Directions API Usage and Billing

Pay-As-You-Go pricing

The Directions API uses a pay-as-you-go pricing model.

How usage and billing work under the pay-as-you-go model

  • The Google Maps Platform APIs are billed by SKU.
  • Usage is tracked for each Product SKU, and an API may have more than one Product SKU.
  • Cost is calculated by: SKU Usage x Price per each use.
  • For each billing account, for qualifying Google Maps Platform SKUs, a $200 USD Google Maps Platform credit is available each month, and automatically applied to the qualifying SKUs.

For more information, see Google Maps Platform Billing and Google Maps Platform Reporting.

Pricing for the Directions API

Under the pay-as-you-go pricing model, Directions API requests generate one of two SKUs depending on the type of request: basic or advanced.

SKU: Directions

A request to the Directions API or the Maps JavaScript API’s Directions Service (excludes requests triggering the Directions Advanced billing SKU).

MONTHLY VOLUME RANGE
(Price per QUERY)
0–100,000 100,001–500,000 500,000+
0.005 USD per each
(5.00 USD per 1000)		 0.004 USD per each
(4.00 USD per 1000)		 Contact Sales for volume pricing

SKU: Directions Advanced

A request to the Directions API or the Maps JavaScript API’s Directions Service that uses traffic information, more than 10 waypoints, waypoints optimization, and/or location modifiers.

MONTHLY VOLUME RANGE
(Price per QUERY)
0–100,000 100,001–500,000 500,000+
0.01 USD per each
(10.00 USD per 1000)		 0.008 USD per each
(8.00 USD per 1000)		 Contact Sales for volume pricing

A Directions Advanced SKU is charged for a Directions API request or a Maps JavaScript API’s Directions Service that uses one or more of the following:

  • Traffic information. Traffic information is used when all the following apply (these are the conditions required to receive the duration_in_traffic field in the Directions response):
    • The travel mode parameter is driving, or is not specified (driving is the default travel mode).
    • The request includes a valid departure_time parameter. The departure_time can be set to the current time or some time in the future. It cannot be in the past.
    • The request does not include stopover waypoints. If the request includes waypoints, prefix each waypoint with via: to influence the route but avoid stopovers. For example, 
      &waypoints=via:San Francisco|via:Mountain View|...
  • More than 10 waypoints (between 11 and 25).
  • Waypoints optimization. The optimize parameter is set to true for waypoints. For example, 
    &waypoints=optimize:true|San Francisco|Mountain View|...
  • Location modifiers. When you use the following location modifiers to indicate how drivers should approach a particular location:
    • side_of_road
    • heading

Other usage limits

While you are no longer limited to a maximum number of requests per day (QPD), the following usage limits are still in place for the Directions API:

Terms of Use restrictions

For information on terms of use, see policies for the Directions API, and the License Restrictions section of the Google Maps Platform Terms of Service.

Manage your cost of use

To manage your cost of use of the Google Maps Platform APIs, you can set daily quota limits on all requests to any billable API.

To view or change quota limits for the Directions API:

  1. In the Cloud Console, open the Google Maps Platform Quotas page.
  2. Click the APIs drop-down and select the Directions API.
  3. To view the quota limits, scroll down to the Requests card.
    A table lists the quota names and limits.
  4. To change a quota limit, click the Edit icon for that limit.
    In the dialog that appears, in the Quota Limit field, enter the preferred billable daily quota limit (up to the quota limit, if any, specified by Google) and click Save.

If your API usage reaches your billable quota limit on any given day, your application will not be able to access the API for the remainder of that day.