We all love embedded Google Maps! We love them so much we use them all the time. Now, after all these years of giving it away for free, Google has decided to charge, but only for heavy usage.
You may have come across a map error like this in the last couple weeks … maybe on your own website:
IF YOU HAVE A MAP ON YOUR SITE… Here’s the scoop:
- All embedded Google Maps must have an API Key (No more anonymous access, that’s what causes the error above.)
- Cost is 0.7 cents per map load, put another way $7 per 1,000.
- You first $200/month of usage is free (see official details), ~28,000 map loads.
A majority of our client websites have low enough traffic (specifically on pages that contain maps) to fit beneath this threshold.
Nevertheless, Google requires that you setup a billing account in case your traffic does exceed the $200 credit per month.
(If you have multiple websites, we recommend setting up a separate billing account for each so that each site gets a $200 credit. You can setup new “dummy” Gmail addresses for each of these accounts.)
We’ve put together a video that walks you through setting up the billing account step-by-step.
Start Here: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/get-api-key
You’ll click around a bunch, provide a credit card, then be given an API Key. You need to send us that API key. Then we can plug it into your site and your maps will start working again!
If you complete this yourself, there should be no money owed, not to Google, not to us.
If you need hands-on help, we can do that for a nominal fee to cover our time – we’ll need your google logins and a scheduled phone call to take your credit card info so we can plug it directly into Google (and never store it insecurely… even on a post-it note).