Google Maps Platform Update
Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2025 8:05 am
Hi All,
If you use Irricad’s Google Earth Import utility, you may have recently received an email from Google regarding changes to the way the Google Maps Platform is to be charged and billed.
This may raise concerns about unexpected costs due to your API usage. However, we believe that with the new ‘request’ based pricing a typical Irricad user with their own separate (i.e., not shared) API key is unlikely to incur any monthly charges.
The API most used by our application, and thus most likely to be charged, is the “Maps Elevation API”. Under the new scheme, you are allowed 5000 free requests to this API per month. A typical Irricad maps image/elevation import uses between 50 and 100 requests, meaning between 50 and 100 imports can be done per key per month before any charges are incurred. After the 5000 free limit, requests are charged starting at 0.5 cents per request.
If you are concerned about the new pricing model, Google provides a pricing calculator here:
https://mapsplatform.google.com/pricing-calculator/
Be aware that if you have previously set a $200 limit on your billing to match the “free” monthly allowance, this might now result in a monthly bill of up to $200. Remember that you can monitor your usage live, and set Billing alerts, using your Google Cloud Console (https://console.cloud.google.com/). Please carefully review your usage, alerts and billing limits to ensure you do not receive any unexpected or excessive bills.
If you have any further queries, contact your local representative,
Regards
If you use Irricad’s Google Earth Import utility, you may have recently received an email from Google regarding changes to the way the Google Maps Platform is to be charged and billed.
This may raise concerns about unexpected costs due to your API usage. However, we believe that with the new ‘request’ based pricing a typical Irricad user with their own separate (i.e., not shared) API key is unlikely to incur any monthly charges.
The API most used by our application, and thus most likely to be charged, is the “Maps Elevation API”. Under the new scheme, you are allowed 5000 free requests to this API per month. A typical Irricad maps image/elevation import uses between 50 and 100 requests, meaning between 50 and 100 imports can be done per key per month before any charges are incurred. After the 5000 free limit, requests are charged starting at 0.5 cents per request.
If you are concerned about the new pricing model, Google provides a pricing calculator here:
https://mapsplatform.google.com/pricing-calculator/
Be aware that if you have previously set a $200 limit on your billing to match the “free” monthly allowance, this might now result in a monthly bill of up to $200. Remember that you can monitor your usage live, and set Billing alerts, using your Google Cloud Console (https://console.cloud.google.com/). Please carefully review your usage, alerts and billing limits to ensure you do not receive any unexpected or excessive bills.
If you have any further queries, contact your local representative,
Regards