Best offer on record: Google Maps Platform free usage tier (per-SKU monthly caps). 4 verified findings, checked 2026-10-22.
Offers
Google Maps Platform free usage tier (per-SKU monthly caps) high confidence
Since 2025-03-01 Google replaced the old flat $200/month GMP credit with free monthly billable-event caps per Core Service SKU, tiered by pricing category: Essentials 10,000 / Pro 5,000 / Enterprise 1,000 free calls per SKU per month. Exception: 2D Map Tiles API and Map Tiles API Street View Tiles get 100,000 free events per SKU/month. Google's Dec 2024 blog claims up to ~$3,250/month of combined free usage across products; Maps Embed API and parts of Maps SDKs remain unlimited-free. Automatic volume discounts now scale to 5M+ monthly events (20% to up to 80% off); negotiated contracts migrate on renewal from 2025-09-01. Legacy SKUs (Places legacy, Directions, Distance Matrix) keep a separate legacy free allocation; no decommission date yet, Google commits to 12+ months notice.
Eligibility
All GMP accounts (individuals, students, startups, enterprises); no .edu or startup status required; no funding cap; no region limit on the caps themselves, but EEA (billing address) customers are on separate EEA terms with some different features, and India-eligible accounts follow a separate price schedule. A standard billing-enabled key requires a payment method.
How to claim
Create a Google Cloud project, enable the Maps/Routes/Places/Environment APIs, link a Cloud billing account (credit card), create a standard API key. Free caps apply automatically each month to usage below them; no application needed. Check your numbers in the Maps API Library console / billing reports.
Expiry
Recurring and indefinite: caps renew every calendar month with no end date. Legacy services remain 'Legacy' status with at-least-12-months' notice before decommission (no date set as of the Oct 2026 page update).
Gotchas
Caps are per-SKU, not per product: a product exposing many SKUs (e.g., Places) can exhaust caps quickly even at modest call volumes; overflow is billed at per-SKU price. Trial credit vs free tier: the $300 trial is one-time/90-day while these caps are perpetual — do not conflate. Multiple GMP-related Cloud billing accounts violate GMP ToS. EEA customers get different terms/features since 2025-07-08. Free tiers do NOT cover subscriptions: Starter/Essentials/Pro subscription plans ($100/$275/$1,200 per month for 50K/100K/250K combined calls) are paid products.
Maps Demo Key (no credit card, daily-capped sandbox) high confidence
Always-free sandbox API key for prototyping: no billing account and no credit card required. Daily usage limit per API (exact numbers are not published in the docs; Google states limits are 'subject to change' and may be adjusted or zeroed at any time; the AI Studio-hosted variant lists ~100 calls/day). Hitting the limit pauses the map for the day with zero charge; usage resets next day. Supported (limited): Maps JavaScript API (with Maps Grounding Lite, Places UI Kit, drawing/styling), Places API (new), Geocoding API v4, Compute Routes, Weather API, Maps SDK for Android/iOS in demo form; user-generated content (photos, reviews) is NOT available; Route Optimization, Solar, and Nav Connect APIs are excluded entirely.
Eligibility
Any Google account (free). One Maps Demo Project per Google account at a time. Intended for evaluation/prototyping only — production use is strictly prohibited by the demo-project terms. No student/age/region eligibility; no .edu or credit card.
How to claim
Sign in with a Google account on mapsplatform.google.com/maps-demo-key (or via Google AI Studio, which provisions a demo key in-flow), click 'Get a Demo Key', accept the Maps Demo Project Terms of Service; the key is displayed immediately and emailed. Upgrade: add a Cloud billing account to the demo key, or create a new billing-enabled API key.
Expiry
No end date published; no SLA, no support; Google may suspend/terminate access at any time without notice and can change or zero the daily limits at any time. Demo key can be kept alongside a paid account indefinitely.
Gotchas
Daily caps, not monthly — different from the per-SKU monthly free tier. Not for production. On upgrade, a standard key requires a credit card and you then inherit the per-SKU free caps plus (for new Cloud customers) the one-time $300 GCP trial. Limits are undisclosed numerically, so budget against unknowns; if a demo project stops mid-project, the only remedy is upgrading.
Google Cloud $300 / 90-day free trial (covers GMP usage) high confidence
One-time $300 of no-charge usage on your first Cloud Billing account, valid for 90 days or until $300 is consumed, whichever comes first. If your first Cloud billing account has GMP APIs/SDKs enabled, BOTH the $300 trial and the GMP per-SKU free usage caps apply: charges are first absorbed by the free usage cap per SKU; overflow is drawn against the $300. The free usage caps keep applying after the trial ends.
Eligibility
New Google Cloud customers (first billing account). Students are eligible with a personal Google account — no .edu required. A payment method (credit card) IS required to activate the trial; no charge is made while usage stays within the trial + free tiers.
How to claim
Create your first GCP billing account via cloud.google.com/free, attach a payment method, select the trial; enable GMP APIs on that account. Before the trial ends, upgrade the billing account to paid to avoid disruption of GMP usage.
