Text Search (New)

A Text Search (New) returns information about a set of places based on a string — for example "pizza in New York" or "shoe stores near Ottawa" or "123 Main Street". The service responds with a list of places matching the text string and any location bias that has been set.

The service is especially useful for making ambiguous address queries in an automated system, and non-address components of the string may match businesses as well as addresses. Examples of ambiguous address queries are poorly-formatted addresses or requests that include non-address components such as business names. Requests like the first two examples below may return zero results unless a location — such as region, location restriction, or location bias — is set.

"10 High Street, UK" or "123 Main Street, US" Multiple "High Street"s in the UK; multiple "Main Street"s in the US. Query doesn't return desirable results unless a location restriction is set.
"ChainRestaurant New York" Multiple "ChainRestaurant" locations in New York; no street address or even street name.
"10 High Street, Escher UK" or "123 Main Street, Pleasanton US" Only one "High Street" in the UK city of Escher; only one "Main Street" in the US city of Pleasanton CA.
"UniqueRestaurantName New York" Only one establishment with this name in New York; no street address needed to differentiate.
"pizza restaurants in New York" This query contains its location restriction, and "pizza restaurants" is a well-defined place type. It returns multiple results.

Text Search requests

A Text Search request is an HTTP POST request of the following form:

https://places.googleapis.com/v1/places:searchText

Pass all parameters in the JSON request body or in headers as part of the POST request. For example:

curl -X POST -d '{
  "textQuery" : "Spicy Vegetarian Food in Sydney, Australia"
}' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'X-Goog-Api-Key: API_KEY' \
-H 'X-Goog-FieldMask: places.displayName,places.formattedAddress,places.priceLevel' \
'https://places.googleapis.com/v1/places:searchText'

Text Search (New) responses

Text Search (New) returns a JSON object as a response. In the response:

  • The places array contains all matching places.
  • Each place in the array is represented by a Place object. The Place object contains detailed information about a single place.
  • The FieldMask passed in the request specifies the list of fields returned in the Place object.

The complete JSON object is in the form:

{
  "places": [
    {
      object (Place)
    }
  ]
}

Required parameters

  • FieldMask

    Specify the list of fields to return in the response by creating a response field mask. Pass the response field mask to the method by using the URL parameter $fields or fields, or by using the HTTP header X-Goog-FieldMask. There is no default list of returned fields in the response. If you omit the field mask, the method returns an error.

    Field masking is a good design practice to ensure that you don't request unnecessary data, which helps to avoid unnecessary processing time and billing charges.

    Specify a comma-separated list of place data types to return. For example, to retrieve the display name and the address of the place.

    X-Goog-FieldMask: places.displayName,places.formattedAddress

    Use * to retrieve all fields.

    X-Goog-FieldMask: *

    Specify one or more of the following fields:

    • The following fields trigger the Text Search (ID Only) SKU:

      places.id, places.name*

      * The places.name field contains the place resource name in the form: places/PLACE_ID. Use places.displayName to access the text name of the place.

    • The following fields trigger the Text Search (Basic) SKU:

      places.accessibilityOptions, places.addressComponents, places.adrFormatAddress, places.businessStatus, places.displayName, places.formattedAddress, places.googleMapsUri, places.iconBackgroundColor, places.iconMaskBaseUri, places.location, places.photos, places.plusCode, places.primaryType, places.primaryTypeDisplayName, places.shortFormattedAddress, places.subDestinations, places.types, places.utcOffsetMinutes, places.viewport

    • The following fields trigger the Text Search (Advanced) SKU:

      places.currentOpeningHours, places.currentSecondaryOpeningHours, places.internationalPhoneNumber, places.nationalPhoneNumber, places.priceLevel, places.rating, places.regularOpeningHours, places.regularSecondaryOpeningHours, places.userRatingCount, places.websiteUri

