Google Places API key, pricing and cost: free tier, SKUs and the 5 reviews limit
The Google Places API is priced per field, not per call, and that single detail decides your bill. Asking for a place name costs $5.00 per 1,000 requests. Adding the reviews field to the same request moves it to Google's most expensive Places tier at $25.00 per 1,000, with only 1,000 free calls a month instead of 10,000. And you still get a maximum of five reviews. Below are the current SKU prices, the free allowance for each, how to create and restrict a key, and the limits worth knowing before you build.
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Most people pricing the Places API only want reviews on their own site. That is a script tag, not a metered integration.
The short version
What the Google Places API actually costs
Google replaced flat per-request pricing with per-feature SKUs. The fields you put in your field mask decide which SKU the call bills against, and the gap between the cheapest and the most expensive tier is five times.
$5.00
per 1,000 Essentials calls
Place Details Essentials covers identifiers, address and formatting. It carries the largest free allowance of any paid Places SKU at 10,000 calls a month.
$25.00
per 1,000 calls with reviews
The reviews field triggers Place Details Enterprise plus Atmosphere, Google's top Places tier, and drops the free allowance to 1,000 calls a month.
5
reviews, maximum, ever
Google's reference is explicit that a maximum of 5 reviews can be returned, sorted by relevance. No paid tier, parameter or workaround raises it.
Google Places API pricing
Every Places SKU, its price and its free monthly allowance
These are the list prices for the first volume band, which covers the first 100,000 monthly requests. The free allowance is per SKU per month and is deducted before billing.
| SKU | Price per 1,000 | Free calls per month | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place Details Essentials (IDs Only) | Free | Unlimited | Place ID resolution and nothing else |
| Place Details Essentials | $5.00 | 10,000 | Address components, formatting, basic identifiers |
| Place Details Pro | $17.00 | 5,000 | Location, viewport, types, business status |
| Place Details Enterprise | $20.00 | 1,000 | Phone number, opening hours, price level, website |
| Place Details Enterprise + Atmosphere | $25.00 | 1,000 | Reviews, rating, editorial summary |
| Nearby Search Pro | $32.00 | 5,000 | Places within a radius, Pro field set |
| Text Search Pro | $32.00 | 5,000 | Free-text place lookup, Pro field set |
| Text Search Enterprise | $35.00 | 1,000 | Free-text lookup with Enterprise fields |
| Text Search Enterprise + Atmosphere | $40.00 | 1,000 | The most expensive call in the Places catalog |
| Autocomplete Requests | $2.83 | 10,000 | Address and place prediction as the user types |
Autocomplete sessions that link Autocomplete requests to a following Place Details or Address Validation request are currently billed as free by Google, which is why session tokens are worth implementing properly.
Volume discounts kick in above 100,000 calls
Google applies the same discount curve to every Places SKU. Using the reviews SKU as the worked example, the price per 1,000 falls as monthly volume rises.
| Monthly requests | Enterprise + Atmosphere per 1,000 | Discount |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 100,000 | $25.00 | List price |
| 100,001 to 500,000 | $20.00 | 20 percent |
| 500,001 to 1,000,000 | $15.00 | 40 percent |
| 1,000,001 to 5,000,000 | $7.50 | 70 percent |
| Over 5,000,000 | $2.28 | About 91 percent |
What it costs in practice
Google Places API cost for a site that displays reviews
Because review content cannot be cached under the Maps Platform terms, a page that shows live Google reviews bills one Enterprise plus Atmosphere call per view. Traffic and cost move together, which surprises most teams the first month.
| Monthly page views showing reviews | Billable calls after the free 1,000 | Monthly Places API cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 10,000 | 9,000 | $225.00 |
| 50,000 | 49,000 | $1,225.00 |
| 100,000 | 99,000 | $2,475.00 |
Arithmetic on Google's published $25.00 per 1,000 list price with the 1,000 call monthly free allowance deducted. Caching the response to avoid the per-view call is what the Maps Platform terms prohibit for review content.
The comparison that matters
A site with 10,000 monthly views of a page carrying Google reviews pays roughly $225 a month to Google for five reviews per location, and still has to build the request layer, the field mask, the attribution and the fallback when the API is slow. A review widget renders the same reviews from a script tag for a flat monthly fee that does not move with traffic. The API earns its keep when reviews need to land somewhere other than a web page.
Google Places API key
How to get a Google Places API key, and how to restrict it
The key itself takes about four minutes. The restriction step is the one people skip, and it is the reason stolen keys show up as five figure bills.
1. Create a Cloud project
In the Google Cloud Console, create a project or pick an existing one. Keep Places work in its own project so the billing line is legible later.
2. Attach a billing account
A billing account with a valid payment method is required before any Places key returns data, even inside the free monthly allowance. There is no billing-free mode.
3. Enable Places API (New)
Enable it from the API library. New projects should use Places API (New), which is the version the SKU pricing above applies to.
4. Create and restrict the key
Credentials, then Create credentials, then API key. Restrict by HTTP referrer for browser calls or by IP for server calls, and limit the key to the Places API alone.
Set a quota, not just a budget alert
A Cloud budget alert emails you after the spend has happened. A per-API quota in the Cloud Console stops the requests. On a metered SKU where a loop or a bot can burn the monthly allowance in an afternoon, the quota is the control that actually caps exposure.
