Autocomplete for Addresses and Search Terms

Note: Server-side libraries

This page describes the client-side library available with the Maps JavaScript API. If you want to work with the Places SDK web service on your server, take a look at the Node.js Client for Google Maps Services. The page at that link also introduces the Java Client, Python Client and Go Client for Google Maps Services.

Introduction

Autocomplete is a feature of the Places library in the Maps JavaScript API. You can use autocomplete to give your applications the type-ahead-search behavior of the Google Maps search field. When a user starts typing an address, autocomplete will fill in the rest.

Note: As defined by the Places SDK, a 'place' can be an establishment, a geographic location, or a prominent point of interest.

Getting started

Before using the Places library in the Maps JavaScript API, first ensure that the Places API is enabled in the Google Cloud Platform Console, in the same project you set up for the Maps JavaScript API.

To view your list of enabled APIs:

1. Go to the Google Cloud Platform Console.
2. Click the Select a project button, then select the same project you set up for the Maps JavaScript API and click Open.
3. From the list of APIs on the Dashboard, look for Places API.
4. If you see the API in the list, you’re all set. If the API is not listed, enable it:
   1. At the top of the page, select ENABLE API to display the Library tab. Alternatively, from the left side menu, select Library.
   2. Search for Places API, then select it from the results list.
   3. Select ENABLE. When the process finishes, Places API appears in the list of APIs on the Dashboard.

Loading the library

The Places service is a self-contained library, separate from the main Maps JavaScript API code. To use the functionality contained within this library, you must first load it using the libraries parameter in the Maps API bootstrap URL:

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=YOUR_API_KEY&libraries=places"></script>

See the Libraries Overview for more information.

Usage limits and policies

Quotas

For quota and pricing information, see the Usage and Billing documentation for the Places API.

Policies

Use of the Places Library, Maps JavaScript API must be in accordance with the policies described for the Places API.

From our Terms of Service

Display the required
logos and attributions

Respect Google's copyrights and attribution. Ensure that the logo and copyright notice are visible, and display the "powered by Google" logo if you're using data without a map.

Learn More

Summary of classes

The API offers two types of autocomplete widgets, which you can add via the Autocomplete and SearchBox classes respectively. In addition, you can use the AutocompleteService class to retrieve autocomplete results programmatically.

Below is a summary of the classes available:

• Autocomplete adds a text input field to your web page, and monitors that field for character entries. As the user enters text, autocomplete returns place predictions in the form of a dropdown pick list. When the user selects a place from the list, information about the place is returned to the autocomplete object, and can be retrieved by your application. See the details below.
• SearchBox adds a text input field to your web page, in much the same way as Autocomplete. The differences are as follows:
  • The main difference lies in the results that appear in the pick list. SearchBox supplies an extended list of predictions, which can include places (as defined by the Places SDK) plus suggested search terms. For example, if the user enters 'pizza in new', the pick list may include the phrase 'pizza in New York, NY' as well as the names of various pizza outlets.
  • SearchBox offers fewer options than Autocomplete for restricting the search. In the former, you can bias the search towards a given LatLngBounds. In the latter, you can restrict the search to a particular country and particular place types, as well as setting the bounds.
  See the details below.
• You can create an AutocompleteService object to retrieve predictions programmatically. Call getPlacePredictions() to retrieve matching places, or call getQueryPredictions() to retrieve matching places plus suggested search terms. Note: AutocompleteService does not add any UI controls. Instead, the above methods return an array of prediction objects. Each prediction object contains the text of the prediction, as well as reference information and details of how the result matches the user input. See the details below.

The rest of this page provides example use cases, and details on using the above classes.

How to use Autocomplete

This video shows you how to use Autocomplete, including demos and code samples.

Example: Autocomplete for address forms

Does your application include an address form, such as the shipping address for an online order, a credit card billing address, or a taxi booking form? Autocomplete can help users supply the details.

Hint: You can use Place Autocomplete even without a map. If you do show a map, it must be a Google map.

Figure 1 shows an autocomplete text field, and the pick list of place predictions supplied as the user enters the search query:

Figure 1: Autocomplete text field and pick list

Note: When you display predictions from Place Autocomplete, you must include the 'powered by Google' logo. This logo is included in the results list by default, as shown in the above example.

When the user selects an address from the pick list, your application can populate the address form:

Figure 2: Completed address form

See an address form in action: view example.

Read on to see how to add autocomplete to your web page.

