It seems Google is now back-tracking a little in the wake of last year’s announcement of hikes in fees for the usage of the Google Maps API. It seems many developers, including the likes of foursquare have bailed out on Google (in favor of OSM and other online map service providers) and so Google has decided to cut the price for map calls. This from Google… “we’ve been listening carefully to feedback, and today we’re happy to announce that we’re lowering API usage fees and simplifying limits for both Styled and regular maps. Here are the details:
- Changes to pricing. While the Maps API remains free for the vast majority of sites, some developers were worried about the potential costs. In response, we have lowered the online price from US $4 per 1,000 map loads to 50¢ per 1,000 map loads. (see pricing scheme below – image credit, techcrunch
- simplified limits. We’re eliminating the previous distinction between Styled Maps and regular un-styled maps. The same usage limits and pricing now apply to applications using Styled Maps and the default Google Maps style.
See more details in this blog post from Google
Follow @GooglemapsAPI on Twitter for updates
Starting today, and, based on current usage, fees will only apply to the top 0.35% of sites regularly exceeding the published limits of 25,000 map loads every day for 90 consecutive days
Source: techcrunch.com via Glenn on Pinterest