Google changes the price model for Maps, Routes and Places

With the new price model, you get $200 worth of free pageviews every month. If your credit card expires, your Google maps will stop working on your website. You should set a calendar reminder to update the expiry date every time you get a new credit card.

When you use the Google Map widget, you are subject to two separate licenses, with two different price models:

Your use of Google’s map data on your website is tracked and charged for by Google, once for every pageview, with a generous free monthly allowance.
Your one-time license fee for SpreadsheetConverter includes unlimited use of the Google Maps widget – forever.

Google recently simplified their price model for Maps, Routes and Places. One major change is that there is now an overall monthly usage credit of $200 for all your use of the Maps, Routes and Places APIs.

At the same time, Google tightened their restrictions for when they won’t show a map at all. Most importantly, you must now ensure that you always provide a valid credit card that has not expired.

What to do if your maps don't appear correctly

Screenshot of a Google Map that cannot be loaded because of problems with the Google API key

How it looks on the website

If your credit card becomes invalid or expired, your website visitors will get this message for each Google Map pageview from your website. Your right to use Google map data is not in any way limited by us, and there is nothing we can do to prevent this situation, or alert you of it.

The remedy

We suggest that you make a note in your calendar or todo-list on the first of the month when each of your credit cards expires. Create a list of the services that you pay for with each card. You must go through all of these services every time you get a replacement card to provide the new expiry date for the card to each service.

With this simple change, we believe most users are likely to be unaffected by the new price model for Google Maps.