    • The following fields trigger the Text Search (Preferred) SKU:

      places.allowsDogs, places.curbsidePickup, places.delivery, places.dineIn, places.editorialSummary, places.evChargeOptions*, places.fuelOptions*, places.goodForChildren, places.goodForGroups, places.goodForWatchingSports, places.liveMusic, places.menuForChildren, places.parkingOptions*, places.paymentOptions, places.outdoorSeating, places.reservable, places.restroom, places.reviews, places.servesBeer, places.servesBreakfast, places.servesBrunch, places.servesCocktails, places.servesCoffee, places.servesDesserts, places.servesDinner, places.servesLunch, places.servesVegetarianFood, places.servesWine, places.takeout

      * This field is in Preview (pre-GA) and usage of this field during Preview is discounted to $0. All other fields used in the same API call are billed normally. Pre-GA products and features might have limited support, and changes to pre-GA products and features might not be compatible with other pre-GA versions. Pre-GA Offerings are covered by the Google Maps Platform Service Specific Terms. For more information, see the launch stage descriptions.

  • textQuery

    The text string on which to search, for example: "restaurant" or "123 Main Street". This must include a place name, address, or category of establishments. Any other types of input can generate errors and are not guaranteed to return valid results. The API returns candidate matches based on this string and orders the results based on their perceived relevance.

Optional parameters

  • includedType

    Restricts the results to places matching the specified type defined by Table A. Only one type may be specified. For example:

    • "includedType":"bar"
    • "includedType":"pharmacy"

  • languageCode

    The language in which to return results.

    • See the list of supported languages. Google often updates the supported languages, so this list may not be exhaustive.
    • If languageCode is not supplied, the API defaults to en. If you specify an invalid language code, the API returns an INVALID_ARGUMENT error.
    • The API does its best to provide a street address that is readable for both the user and locals. To achieve that goal, it returns street addresses in the local language, transliterated to a script readable by the user if necessary, observing the preferred language. All other addresses are returned in the preferred language. Address components are all returned in the same language, which is chosen from the first component.
    • If a name is not available in the preferred language, the API uses the closest match.
    • The preferred language has a small influence on the set of results that the API chooses to return, and the order in which they are returned. The geocoder interprets abbreviations differently depending on language, such as the abbreviations for street types, or synonyms that may be valid in one language but not in another.

  • locationBias

    Specifies an area to search. This location serves as a bias which means results around the specified location can be returned, including results outside the specified area.

    You can specify locationRestriction or locationBias, but not both. Think of locationRestriction as specifying the region which the results must be within, and locationBias as specifying the region that the results must be near but can be outside of the area.

    Specify the region as a rectangular Viewport or as a circle.

    • A circle is defined by center point and radius in meters. The radius must be between 0.0 and 50000.0, inclusive. The default radius is 0.0. For example:

      "locationBias": {
  "circle": {
    "center": {
      "latitude": 37.7937,
      "longitude": -122.3965
    },
    "radius": 500.0
  }
}

    • A rectangle is a latitude-longitude viewport, represented as two diagonally opposite low and high points. The low point marks the southwest corner of the rectangle, and the high point represents the northeast corner of the rectangle.

      A viewport is considered a closed region, meaning it includes its boundary. The latitude bounds must range between -90 to 90 degrees inclusive, and the longitude bounds must range between -180 to 180 degrees inclusive:

      • If low = high, the viewport consists of that single point.
      • If low.longitude > high.longitude, the longitude range is inverted (the viewport crosses the 180 degree longitude line).
      • If low.longitude = -180 degrees and high.longitude = 180 degrees, the viewport includes all longitudes.
      • If low.longitude = 180 degrees and high.longitude = -180 degrees, the longitude range is empty.
      • If low.latitude > high.latitude, the latitude range is empty.

      Both low and high must be populated, and the represented box cannot be empty. An empty viewport results in an error.

      For example, this viewport fully encloses New York City:

      "locationBias": {
  "rectangle": {
    "low": {
      "latitude": 40.477398,
      "longitude": -74.259087
    },
    "high": {
      "latitude": 40.91618,
      "longitude": -73.70018
    }
  }
}

  • locationRestriction

    Specifies an area to search. Results outside the specified area are not returned. Specify the region as a rectangular Viewport. See the description of locationBias for information on defining the Viewport.