Example: Autocomplete for map controls

Autocomplete is useful for prompting users for information as part of a map application, as shown in figure 3:

Figure 3: Autocomplete text field and pick list

See it in action: view example.

Read on to see how to add autocomplete to your web page.

Add Autocomplete for places and addresses

Autocomplete creates a text input field on your web page, supplies predictions of places in a UI pick list, and returns place details in response to a getPlace() request. Each entry in the pick list corresponds to a single place (as defined by the Places SDK).

The Autocomplete constructor takes two arguments:

• An HTML input element of type text. This is the input field that the autocomplete service will monitor and attach its results to.
• An options argument, which can contain the following properties:
  • An array of types specifies an explicit type or a type collection, as listed in the supported types below. If nothing is specified, all types are returned. In general only a single type is allowed. The exception is that you can safely mix the geocode and establishment types, but note that this will have the same effect as specifying no types. The supported types are:
    • geocode instructs the Places service to return only geocoding results, rather than business results.
    • address instructs the Places service to return only geocoding results with a precise address.
    • establishment instructs the Places service to return only business results.
    • the (regions) type collection instructs the Places service to return any result matching the following types:
      • locality
      • sublocality
      • postal_code
      • country
      • administrative_area1
      • administrative_area2
    • the (cities) type collection instructs the Places service to return results that match either locality or administrative_area3.
  • bounds is a google.maps.LatLngBounds object specifying the area in which to search for places. The results are biased towards, but not restricted to, places contained within these bounds.
  • strictBounds is a boolean specifying whether the API must return only those places that are strictly within the region defined by the given bounds. The API does not return results outside this region even if they match the user input.
  • componentRestrictions can be used to restrict results to specific groups. Currently, you can use componentRestrictions to filter by up to 5 countries. Countries must be passed as as a two-character, ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 compatible country code. Multiple countries must be passed as a list of country codes.
  • placeIdOnly can be used to instruct the Autocomplete widget to retrieve only Place IDs. On calling getPlace() on the Autocomplete object, the PlaceResult made available will only have the place id, types and name properties set. You can use the returned place ID with calls to the Places, Geocoding, Directions or Distance Matrix services.
    Note: The name property will contain the description from Places Autocomplete predictions. You can read more about the description in the Places Autocomplete documentation.

Set biases and search-area boundaries for Autocomplete

You can bias the autocomplete results to favor an approximate location or area, in the following ways:

• Set the bounds on creation of the Autocomplete object.
• Change the bounds on an existing Autocomplete.
• Set the bounds to the map's viewport.
• Restrict the search to the bounds.
• Restrict the search to a specific country.

Details are in the sections below.

Note: If you do not supply any bounds or a map viewport, the API will attempt to detect the user's location from their IP address, and will bias the results to that location. If you would prefer to have no location bias, set the bounds to encompass the whole world: (-90,-180),(90,180).

Set the bounds on creation of the Autocomplete object

The example below uses the bounds and types options to request businesses of type 'establishment,' favoring those within the specified geographic area.

var defaultBounds = new google.maps.LatLngBounds(
  new google.maps.LatLng(-33.8902, 151.1759),
  new google.maps.LatLng(-33.8474, 151.2631));

var input = document.getElementById('searchTextField');
var options = {
  bounds: defaultBounds,
  types: ['establishment']
};

autocomplete = new google.maps.places.Autocomplete(input, options);

Change the bounds of an existing Autocomplete

Call setBounds() to change the search area on an existing Autocomplete.

// Bias the autocomplete object to the user's geographical location,
// as supplied by the browser's 'navigator.geolocation' object.
function geolocate() {
  if (navigator.geolocation) {
    navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(function(position) {
      var geolocation = {
        lat: position.coords.latitude,
        lng: position.coords.longitude
      };
      var circle = new google.maps.Circle({
        center: geolocation,
        radius: position.coords.accuracy
      });
      autocomplete.setBounds(circle.getBounds());
    });
  }
}

View example.

Set the bounds to the map's viewport

Use bindTo() to bias the results to the map's viewport, even while that viewport changes.

autocomplete.bindTo('bounds', map);

Restrict the search to the bounds

Set the strictBounds option to restrict the results to the given bounds, even while the viewport changes.

autocomplete.setOptions({strictBounds: true})

View example.

