Google has made some important changes to the way they allow people to embed maps onto their site. After many years of the google maps API service being publicly available for free, they are now changing it to be "gated" and free.
So what's that mean?
Well previously as a web site developer we could pop a google maps api code on any site anywhere any use it for free up to certain limits with certain feature sets. This worked for the majority of our customers and they never had any issues. We never had to create an account, setup any billing, worry about api keys, usernames, or passwords.
Welcome to today, now google will start phasing out free and public maps for what we are calling gated and free. That means that you must create a google developer api account for free, setup billing, and generate a maps api key. Google is still allowing maps to be free for certain features and thresholds and for the majority of our customers they can expect to never actually receive a bill from google - however they will need to have billing information be entered in at google.
This is a big change as so many websites use google's Maps API for free and did not setup billing previously. Google has also made this change relatively quick. They did NOT provide a 3/6 month or 1 year runway.
What does this mean for you, a possible client who uses google maps on your website?
This means we need to work with you on the following:
- Setup Billing at Google Cloud
- Generate an API KEY through Google Cloud
- Change your website code to use the Google Cloud API Key
For 90% of our clients they fall into the free tier meaning they get no bill for this service. However, you still need to have billing enabled.
We have a video that explains step by step how to get a google maps api key and setup billing with google. Please watch it here and provide our support team with the api key. Estimated time needed is 15 minutes: https://youtu.be/6uA8PBj7dnc