Expiry
Trial ends at the earlier of 90 days or $300 exhausted. Not renewable, one per new Cloud customer; the perpetual per-SKU free caps survive independently of the trial.
Gotchas
Credit card required (unlike the Demo Key). After the trial you must upgrade to a paid account or GMP service is at risk of disruption. GMP docs state that creating multiple GMP-related Cloud billing accounts violates GMP ToS — you cannot re-claim the trial via extra accounts. Trial credit is a one-time bridge; long-term free usage comes only from the per-SKU caps and the Demo Key.
Google for Startups Cloud Program (GCP credits + $600/month Google Maps Platform usage credits, Scale tier) medium confidence
GCP's startup program has two tiers (2025-2026 structure). Start tier: up to $2,000 GCP credits valid 1 year + $200 Google Skills training credit + free Google Workspace Business Plus 12 months. Scale tier: up to $200,000 GCP credits over 2 years ($350,000 for AI-first startups: Year 1 100% up to $250K vs $100K for non-AI; Year 2 20% up to an additional $100K) + $500 Google Skills credit + Workspace Business Plus 12 months + up to $12,000 Enhanced Support credits (1-year) + the Maps-specific benefit: $600 per month in Google Maps Platform usage credits (separate application required). GCP program credits can cover GMP usage on the shared GCP billing account (GMP is a GCP product); the dedicated $600/month GMP credit is a separate entitlement.
Eligibility
For-profit technology startups. Scale tier: Pre-Seed/Seed raised within the last 5 years AND Series A raised within the last 12 months; founded within 5 years; stealth accepted with funding verification; not yet received more than $5,000 in GCP credits. Start tier: founded within 24 months, planning to seek VC funding, no GCP credits received beyond the free trial. EXCLUDED: educational institutions, government entities, nonprofits, personal blogs/content, dev shops, consultancies, agencies, crypto mining, IPO'd/acquired companies. Application must use a business email matching the company's public domain.
How to claim
Apply at cloud.google.com/startup: provide an active 18-character GCP Billing Account ID in good standing (wait ~48 hours after creating it), public proof of funding (online links), business email + domain. Approval typically within a few business days. Then submit the SEPARATE application for the $600/month GMP usage credits (offered in the Scale-tier welcome materials). Web3 and AI variants (cloud.google.com/startup/web3, /startup/ai) have the same tiered structure.
Expiry
GCP credits last 1 year (Start) or are structured over 2 years (Scale: Year-1 100%, Year-2 20%). The $600/month GMP credit is ongoing monthly for the program duration (no published end date; tied to program membership). One-time program — previous participants cannot re-apply except via case-by-case review through cloudstartupsupport@google.com.
Gotchas
Funding-window caps matter (Series A older than 12 months disqualifies Scale; PE/crowdfunding/grant-only funding doesn't qualify Scale). Credits do NOT cover third-party Marketplace services or third-party model inference. Acceptance is at Google's sole discretion; meeting criteria does not guarantee approval. Educational institutions are explicitly ineligible — students/edu email addresses are NOT a path into this program. The $600/month GMP benefit is NOT automatic with tier acceptance; it requires a separate application.
1) SUNKEN: The legacy flat $200/month GMP credit ended 2025-03-01, replaced by per-SKU free usage caps (10K/5K/1K Essentials/Pro/Enterprise; 100K for 2D Map Tiles and Street View tiles; auto volume discounts up to 5M+ events). Any page still citing '$200/month' (including some third-party tutorials) is stale. 2) CHANGED 2025: GCP for Startups was restructured into Start/Scale tiers; the live benefits page now requires founding within 5 years (older program docs said 10), with the $600/month GMP usage credit offered to Scale tier only and requiring a separate application; AI-first startups capped at $350K. 3) EDUCATION: No Maps Platform education license or student-specific program found as of 2026-10-22 — Google publishes no .edu-gated GMP offer; educational institutions are explicitly EXCLUDED from the Google for Startups Cloud Program (and no GMP-education credit program was listed on cloud.google.com/edu, which did not render fully, so this is stated as absence-of-evidence rather than a verified program). Students' practical free paths are the general per-SKU caps, the no-CC Demo Key, and the $300 GCP trial (all open, no .edu). 4) REGIONAL: Since 2025-07-08, EEA-billed customers are on separate EEA GMP Terms of Service (post-German Bundeskartellamt proceeding) with different features and, per GMP docs, possibly different terms for features like Places UI Kit. 5) LEGACY: Places (legacy), Directions, and Distance Matrix APIs remain in 'Legacy' status with no announced decommission date; Google commits to 12+ months' notice — users must migrate to new SKUs to keep expanded volume discounts. 6) VERIFICATION CAVEAT: cloud.google.com pages (startup benefits, free trial) are JS-rendered and truncated for automated fetches; the $600/month GMP credit and trial figures were verified via full-text search snippets of the official pages today, not a complete page read, hence 'medium' confidence on the startup finding.