    You can specify locationRestriction or locationBias, but not both. Think of locationRestriction as specifying the region which the results must be within, and locationBias as specifying the region that the results must be near but can be outside of the area.

  • maxResultCount

    Specifies the maximum number of place results to return. Must be between 1 and 20 (default) inclusive.

  • minRating

    Restricts results to only those whose average user rating is greater than or equal to this limit. Values must be between 0.0 and 5.0 (inclusive) in increments of 0.5. For example: 0, 0.5, 1.0, ... , 5.0 inclusive. Values are rounded up to the nearest 0.5. For example, a value of 0.6 eliminates all results with a rating less than 1.0.

  • openNow

    If true, return only those places that are open for business at the time the query is sent. If false, return all businesses regardless of open status. Places that don't specify opening hours in the Google Places database are returned if you set this parameter to false.

  • priceLevels

    Restrict the search to places that are marked at certain price levels. The default is to select all price levels.

    Specify an array of one or more of the following values:

    • PRICE_LEVEL_UNSPECIFIED: Place price level is unspecified or unknown.
    • PRICE_LEVEL_FREE
    • PRICE_LEVEL_INEXPENSIVE
    • PRICE_LEVEL_MODERATE
    • PRICE_LEVEL_EXPENSIVE
    • PRICE_LEVEL_VERY_EXPENSIVE

    For example:

    "priceLevels":["PRICE_LEVEL_INEXPENSIVE", "PRICE_LEVEL_MODERATE"]

  • rankPreference

    Specifies how the results are ranked in the response. The API uses RELEVANCE by default when applicable. For example, for a query such as "Restaurants in New York City" then RELEVANCE is the default. For geographical queries, such as "Mountain View, CA", or other type of queries then no default is applied and the results appear in the order that they are returned by the back end.

    Values include:

    • DISTANCE: Rank results by distance.
    • RELEVANCE: Rank results by relevance.

  • regionCode

    The region code used to format the response, specified as a two-character CLDR code value. This parameter can also have a bias effect on the search results. There is no default value.

    If the country name of the formattedAddress field in the response matches the regionCode, the country code is omitted from formattedAddress. This parameter has no effect on adrFormatAddress, which always includes the country name when available, or on shortFormattedAddress, which never includes it.

    Most CLDR codes are identical to ISO 3166-1 codes, with some notable exceptions. For example, the United Kingdom's ccTLD is "uk" (.co.uk) while its ISO 3166-1 code is "gb" (technically for the entity of "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"). The parameter can affect results based on applicable law.

  • strictTypeFiltering

    Used with the includeType parameter. When set to true, only places that match the specified types specified by includeType are returned. When false, the default, the response can contain places that don't match the specified types.

Text Search examples

Find a place by query string

The following example shows a Text Search request for "Spicy Vegetarian Food in Sydney, Australia":

curl -X POST -d '{
  "textQuery" : "Spicy Vegetarian Food in Sydney, Australia"
}' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'X-Goog-Api-Key: API_KEY' \
-H 'X-Goog-FieldMask: places.displayName,places.formattedAddress' \
'https://places.googleapis.com/v1/places:searchText'

Note that the X-Goog-FieldMask header specifies that the response contains the following data fields: places.displayName,places.formattedAddress. The response is then in the form:

{
  "places": [
    {
      "formattedAddress": "367 Pitt St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia",
      "displayName": {
        "text": "Mother Chu's Vegetarian Kitchen",
        "languageCode": "en"
      }
    },
    {
      "formattedAddress": "175 First Ave, Five Dock NSW 2046, Australia",
      "displayName": {
        "text": "Veggo Sizzle - Vegan & Vegetarian Restaurant, Five Dock, Sydney",
        "languageCode": "en"
      }
    },
    {
      "formattedAddress": "29 King St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia",
      "displayName": {
        "text": "Peace Harmony",
        "languageCode": "en"
      }
    },
    ...
  ]
}

