Google Maps API Standard Plan update – How to keep your application running after Oct 12

Over the past 11 years, the developers at Google Maps have been hyper-focused on delivering powerful solutions with maps and location data. Today, the Google Maps APIs powers more than 3 million applications and websites with billions of requests made daily. The digital landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade, shifting from desktop to mobile, while more devices have come online.

As the shift from desktops to mobile devices continues to reshape the internet, Google Maps’ APIs and services have adapted to fit the landscape. A part of this includes some changes to the Google Maps APIs Standard Plan intended to bring greater consistency and simplicity:The Google Maps API will no longer support keyless access (any request that doesn’t include an API key). Future product updates are only available for requests made with an API key. API keys allow Google to contact developers when required and help them identify misbehaving implementations.
Google has implemented a simple 25,000 map loads per day free limit to new Google Maps JavaScript API, Static Maps API, and Street View Image API implementations. The confusing 90-consecutive-day grace period for these APIs is being retired on October 12, 2016.
There is a new daily map load maximum limit you can purchase for Google Maps JavaScript API, Static Maps API, and Street View Image API of 100,000 requests per API through the Standard Plan. Higher-volume developers are best served with a Premium Plan license, which includes technical support and a Service Level Agreement.
Google Maps JavaScript API client-side requests are now also counted towards the daily limit of the associated web service API.

As geolocation consultants and developers ourselves, we understand there will be a lot of questions on the Google Maps API Standard Plan changes on October 12. If you have questions or would like to learn more, please send us a message here and we will get in touch very soon after receiving it.