The limits nobody mentions until you have built it
Four Places API constraints worth knowing on day one
None of these are bugs. They are deliberate product decisions, and each one has ended a build that was already half finished.
Five reviews, sorted by relevance
The reference states a maximum of 5 reviews can be returned. There is no pagination, no offset and no sort parameter. You cannot buy your way past it, and you cannot request the newest five, only five that Google considers most relevant.
Review content cannot be warehoused
Place IDs are exempt from Google's caching restrictions and can be stored indefinitely. Names, ratings, reviews, photos and phone numbers are not exempt: they are meant to be requested live and shown with attribution, not copied into your own reviews table.
Attribution is mandatory
You must retrieve and display attributions for place details, photos and reviews. In practice that means the author avatar, the author name and a route back to the original review on Google, not just the review text on its own.
The field mask is the price tag
Places API (New) requires an explicit field mask, and the most expensive field in that mask sets the SKU for the whole call. Requesting reviews alongside an address turns a $5.00 call into a $25.00 call.
Pick the right tool
Places API, Business Profile API or a review widget
Three different jobs get confused with each other constantly. The business you are asking about, and where the reviews need to end up, decide which one you want.
| Places API | Business Profile API | Review widget | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whose reviews | Almost any business on Maps | Only profiles you own and verified | Your own, across several sources |
| How many reviews | 5 maximum | All of them, plus your replies | All the ones you choose to show |
| Cost shape | Per request, rises with traffic | No per-call charge once approved | Flat monthly, from $24/mo yearly |
| Setup | Cloud project, billing, key, field mask | Manual access application to Google | A script tag |
| Attribution handling | You build it | You build it | Handled for you |
| Best when | You need place data for somewhere you do not own | Reviews must reach a warehouse or dashboard | Reviews need to render on your own pages |
If you are still deciding between the two official APIs, the longer breakdown of approval requirements, quotas and export routes is on the Google Reviews API page, and the access application itself is covered on the Google Business Profile API page.
Questions people actually search
Google Places API pricing and limits, answered
It depends entirely on which fields you ask for. Google bills Place Details through four SKUs. Essentials is $5.00 per 1,000 requests, Pro is $17.00, Enterprise is $20.00, and Enterprise plus Atmosphere is $25.00. The field you request decides the SKU, so a single extra field can multiply your bill five times over.
Not really, though every SKU has a monthly free allowance. Place Details Essentials gives you 10,000 free calls a month, Pro gives 5,000, and both Enterprise tiers give only 1,000. Place Details Essentials IDs Only is genuinely unlimited and free. Past those caps you pay per request, and a billing account is required before any key works.
Create a project in the Google Cloud Console, attach a billing account, enable Places API (New) in the API library, then open Credentials and choose Create credentials followed by API key. Restrict the key immediately, by HTTP referrer for browser use or by IP for server use, and limit it to the Places API only.
Five. Google's Places API reference states that a maximum of 5 reviews can be returned, sorted by relevance. There is no pagination parameter, no offset and no way to raise the cap. If you need a full review history, the Places API is the wrong tool no matter how much you are willing to spend.
You cannot, and no paid tier changes it. The only official route to a complete review history is the Google Business Profile API, which works exclusively for locations you own and have verified. Scraping the rest from Google Maps breaks the Maps Platform terms and puts the API key and the Cloud project at risk.
No. The reference says reviews come back sorted by relevance, and there is no parameter to change the order. Teams who want a newest-first feed usually pull the five relevance-sorted reviews, then sort what they received by publish time locally, which produces a newest-first list of five reviews rather than the five newest reviews.
Only the place ID. Google exempts place IDs from its caching restrictions so you can store them indefinitely. Names, ratings, reviews, photos and phone numbers must be requested live and displayed with Google attribution rather than warehoused, which is the rule that catches teams who build a reviews table and let it age.
Almost always the field mask. Adding reviews, rating or an editorial summary to a request moves the entire call from the $5.00 Essentials SKU to the $25.00 Enterprise plus Atmosphere SKU. Because caching review content is not permitted, a page that shows reviews bills one call per view, so traffic and cost rise together.
Yes. Google requires a Cloud billing account with a valid payment method attached to the project before any Places API key returns data, even if you expect to stay inside the free monthly allowance. You can cap exposure with per-API quotas in the Cloud Console, which is safer than relying on a budget alert alone.
If the goal is reviews rendering on a page, a review widget is the direct answer. It is a script tag rather than an integration project, there is no API key, no field mask to get wrong and no per-request bill that scales with your traffic. The API is worth the effort when reviews need to reach a warehouse or an internal dashboard.
Keep reading
Related review API and widget pages
Google Reviews API
The two official Google review APIs compared: limits, approval and how to export reviews.
Google Business Profile API
Access requirements, the quota check that tells you if you were approved, and review endpoints.
Trustpilot API
Pricing, API keys, business unit IDs and what the free tier actually allows.
Google reviews widget
Put Google reviews on your site without a Cloud project or a metered API bill.
Places API alternatives
What to use instead when the five review cap or the per-request bill rules the API out.
Review API pricing compared
Google, Trustpilot, Yelp, TripAdvisor and G2 API costs side by side.
Reviews on your site, no API key
Show your Google reviews without a Cloud project, a field mask or a per-request bill that grows with your traffic.
From $24/mo, billed yearly. No per-review fees.