Autocomplete and session pricing

Google recommends that you use sessions with Place Autocomplete. Sessions help simplify pricing and provide a consistent pricing model for use with Place Autocomplete.

Session pricing starts with the first Place Autocomplete request that includes a session token, continues through each subsequent Place Autocomplete request, and is then terminated by a request to Place Details that uses the session token.

After the session terminates, any call to Place Autocomplete, Place Details (New) that uses the expired session token is billed as if there was no session token.

Incomplete sessions, meaning sessions that are not terminated by a request to Place Details, are billed only for the autocomplete requests using the SKU: Autocomplete Requests.

The three most common pricing scenarios are:

• Autocomplete for location data
• Autocomplete for place discovery
• Autocomplete for checkout and delivery

Autocomplete for location data

In this scenario, you are interested in using Autocomplete and Place Details (New) to obtain location information about a place. For example, you select a suggestion from autocomplete and then you use Place Details to get the place's latitude and longitude coordinates to show that place on a map.

Location information can include the place's:

• Address
• Location as latitude and longitude coordinates
• Plus Code
• Types
• Viewport

This session is terminated by a single request to Place Details that requests any fields defined by the SKU: Place Details (Location Only).

You are then billed as follows:

• Each Place Autocomplete request, up to a maximum of 12 requests, using the SKU: Autocomplete Requests.
• Billed at $2.83 per 1000 requests up to 100,000 requests
• Billed at $2.27 per 1000 requests up to 500,000 requests
• Place Autocomplete requests 13 and greater while you are in an active session are billed at the SKU: Autocomplete Session Usage, meaning there is no charge for those requests.
• One Places Details request using the SKU: Place Details (Location Only):
• Billed at $5.00 per 1000 requests up to 100,000 requests
• Billed at $4.00 per 1000 requests up to 500,000 requests

Autocomplete for place discovery

In the Autocomplete for place discovery scenario, you are interested in obtaining more than just location data about a place. For example, you might request any of the following:

• Accessibility options
• Current opening hours
• Parking options
• Reviews
• Ratings

For this scenario, your session is terminated by a request to Place Details (New) that requests any fields included in the Place Details Basic, Advanced, or Preferred SKUs.

You are then billed as follows:

• All Place Autocomplete requests are billed at the SKU: Autocomplete Session Usage, meaning there is no charge for those requests.
• One SKU: Place Details (Preferred) request:
• Billed at $25.00 per 1000 requests up to 100,000 requests
• Billed at $20.00 per 1000 requests up to 500,000 requests

Pricing examples

The following table shows pricing examples for the three main session scenarios. This table also lists the SKUs that appear in your billing statement for each scenario.

Pricing example without sessions

If you don't use sessions, you are billed per-request to Place Autocomplete using the SKU: Autocomplete Requests at $2.83 per 1000 requests.

Fallback pricing for incomplete or abandoned sessions

If a session is abandoned, meaning not terminated by a call to Place Details (New), Place Autocomplete requests revert to the per-request pricing model and are billed at 2.83 USD per 1000 requests as defined by the SKU: Autocomplete Requests.