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maps.guru
Pricing verified July 2026

Google Maps Platform Alternative

The Google Maps alternative with no surprise bills

Compare maps.guru vs Google Maps Platform: pricing, free tiers, and what changed after March 2025.

Google Maps Platform pricing in 2026: 10,000 free calls per SKU per month (100,000 for Map Tiles API, 70,000 per SKU on India billing), then pay-as-you-go with geocoding overage around $5 per 1,000 calls. The $200 monthly credit was removed in March 2025, and entry paid plans start at $100/month. maps.guru pricing: free forever at $0/month with 50,000 tile requests and 10,000 geocoding requests, and Pro at $49/month (₹3,999) for 1,000,000 tiles plus 200,000 geocoding requests with no overage billing.

Pricing comparison

MetricGoogle Maps Platformmaps.guru
Free tile requests / month10K/SKU (100K for Map Tiles API), global; 70K/SKU India$200 credit removed March 202550,000 tiles
Free geocoding calls / month10K (global); 70K (India billing)10,000 geocoding
Free routing / month5K (Pro SKU)10,000 routing (coming soon)
Paid tier (entry)Starter $100/mo (50K calls, Maps + Geocoding only)Pro $49/mo (1M tiles + 200K geocoding)
Paid tier (mid)Essentials $275/mo (100K calls, 4 API families)Pro $49/mo or ₹3,999/mo: same APIs, 10× cheaper
Overage billingYes, $5/1K geocoding (Tier 1)None: hard quota, no surprise bills
India pricing7× higher free tiers (70K vs 10K)₹3,999/mo Pro: flat, global data

Honest tradeoffs

When Google Maps wins

  • Places API depth, reviews, photos, opening hours, POI density unmatched
  • Street View imagery, 360° coverage in 100+ countries since 2007
  • India 70K/SKU free tier is 7× more generous for pure free tier usage
  • Native Android/iOS SDK ecosystem; billions of existing Android devices
  • Google subscription plans (Nov 2025) give predictable billing at scale
  • Routes Advanced: real-time traffic re-routing, eco-friendly routing

When maps.guru wins

  • No surprise bills, hard quota means zero overage charges ever
  • Pro tier at $49/mo vs $275/mo for Essentials (10× cheaper mid-tier)
  • MapLibre-native, open-source renderer, no vendor lock-in
  • India ₹3,999/mo for 1M tiles (no INR pricing from Google)
  • Cloudflare edge delivery, sub-70ms tile latency globally
  • Open standard vector tiles, migrate away anytime

Documented gotchas

$200 monthly credit removed in March 2025

Google removed the flat $200/month credit in March 2025, replacing it with per-SKU free tiers (10K for Essentials, 5K for Pro, 1K for Enterprise). Applications that relied on the $200 credit for usage beyond the new per-SKU limits now pay PAYG from call #1 in those SKUs.

Source: Google Maps Platform March 2025 Pricing Changes

Billing account required, credit card on file from day one

You must enable a billing account and attach a payment method before making any API calls. Even the free tier requires this. Unexpected usage spikes result in PAYG charges at $5/1K for geocoding Tier 1.

Source: Google Maps Platform Pricing Overview

Legacy APIs now receive limited feature updates

Directions API, Distance Matrix API, and Places API (legacy) are now marked "Legacy". They remain functional but new features are exclusively in Routes API and Places API (New), which have different pricing and endpoint structures requiring migration work.

Source: Google Maps Platform Core Services Pricing List

Frequently asked questions

Is maps.guru a drop-in replacement for Google Maps Platform tiles?

For tile serving and geocoding, yes, maps.guru uses the OpenMapTiles/Protomaps schema compatible with MapLibre GL JS. You replace the tile URL and API key. Google-specific features like Street View, Places API, and Directions are separate products not replicated by maps.guru.

Does maps.guru have India coverage?

Yes. maps.guru uses global OpenStreetMap-derived data covering all 195 countries including India, delivered from Cloudflare edge nodes in Mumbai and Chennai. For apps requiring certified government map data in India, Mappls (MapmyIndia) is the compliant alternative.

What happened to the Google Maps $200 free credit?

Google removed the flat $200/month credit in March 2025. Free usage is now per-SKU: 10K calls/month for Essentials APIs (Maps, Geocoding, Autocomplete, Static Maps) globally, or 70K/month with an India billing address.

Can maps.guru handle the same traffic volume as Google Maps?

maps.guru is built on Cloudflare Workers and R2, serving tiles from 300+ edge locations. The Enterprise plan is unlimited. For very large traffic patterns (millions of requests/day), contact maps.guru sales for a dedicated plan discussion.

Mapping terms in this Google Maps comparison, defined

The vocabulary behind tiles, geocoding, and API pricing, in plain language.

What is Vector tile?

A vector tile is a compressed binary chunk of map geometry (roads, buildings, labels) that the browser styles and renders at runtime, instead of downloading a pre-drawn image. Vector tiles let one dataset power unlimited visual styles and stay sharp at every zoom level.

What is Basemap?

A basemap is the background map layer (roads, water, landuse, place labels) that your own data is drawn on top of. maps.guru serves basemaps as MapLibre-compatible vector tiles.

What is Map style?

A map style is a JSON document that tells a renderer which colours, fonts, widths, and zoom rules to apply to each layer of a vector tile. maps.guru styles follow the MapLibre Style Specification, so they work in any MapLibre or Mapbox GL JS compatible renderer.

What is Geocoding?

Geocoding is the process of converting a text address or place name into latitude and longitude coordinates. Reverse geocoding does the opposite: it converts coordinates into the nearest human-readable address.

What is PMTiles?

PMTiles is a single-file archive format for map tiles that supports HTTP range requests, so a tile server can read one tile out of a multi-gigabyte archive without unpacking it. maps.guru stores its tile archives as PMTiles on Cloudflare R2.

What is MapLibre GL JS?

MapLibre GL JS is an open-source WebGL map renderer, forked from Mapbox GL JS v1 after that project moved to a proprietary licence. It is the reference renderer for maps.guru styles and carries no per-render licence fee.

What is Tile request?

A tile request is one HTTP fetch of a single map tile. A typical desktop map view loads roughly 10 to 20 tiles, and panning or zooming loads more, which is why tile quotas are counted in tens of thousands rather than page views.

What is Static map?

A static map is a server-rendered PNG or JPEG image of a map at a fixed centre, zoom, and size. Static maps are used where an interactive map cannot run: email, PDF exports, Open Graph share cards, and AI chat replies.

Sources

  1. Google Maps Platform Pricing — Google
  2. Google Maps Platform India Pricing — Google
  3. March 2025 Pricing Changes — Google
  4. Google Maps Platform Subscriptions (Nov 2025) — Google

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