Google Places API Pricing: What a Lead List Really Costs (2026)
Key takeaways
- For Text Search, Google's price depends on the fields you ask for. Name and address are in the Pro tier. Phone number, website and rating are in the more expensive Enterprise tier.
- As shown on Google's price list (last updated 2026-09-17), Enterprise starts at $35 per 1,000 requests after 1,000 free requests a month. Pro starts at $32 per 1,000 after 5,000 free.
- Each request returns at most 20 places, so the API price per business is low. The real costs are elsewhere: developer time, no emails, and limits on storing the data.
- Do the maths with your own duplicate rate. The worked examples below show how.
"How much does the Google Places API cost?" has a precise answer for each request, and a fuzzy answer for a whole lead list. The per-request price is on Google's price list. What it costs to build a usable list depends on how many queries you run, how many results overlap, and what else you need to add.
This guide takes Google's published prices, shows the arithmetic for lead lists of different sizes, and then puts the result next to the cost of a hosted tool so you can see what each price actually covers.
The price list for Text Search
Text Search is the endpoint that returns businesses for a query like plumber in Denver. Google's Maps Platform price list, last updated on 2026-09-17, shows these entry-tier prices for it:
| Price tier | Free usage per month | Price per 1,000 requests (entry tier) | Example fields |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials (IDs only) | Unlimited | No charge | Place ID only |
| Pro | 5,000 requests | $32.00 | Name, address, location, business status, types |
| Enterprise | 1,000 requests | $35.00 | Phone number, website, rating, review count |
| Enterprise + Atmosphere | 1,000 requests | $40.00 | Extra detail fields such as reviews text and amenities |
Volume discounts apply at higher usage. Prices and free amounts change, so check Google's current list before you plan around them.
The tier is decided by the most expensive field in your field mask. If you ask for a phone number, the whole request is billed at the Enterprise tier, even if everything else you asked for is in Pro.
How results and requests relate
- A request returns at most 20 places.
- Google documents a maximum of 60 results across all pages of one query, so a query uses at most 3 requests.
- To cover a bigger area you run more queries, and some of the results will be repeats.
The examples below assume each page is a separate billable request, which is how the API works in practice, and that a share of results are duplicates because your queries overlap. Change the duplicate rate to match your own searches.
Worked examples for lead lists
Assumptions: every request returns 20 places, 25% of them are duplicates of businesses you already have, phone and website are requested (Enterprise tier), and the free 1,000 requests are used first. That leaves 15 new businesses per request.
| Unique businesses you want | Requests needed | Billable requests after 1,000 free | Approximate API cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | about 67 | 0 | $0 |
| 10,000 | about 667 | 0 | $0 |
| 25,000 | about 1,667 | 667 | about $23 |
| 50,000 | about 3,334 | 2,334 | about $82 |
Illustrative arithmetic, not a quote. It assumes every page is billed at $35 per 1,000 requests and ignores any other Google Cloud charges.
For phone and website data, the per-business cost is very low. That is why the API is attractive to developers, and why the comparison below is less about the price of the API and more about what surrounds it.
What the API price does not include
- Email addresses. The API returns none. Finding them means reading each business website, which is a second system to build or buy.
- Email checks and cleaning. Format checks, mail-server checks and duplicate removal are yours to write.
- Filters and scoring. Sorting by rating, presence of a website or social profile, or ad pixels needs more data than the API returns.
- Storage limits. Google's terms restrict how long most Places content may be stored, with place IDs as an exception. A permanent database of businesses may not be allowed.
- Developer time. Writing, running and maintaining the script, and securing the API key, all take hours that have a price.
If you want to build it yourself, the code is in Google Places API with Python.
API versus a hosted tool: what each price buys
| Places API, DIY | Hosted tool (LeadOutreach) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price basis | Per request, with free monthly usage | Monthly plan, with a free plan of 100 leads a month |
| Phone and website | Yes, Enterprise tier | Yes |
| Emails from business websites | Not included, build or buy separately | Included through enrichment, with basic email checks |
| Filters, scoring, export | Build yourself | Filters, Hot/Warm/Cold scoring, CSV export, CRM export on higher plans |
| Setup | Cloud project, billing, key, code | Sign up and search |
| Maintenance | You | Included |
LeadOutreach plans as published on the pricing page: Starter $19 a month for 1,000 leads, Pro $39 for 3,000, Agency $99 for 10,000, billed monthly.
Per record, the API is far cheaper. Per finished, filtered list with emails, a hosted tool is usually cheaper once you count your own time. Which one wins depends on whether your time is the scarce resource. See the honest comparison of the API and a scraper for the trade-offs beyond price.
How to keep an API bill low
- Request only the fields you need. Dropping the phone number moves the request to a cheaper tier.
- Test with one query and one page before you scale up.
- Set a budget alert in the Cloud console. Budgets warn you but do not stop spending by default.
- Set a daily quota on the API, which does cap usage.
- Restrict the API key so a leaked key cannot be used from elsewhere.
- Deduplicate by place ID as you go so you never pay twice for the same business.
Sources and further reading
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Frequently asked questions
At Google's published entry price for the Enterprise tier ($35 per 1,000 requests), and assuming 20 places per request, 1,000 unique businesses take roughly 50 to 70 requests depending on how many results repeat, which is about $1.75 to $2.35 before any free usage. Your own duplicate rate changes this, and the API returns no email addresses.
The Essentials (IDs only) tier is unlimited and free. The Pro tier includes 5,000 free requests a month and Enterprise 1,000, as shown on Google's price list. A billing account is required, and usage beyond the free amount is charged.
Each page is a separate Text Search request, so a query that returns three pages uses three requests. Confirm how it appears in your own billing report when you test.
Budget alerts warn you but do not stop spending by default. Setting a daily quota on the API caps usage, and restricting the API key limits who can use it.
Per record for phone and website data, yes. But it returns no emails and needs code, storage rules and maintenance. Compare total cost for a finished list, including your time, not just the price per request.