, but some developers are projecting up to a 1400% price increase. It’s comforting to know that you’ll get a $200 credit from Google each month. If you use up that credit, the amount you go over budget will automatically be charged to your card.
Limits to use for free?
Basically, the paid model works by paying for the number of calls you make to the API. Given that Google will give you $200 each month for free API calls, this should be enough to:
- up to 28,000 free dynamic map loads or
- up to 100,000 free static map loads or
- up to 14,000 dynamic street view calls
How to make sure you don’t pay a fortune
To get a better idea of your payments and account movements, set up daily limits or notifications, ideally with a card set up specifically for this purpose. It’s also worth calculating (at least estimating) whether switching to a new payment plan will be worthwhile. You can easily do this in the payment calculator. Check out the new price list here.
Is there a solution?
The official statement doesn’t explain what happens to existing implementations if you don’t set up a Google Cloud Platform account. Realistically, however, you have several options to resolve the situation:
Set limits for free usage
In the Google Maps dashboard, you can set a daily limit on map views on your site to avoid unexpectedly high costs. If the number of free views is 28,000 per month, that works out to 900 views per day. If you exceed this number of views per day, the map will be blocked until the next day.
Negotiate terms
Does it not make sense for you to set limits due to the high traffic on the site? Try contacting a Google Maps sales representative to negotiate better terms.
Remove the map from your site
Even if you remove the map, you can include a link to Google Maps, this is where users can find you and how to reach you.
Go to the competition
There are several competing services. Some are free (Seznam and its Mapy.cz or OpenStreetMap), others you pay for when you exceed the limit (Bing Maps, Here Maps, TomTom, Mapbox or MapTiles), but certainly not as much as with Google’s new pricing.
You see, nothing is lost and you still have many options to resolve this unpleasant situation. If you want everything to work as it should on your site, contact us and we’ll take care of everything.