Google Places API pricing, and an alternative billed per place
You want local businesses from Google Maps in a script, a spreadsheet, n8n or an AI agent: name, address, phone, website, rating and opening hours. The official route is the Google Places API. Here is what it costs and what it limits, read from Google's documentation on 2026-10-18, and when a per-place export on Apify is the simpler choice.
Google Places API (New): what a business search costs
Text Search (New) is billed per request, by SKU, and the SKU depends on the fields you ask for (Text Search documentation, pricing page):
| SKU | Triggered by | Free calls per month | Price per 1,000 calls (first tier) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text Search Pro | name, address, location, types | 5,000 | $32.00 |
| Text Search Enterprise | phone number, website, rating, number of ratings, opening hours | 1,000 | $35.00 |
| Text Search Enterprise + Atmosphere | reviews and other atmosphere fields | 1,000 | $40.00 |
One request returns at most 20 places, and Google states that Text Search (New) returns a maximum of 60 results across all pages for one search. To list every plumber in a large city you split the area into many small searches and remove the duplicates yourself.
The Places API policies also say: "You must not pre-fetch, cache, or store Places API content beyond the allowed exceptions"; the place ID is the exception you may store indefinitely (Places API policies). A lead list kept in a CRM is storage: read those terms before you build one on the API.
The alternative: one row per business, billed per place
Google Maps Businesses Scraper on Apify takes what you would type in Google Maps ("plumber in Austin, TX", "dentiste Paris 75011") and returns one row per business: name, categories, full address, coordinates, phone, website, rating, number of reviews, rating distribution, opening hours, price level, claimed status, place ID and Google Maps URL. It reads Google Maps search results through a commercial search data API, so you need no Google Cloud project and no billing account with Google.
- Up to about 700 places per search instead of 60, in any country, with an optional point and zoom level.
- Filters that cost nothing: minimum rating, with or without a website, phone required. Places removed by a filter are not billed, and neither is a search that finds nothing.
- Export to CSV, JSON or Excel, or call it from n8n, Make, Zapier or an MCP client.
| Fee | Starter plan | Business plan |
|---|---|---|
| Per place returned | $0.0015 | $0.001 |
Example: 1,000 businesses with phone, website and rating cost about $1.50 on the Starter plan ($19 per month with $19 of usage included, apify.com/pricing); the free Apify plan is enough to test it. Every fee is on the Actor's Pricing tab.
When the Google Places API is the better choice
- You show places on a Google Map inside your own app, with autocomplete and live details: that is what the API is built for.
- Your volume fits in the free monthly calls: 1,000 Enterprise calls of 20 places each can be enough for a small project, if 60 results per search are enough for you.
- You need Google's own attribution and an SLA under the Google Maps Platform terms.
When a per-place export is the better choice
- You build lead lists, market maps or competitor lists and want more than 60 businesses per search, in a file you keep.
- You want filters that are free (minimum rating, with or without a website, phone required), and to pay only for the places you keep.
- You do not want to set up a Google Cloud project, API keys and a billing account for a one-off export.
Competitor facts checked on 2026-10-18 from the linked pages; prices change, check them before you decide.