By Amit Litsur, Product Manager, Google Maps Platform

Thirteen years ago, the first Google Maps mashup combined Craigslist housing data on top of our map tiles—before there was even an API to access them. Today, Google Maps APIs are some of the most popular on the internet, powering millions of websites and apps generating billions of requests per day.

Earlier this month, we introduced the next generation of our Google Maps business—Google Maps Platform—that included a series of updates to help you take advantage of new location-based features and products. We simplified our APIs into three product categories—Maps, Routes and Places—to make it easier for you to find, explore and add new features to your apps and sites. In addition, we merged our pricing plans into one pay-as-you go plan for our core products. With this new plan, you get the first $200 of monthly usage for free, so you can try the APIs risk-free.

In addition, Google Maps Platform includes simplified products, tighter integration with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services and tools, as well as a single pay-as-you-go offering. By integrating with GCP, you can scale your business and utilize location services as you grow—we no longer enforce usage caps, just like any other GCP service.

You can also manage Google Maps Platform from Google Cloud Console—the same interface you already use to manage and monitor other GCP services. This integration provides a more tailored view to manage your Google Maps Platform implementation, so you can monitor individual API usage, establish usage quotas, configure alerts for more visibility and control, and access billing reports. All Google Maps Platform customers now receive free Google Maps Platform customer support, which you can also access through the GCP Console.

Check out the Google Maps Platform website where you can learn more about our products and also explore the guided onboarding wizard from the website to the console. We can’t wait to see how you will use Google Maps Platform with GCP to bring new innovative services to your customers.