Restrict the search to a specific country

Use the componentRestrictions option to restrict the autocomplete search to a particular country. The following code restricts the results to cities within France.

var input = document.getElementById('searchTextField');
var options = {
  types: ['(cities)'],
  componentRestrictions: {country: 'fr'}
};

autocomplete = new google.maps.places.Autocomplete(input, options);

The following example allows the user to choose a country, then restricts the autocomplete results to that country.

// Set the country restriction based on user input.
// Also center and zoom the map on the given country.
function setAutocompleteCountry() {
  var country = document.getElementById('country').value;
  if (country == 'all') {
    autocomplete.setComponentRestrictions({'country': []});
    map.setCenter({lat: 15, lng: 0});
    map.setZoom(2);
  } else {
    autocomplete.setComponentRestrictions({'country': country});
    map.setCenter(countries[country].center);
    map.setZoom(countries[country].zoom);
  }
  clearResults();
  clearMarkers();
}

View example.

The following example specifies a number of countries in the componentRestrictions option: view example.

Customize the placeholder text for Autocomplete

By default, the text field created by the autocomplete service contains standard placeholder text. To modify the text, set the placeholder attribute on the input element:

<input id="searchTextField" type="text" size="50" placeholder="Anything you want!">

Note: The default placeholder text is localized automatically. If you specify your own placeholder value, you must handle the localization of that value in your application. For information on how the Google Maps JavaScript API chooses the language to use, please read the documentation on localization.

Get place information from Autocomplete

When a user selects a place from the predictions attached to the autocomplete text field, the service fires a place_changed event. To get place details:

1. Create an event handler for the place_changed event, and call addListener() on the Autocomplete object to add the handler.
2. Call Autocomplete.getPlace() on the Autocomplete object, to retrieve a PlaceResult object, which you can then use to get more information about the selected place.

By default, when a user selects a place, autocomplete returns all of the available data fields for the selected place, and you will be billed accordingly. Use Autocomplete.setFields() to specify which place data fields to return. Read more about the PlaceResult object, including a list of place data fields that you can request.

IMPORTANT: To avoid paying for data that you don't need, be sure to use Autocomplete.setFields() to specify only the place data that you will use.

You can request the place_id for a place, free of charge. To do this, you can either:

• Call Autocomplete.setFields(), and specify the place_id field.
• Use the placeIdOnly option to return only the place_id, types and name for the selected place. When this option is used, no other place details are returned.

The name property contains the description from Places Autocomplete predictions. You can read more about the description in the Places Autocomplete documentation.

For address forms, it is useful to get the address in structured format. To return the structured address for the selected place, call Autocomplete.setFields() and specify the structured_address field.

The following example uses autocomplete to fill the fields in an address form.

function fillInAddress() {
  // Get the place details from the autocomplete object.
  var place = autocomplete.getPlace();

  for (var component in componentForm) {
    document.getElementById(component).value = '';
    document.getElementById(component).disabled = false;
  }

  // Get each component of the address from the place details
  // and fill the corresponding field on the form.
  for (var i = 0; i < place.address_components.length; i++) {
    var addressType = place.address_components[i].types[0];
    if (componentForm[addressType]) {
      var val = place.address_components[i][componentForm[addressType]];
      document.getElementById(addressType).value = val;
    }
  }
}

View example.

Add SearchBox for autocompleting search terms

By default, when a user selects a place, SearchBox returns all of the available data fields for the selected place, and you will be billed accordingly. There is no way to constrain SearchBox requests to only return specific fields. To keep from requesting (and paying for) data that you don't need, use the Autocomplete widget instead.

The SearchBox allows users to perform a text-based geographic search, such as 'pizza in New York' or 'shoe stores near robson street'. You can attach the SearchBox to a text field and, as text is entered, the service will return predictions in the form of a drop-down pick list.

SearchBox supplies an extended list of predictions, which can include places (as defined by the Places SDK) plus suggested search terms. For example, if the user enters 'pizza in new', the pick list may include the phrase 'pizza in New York, NY' as well as the names of various pizza outlets. When a user selects a place from the list, information about that place is returned to the SearchBox object, and can be retrieved by your application.

Note: When you display predictions from the Google Places search box, you must include the 'powered by Google' logo. This logo is included in the results list by default, for your convenience.

The SearchBox constructor takes two arguments:

• An HTML input element of type text. This is the input field that the SearchBox service will monitor and attach its results to.
• An options argument, which can contain the bounds property: bounds is a google.maps.LatLngBounds object specifying the area in which to search for places. The results are biased towards, but not restricted to, places contained within these bounds.