Add more data types to the field mask to return additional information. For example, add places.types,places.websiteUri to include the restaurant type and Web address in the response:

curl -X POST -d '{
  "textQuery" : "Spicy Vegetarian Food in Sydney, Australia"
}' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'X-Goog-Api-Key: API_KEY' \
-H 'X-Goog-FieldMask: places.displayName,places.formattedAddress,places.types,places.websiteUri' \
'https://places.googleapis.com/v1/places:searchText'

The response is now in the form:

{
  "places": [
    {
      "types": [
        "vegetarian_restaurant",
        "vegan_restaurant",
        "chinese_restaurant",
        "restaurant",
        "food",
        "point_of_interest",
        "establishment"
      ],
      "formattedAddress": "367 Pitt St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia",
      "websiteUri": "http://www.motherchusvegetarian.com.au/",
      "displayName": {
        "text": "Mother Chu's Vegetarian Kitchen",
        "languageCode": "en"
      }
    },
    {
      "types": [
        "vegan_restaurant",
        "thai_restaurant",
        "vegetarian_restaurant",
        "indian_restaurant",
        "italian_restaurant",
        "american_restaurant",
        "restaurant",
        "food",
        "point_of_interest",
        "establishment"
      ],
      "formattedAddress": "175 First Ave, Five Dock NSW 2046, Australia",
      "websiteUri": "http://www.veggosizzle.com.au/",
      "displayName": {
        "text": "Veggo Sizzle - Vegan & Vegetarian Restaurant, Five Dock, Sydney",
        "languageCode": "en"
      }
    },
    ...
  ]
}

Filter places by price level

Use the priceLevel option to filter the results to restaurants defined as inexpensive or moderately expensive:

curl -X POST -d '{
  "textQuery" : "Spicy Vegetarian Food in Sydney, Australia",
  "priceLevels":["PRICE_LEVEL_INEXPENSIVE", "PRICE_LEVEL_MODERATE"]
}' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'X-Goog-Api-Key: API_KEY' \
-H 'X-Goog-FieldMask: places.displayName,places.formattedAddress,places.priceLevel' \
'https://places.googleapis.com/v1/places:searchText'

This example also uses the X-Goog-FieldMask header to add the places.priceLevel data field to the response so it is in the form:

{
  "places": [
    {
      "formattedAddress": "367 Pitt St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia",
      "priceLevel": "PRICE_LEVEL_MODERATE",
      "displayName": {
        "text": "Mother Chu's Vegetarian Kitchen",
        "languageCode": "en"
      }
    },
    {
      "formattedAddress": "115 King St, Newtown NSW 2042, Australia",
      "priceLevel": "PRICE_LEVEL_MODERATE",
      "displayName": {
        "text": "Green Mushroom",
        "languageCode": "en"
      }
    },
    ...
  ]
}

Add additional options to refine your search, such as includedType, minRating, rankPreference, openNow, and other parameters described in Optional parameters.

Search for places in an area

Use locationRestriction or locationBias, but not both, to restrict a search to an area. Think of locationRestriction as specifying the region which the results must be within, and locationBias as specifying the region that the results must be near but can be outside of the area.

The following example shows a Text Search request for "Spicy Vegetarian Food" biased to being within 500 meters of a point in downtown San Francisco. This request only returns the first 10 results for places that are open.

curl -X POST -d '{
  "textQuery" : "Spicy Vegetarian Food",
  "openNow": true,
  "maxResultCount": 10,
  "locationBias": {
    "circle": {
      "center": {"latitude": 37.7937, "longitude": -122.3965},
      "radius": 500.0
    }
  },
}' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'X-Goog-Api-Key: API_KEY' \
-H 'X-Goog-FieldMask: places.displayName,places.formattedAddress' \
'https://places.googleapis.com/v1/places:searchText'