Google announced via their Geo Developers Blog on April 08, 2011 that as of October 2011 “Commercial” websites will be subject to usage limitations with payments required for usage beyond their limits:
We are also introducing transaction limits on the number of maps that
may be generated per day by commercial Maps API web sites or
applications. These limits are documented in the Maps API FAQ and will
take effect on October 1st 2011. Commercial sites that exceed these
limits may be required to purchase additional transactions or a Maps
API Premier license. Additional transactions will be offered online at
an affordable rate which will be published on or before May 2nd 2011.
The Google Maps API also includes details of these new limits:
From October 1st 2011 commercial web sites and applications using the
Maps API may at no cost generate:
- up to 2,500 maps per day that have
been modified using the Styled Maps feature- up to 25,000 maps per day
in totalIf your application qualifies for and exceeds these
transaction limits after October 1st 2011 you will need to respond in
one of the following ways in order to continue using the Maps API in
your application:
- Modify your Maps API application such that the
number of transactions generated per day is reduced to below the usage
limit;- Enrol for automated billing of excess transactions (pay as you
go); or- Purchase a Maps API Premier license
This raises several unanswered questions:
1) I have been unable to find the pricing details which the first blog post said would be available by May 2nd, 2011 — where is this documented, and what are the prices for sites which will exceed the new usage limits?
2) This new pricing structure sounds different from Google Maps Premier, is that correct?
3) I had a terribly confusing discussion with a Google salesman, who seemed to be of the opinion that Google Maps premier was more intended for bulk server operations from a single IP than for use on consumer-facing applications. Our application will draw a store-locator in end-user’s browsers; users will access it without paying (however we are “commercial” in that the site is ad-supported, for-profit). Is Google Maps Premier suitable for our usage?
4) The “basic” Google Maps Premier license affords only 1,000,000 maps per year for $10,000/yr. Whereas free-keys allow 9,125,000 unstyled maps or 912,500 styled maps per year. This seems terribly expensive for basically buying nothing other than an SLA and Technical Support–for our traffic we will likely need a much more expensive package which will almost certainly make Google Maps cost-prohibitive.
Unfortunately a new pricing review process was implemented at Google shortly after the usage limits announcement that prevented us from publishing the pricing on schedule (by May 2nd) as originally planned. We’re just wrapping up that process and hope to have the pricing published in about a week’s time.
The online pricing is quite different from Maps API Premier. It will set a price per map over the usage limits, and you only pay for what you use. However it will not be equivalent to a Maps API Premier license, but just permit you to generate traffic over the limits, but still under the free API Terms. It will not include Premier terms or any Premier features or quotas. If you need these things you will need to purchase Premier as normal.
Although free public sites are not obliged by the Terms to purchase Maps API Premier, many choose to do so for the additional benefits. These include support and an SLA as you say, but also significantly higher (~40x) web service quotas, larger Static Maps (2,048 x 2,048), larger distance matrices (up to 625 cells per matrix), more complex route optimisation, and a guaranteed opt-out of any future ads products.
Many thanks,
Thor.
(Product Manager, Google Maps API)