The Mapbox alternative for India, without the credit-card wall
Compare maps.guru vs Mapbox for teams shipping from India: free tiers, INR billing, mobile SDK pricing, and the gotcha that trips up most developers.
Mapbox pricing in 2026: 50,000 free map loads per month for web (GL JS), then $5.00 per 1,000 loads up to 100,000, stepping down to $2.50 per 1,000 past 1 million loads. Temporary Geocoding gives 100,000 free calls, then $0.75 per 1,000; Permanent Geocoding has no free tier and starts at $5.00 per 1,000 from the first call. maps.guru pricing: free forever with 50,000 tile requests and 10,000 geocoding requests per month, and Pro at $49/month (₹3,999) for 1,000,000 tiles plus 200,000 geocoding requests, flat with no overage.
| Metric | Mapbox | maps.guru |
|---|---|---|
| Free map loads / month | 50,000 map loads (GL JS) | 50,000 tiles |
| Free geocoding / month | 100,000 calls (Temporary API only)Mapbox is more generous on geocoding free tier | 10,000 geocoding |
| Paid geocoding | Temporary $0.75/1K; Permanent $5.00/1K, no free tier | Pro: 200K explicit geocoding quota (4× more) |
| Free routing / month | 100,000 Directions API calls | 10,000 routing (coming soon) |
| Paid tier, tiles | $5.00/1K map loads after 50K free | Pro $49/mo: 1M tiles flat, no per-call |
| Mobile Navigation SDK (MAU) | $0.30/MAU after 100 free; $0.08/trip after 1K free | Not applicable. Routing coming soon. |
| Credit card required | Yes, required for any paid usage | Only for paid plans; free requires no card |
| Overage billing | Yes, PAYG beyond each free tier | None: hard quota enforced |
Mapbox requires a valid credit card on file before serving requests beyond the free tier. Unexpected spikes are billed as PAYG. Teams that exceed their free quota without a card on file may experience service interruptions.
Source: Mapbox PricingStarting with Mapbox GL JS v2 (January 2021), the renderer changed from BSD to a proprietary license that restricts use without a Mapbox token. MapLibre GL JS is the community fork of v1 that remains truly open-source. maps.guru is built on MapLibre and supports the BSD-licensed ecosystem.
Source: Mapbox GL JS LicenseMapbox splits geocoding into two products. The Temporary Geocoding API (results must not be stored) has 100,000 free calls, then $0.75 per 1,000. The Permanent Geocoding API, which you need to legally store or batch-process results, has no free tier: it bills $5.00 per 1,000 from the very first call and requires contacting sales. Teams that cache geocoding results on the Temporary tier are violating the terms.
Source: Mapbox Pricing: GeocodingAfter 100 free MAU and 1K free trips, Navigation SDK costs $0.30/MAU + $0.08/trip. A consumer app with 10K MAU and 50K trips/month would cost $3,000/mo for the Navigation SDK alone, before tile and geocoding costs.
Source: Mapbox Pricing: Navigation SDKIf you are on Mapbox GL JS v1 (BSD) or have migrated to MapLibre GL JS, migration is straightforward, update the tile source URL and API key. Mapbox GL JS v2 styles are compatible with MapLibre GL JS in most cases, with minor differences in some advanced features.
maps.guru uses global OpenStreetMap data (same source as Mapbox Streets) served in OpenMapTiles/MVT format. Style quality depends on your map style configuration. Mapbox has a richer curated style library; maps.guru provides MapLibre-compatible presets and AI style generation.
Mapbox offers 100K free Temporary geocoding calls vs maps.guru's 10K. If geocoding volume is your primary concern and you're in the free tier, Mapbox's geocoding product is more generous. Beyond the free tier the picture flips: Temporary geocoding bills $0.75 per 1,000 and Permanent geocoding (required if you store results) bills $5.00 per 1,000 with no free tier, while maps.guru Pro includes 200K geocoding calls in the flat $49/mo price.
As of August 2026, Mapbox includes 50,000 free map loads per month for web (Mapbox GL JS), 25,000 free monthly active users for the Mobile Maps SDK, 100,000 free Temporary Geocoding requests, 100,000 free Directions API requests, and 200,000 free Vector or Static Tiles API requests. Beyond each free tier, usage bills pay-as-you-go per SKU, and a credit card is required. There is no way to hard-cap spend at the free tier boundary.
Because every SKU bills pay-as-you-go past its free tier and the meters compound. 500,000 monthly web map loads bill roughly $1,700/month at the published $5.00 to $3.00 per 1,000 tiers. Add geocoding past 100K calls at $0.75 per 1,000 and mobile MAU past 25,000 at $4.00 per 1,000, and a consumer app crosses four figures monthly before support costs. maps.guru replaces the meters with a flat $49/mo Pro tier covering 1M tiles and 200K geocoding calls, enforced as a hard quota instead of overage.
MapTiler is cheaper at entry ($30/mo Flex vs Mapbox PAYG past 50K loads) and includes on-premises hosting, while Mapbox has the more mature Studio editor, Navigation SDK, and search stack. Both bill overage past their tiers: MapTiler at $2.50 per 1,000 sessions, Mapbox at up to $5.00 per 1,000 map loads. If you want MapLibre-native custom styles with a flat price and no overage on either meter, maps.guru Pro covers 1M tiles at $49/mo with AI style generation included.
The vocabulary behind tiles, geocoding, and API pricing, in plain language.
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