The following code uses the bounds parameter to bias the results towards places within a particular geographic area, specified via laitude/longitude coordinates.

var defaultBounds = new google.maps.LatLngBounds(
  new google.maps.LatLng(-33.8902, 151.1759),
  new google.maps.LatLng(-33.8474, 151.2631));

var input = document.getElementById('searchTextField');

var searchBox = new google.maps.places.SearchBox(input, {
  bounds: defaultBounds
});

Change the search area for SearchBox

To change the search area for an existing SearchBox, call setBounds() on the SearchBox object and pass the relevant LatLngBounds object.

View example.

Get SearchBox information

When the user selects an item from the predictions attached to the search box, the service fires a places_changed event. You can call getPlaces() on the SearchBox object, to retrieve an array containing several predictions, each of which is a PlaceResult object.

For more information about the PlaceResult object, refer to the documentation on place detail results.

// Listen for the event fired when the user selects a prediction and retrieve
// more details for that place.
searchBox.addListener('places_changed', function() {
  var places = searchBox.getPlaces();

  if (places.length == 0) {
    return;
  }

  // Clear out the old markers.
  markers.forEach(function(marker) {
    marker.setMap(null);
  });
  markers = [];

  // For each place, get the icon, name and location.
  var bounds = new google.maps.LatLngBounds();
  places.forEach(function(place) {
    if (!place.geometry) {
      console.log("Returned place contains no geometry");
      return;
    }
    var icon = {
      url: place.icon,
      size: new google.maps.Size(71, 71),
      origin: new google.maps.Point(0, 0),
      anchor: new google.maps.Point(17, 34),
      scaledSize: new google.maps.Size(25, 25)
    };

    // Create a marker for each place.
    markers.push(new google.maps.Marker({
      map: map,
      icon: icon,
      title: place.name,
      position: place.geometry.location
    }));

    if (place.geometry.viewport) {
      // Only geocodes have viewport.
      bounds.union(place.geometry.viewport);
    } else {
      bounds.extend(place.geometry.location);
    }
  });
  map.fitBounds(bounds);
});

View example.

Style the Autocomplete and SearchBox widgets

By default, the UI elements provided by Autocomplete and SearchBox are styled for inclusion on a Google map. You may want to adjust the styling to suit your own site. The following CSS classes are available. All classes listed below apply to both the Autocomplete and the SearchBox widgets.

CSS classes for Autocomplete and SearchBox widgets

CSS class	Description
pac-container	The visual element containing the list of predictions returned by the Place Autocomplete service. This list appears as a dropdown list below the Autocomplete or SearchBox widget.
pac-icon	The icon displayed to the left of each item in the list of predictions.
pac-item	An item in the list of predictions supplied by the Autocomplete or SearchBox widget.
pac-item:hover	The item when the user hovers their mouse pointer over it.
pac-item-selected	The item when the user selects it via the keyboard. Note: Selected items will be a member of this class and of the pac-item class.
pac-item-query	A span inside a pac-item that is the main part of the prediction. For geographic locations, this contains a place name, like 'Sydney', or a street name and number, like '10 King Street'. For text-based searches such as 'pizza in New York', it contains the full text of the query. By default, the pac-item-query is colored black. If there is any additional text in the pac-item, it is outside pac-item-query and inherits its styling from pac-item. It is colored gray by default. The additional text is typically an address.
pac-matched	The part of the returned prediction that matches the user’s input. By default, this matched text is highlighted in bold text. Note that the matched text may be anywhere within pac-item. It is not necessarily part of pac-item-query, and it could be partly within pac-item-query as well as partly in the remaining text in pac-item.

Retrieve predictions from the autocomplete service

To retrieve predictions programmatically, use the AutocompleteService class. AutocompleteService does not add any UI controls. Instead, it returns an array of prediction objects, each containing the text of the prediction, reference information, and details of how the result matches the user input. This is useful if you want more control over the user interface than is offered by the Autocomplete and SearchBox described above.

AutocompleteService exposes the following methods:

• getPlacePredictions() returns place predictions. Note: A 'place' can be an establishment, geographic location, or prominent point of interest, as defined by the Places API.
• getQueryPredictions() returns an extended list of predictions, which can include places (as defined by the Places API) plus suggested search terms. For example, if the user enters 'pizza in new', the pick list may include the phrase 'pizza in New York, NY' as well as the names of various pizza outlets.

Both of the above methods return an array of prediction objects of the following form:

• description is the matched prediction.
• matched_substrings contains a set of substrings in the description that match elements in the user's input. This is useful for highlighting those substrings in your application. In many cases, the query will appear as a substring of the description field.
  • length is the length of the substring.
  • offset is the character offset, measured from the beginning of the description string, at which the matched substring appears.
• place_id is a textual identifier that uniquely identifies a place. To retrieve information about the place, pass this identifier in the placeId field of a Place Details request. Learn more about how to reference a place with a place ID.
• terms is an array containing elements of the query. For a place, each element will typically make up a portion of the address.
  • offset is the character offset, measured from the beginning of the description string, at which the matched substring appears.
  • value is the matching term.

The example below executes a query prediction request for the phrase 'pizza near' and displays the result in a list.

// This example retrieves autocomplete predictions programmatically from the
// autocomplete service, and displays them as an HTML list.

// This example requires the Places library. Include the libraries=places
// parameter when you first load the API. For example:
// <script src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=YOUR_API_KEY&libraries=places">

function initService() {
  var displaySuggestions = function(predictions, status) {
    if (status != google.maps.places.PlacesServiceStatus.OK) {
      alert(status);
      return;
    }

    predictions.forEach(function(prediction) {
      var li = document.createElement('li');
      li.appendChild(document.createTextNode(prediction.description));
      document.getElementById('results').appendChild(li);
    });
  };

  var service = new google.maps.places.AutocompleteService();
  service.getQueryPredictions({ input: 'pizza near Syd' }, displaySuggestions);
}

<div id="right-panel">
  <p>Query suggestions for 'pizza near Syd':</p>
  <ul id="results"></ul>
</div>

/* Always set the map height explicitly to define the size of the div
 * element that contains the map. */
#map {
  height: 100%;
}
/* Optional: Makes the sample page fill the window. */
html, body {
  height: 100%;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
}

#right-panel {
  font-family: 'Roboto','sans-serif';
  line-height: 30px;
  padding-left: 10px;
}

#right-panel select, #right-panel input {
  font-size: 15px;
}

#right-panel select {
  width: 100%;
}

#right-panel i {
  font-size: 12px;
}

<!-- Replace the value of the key parameter with your own API key. -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=AIzaSyCkUOdZ5y7hMm0yrcCQoCvLwzdM6M8s5qk&libraries=places&callback=initService"
    async defer></script>

// This example retrieves autocomplete predictions programmatically from the
// autocomplete service, and displays them as an HTML list.

// This example requires the Places library. Include the libraries=places
// parameter when you first load the API. For example:
// <script src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=YOUR_API_KEY&libraries=places">

function initService() {
  var displaySuggestions = function(predictions, status) {
    if (status != google.maps.places.PlacesServiceStatus.OK) {
      alert(status);
      return;
    }

    predictions.forEach(function(prediction) {
      var li = document.createElement('li');
      li.appendChild(document.createTextNode(prediction.description));
      document.getElementById('results').appendChild(li);
    });
  };

  var service = new google.maps.places.AutocompleteService();
  service.getQueryPredictions({ input: 'pizza near Syd' }, displaySuggestions);
}

View example.

Session tokens

AutocompleteService.getPlacePredictions() can use session tokens to group together autocomplete requests for billing purposes. A session consists of the keystrokes used to resolve user input to a place. When a session token is passed (using the optional sessionToken parameter), autocomplete requests are billed once, after a full autocomplete result is returned. If the sessiontoken parameter is omitted, each request is billed independently. See the pricing sheet for details.

You can use the same session token to make a single Place Details request on the place that results from a call to AutocompleteService.getPlacePredictions(). In this case, the autocomplete request is combined with the Place Details request, and the call is charged as a regular Place Details request (the autocomplete request is free).

The following example shows creating a session token, then passing it in an AutocompleteService (the displaySuggestions() function has been omitted for brevity):

// Create a new session token.
var sessionToken = new google.maps.places.AutocompleteSessionToken();

// Pass the token to the autocomplete service.
var autocompleteService = new google.maps.places.AutocompleteService();
autocompleteService.getPlacePredictions({
  input: 'pizza near Syd',
  sessionToken: sessionToken
},
displaySuggestions);

Warning: Be sure to pass a unique session token for each new session. Using the same token for more than one session will result in each request being billed individually. Note that the Autocomplete Widget handles sessions automatically (you don't need to do anything additional).