Google Places API vs scraping vs lead tools: 2026 pricing per 1,000 businesses

As of October 2026, the Google Places API charges $35 per 1,000 Text Search requests when you ask for phone, website or rating (after 1,000 free a month), and $20 per 1,000 Place Details lookups at the same tier (after 1,000 free). For 10,000 businesses that's typically $35 to $180 depending on how you call it, and it gets you no email addresses and a terms-of-service bar on storing names and addresses. Scrapers cost about $15 to $45 for the same 10,000, also without verified emails. A lead tool that includes email finding and verification costs a flat subscription. The real comparison is the cost per usable lead, not per row.

How much does the Google Places API cost in 2026?#

The Places API (New) bills per request, by SKU. The SKU is set by the most expensive field you ask for in the field mask. Here are the prices that matter for business data, at the lowest volume tier (Google Maps Platform pricing, last updated October 30, 2026).

Prices fall at higher volumes. Text Search Enterprise drops to $28 per 1,000 between 100,001 and 500,000 requests and $21 up to 1 million, and Place Details Enterprise to $16 and $12. Since March 1, 2025, these per-SKU free allowances have replaced the old $200 monthly credit (Google).

Two details change the math:

• You pay per request, not per business. Text Search returns at most 20 places per page and 60 per query (Google). A tile with three dentists costs the same as a tile with twenty.
• Contact fields are Enterprise. If you ask for websiteUri or nationalPhoneNumber, the whole request bills at the Enterprise rate.

What doesn't the Places API return?#

Emails, social links and full reviews. Google's Place data fields list includes phone numbers and the website, but no email address and no social media links. Reviews and photos are capped: the Place resource reference says "A maximum of 5 reviews can be returned", sorted by relevance, and at most 10 photos. Google Business Profile has roughly 4,000 categories, but the API exposes a few hundred place types, so "plumber" and "roofing contractor" exist as types while many narrower trades don't.

So for lead generation, the API is only step one. You still have to:

1. Crawl each business's website for an email address.
2. Verify each address against its mail server.
3. Filter to your area and trade.

Field by field: API vs scraper vs lead tool#

What do the Places API terms say about storing the data?#

They're strict, and they're the bigger problem for lead lists. The Google Maps Platform Terms of Service say, in §3.2.3(a), that customers will not "export, extract, or otherwise scrape Google Maps Content for use outside the Services", including to "copy and save business names, addresses, or user reviews". §3.2.3(b) bars caching except where the service terms allow it.

The Service Specific Terms allow two exceptions that matter here:

• Place IDs may be cached ("Customer may cache... place_id from Places API").
• Latitude and longitude may be cached "for up to 30 consecutive calendar days, after which Customer must delete" them.

Two more clauses catch lead-generation uses. §3.2.3(c)(iv) says you won't "use latitude/longitude values from the Places API as an input for point-in-polygon analysis", which is how you'd check whether a business is inside your territory. And §14.2 bars using Places content "in conjunction with a non-Google map".

The upshot: the Places API is designed for showing places inside an app, live, not for building a list of businesses you keep, filter and email. If you use it for leads, you're working against its terms as much as a scraper is. Our legal guide covers what that means.

What do 10,000 businesses cost with the Places API?#

Typically between $35 and $180 for the Google side, depending on the method and how efficient your searches are, plus email finding and verification from somewhere else. Here are the two sensible ways to call it.

Method A: Text Search Enterprise in every tile#

Search each tile with the contact fields in the field mask. The number of requests depends on how much your tiles overlap and how many keyword variants you run. In theory 10,000 businesses fit in 500 full pages of 20. In practice, sparse tiles, repeat results and keyword variants push it much higher.

Method B: free ID search, then Place Details for each new business#

Run Text Search with only places.id in the field mask, which is free and unlimited, as many times as you like. Dedupe the IDs. Then call Place Details Enterprise once per unique business:

(10,000 − 1,000 free) × $20 / 1,000 = $180

Method B costs the same however many searches you run, which makes thorough tiling free. Method A is cheaper if your searches are efficient: it costs less while you need fewer than about 6,100 requests (1,000 free + $180 ÷ $0.035).

Then add emails#

Neither method gives you emails. Say 80% of the 10,000 have a website (8,000 domains) and about half of those yield an address (roughly 4,300). Using Outscraper's rates as of October 2026 as an example for those two steps:

• Emails & Contacts: (8,000 − 500 free) × $3 / 1,000 = $22.50
• Email verification: (4,300 − 25 free) × $3 / 1,000 = $12.83

Places API total for 10,000 businesses with checked emails: about $70 to $215, plus the engineering time to build tiling, deduping, the crawl and the joins, and a terms problem with keeping the data.

What do 10,000 businesses cost with a scraper?#

About $15 to $45 for the Maps data, as of October 2026, then the same email and verification costs. Scrapers bill per row returned, so overlapping tiles mean you pay for duplicates. Assume 15,000 raw rows to net 10,000 unique businesses:

Add about $35 for emails and verification as above, and the time to dedupe and filter. Scrapers return more raw fields than the API (Apify's actor offers reviews and other add-ons). They also run against Google's terms, which prohibit scraping Maps.

What do 10,000 businesses cost with a lead tool?#

A flat subscription, with emails and verification included in some tools. With Leadraft, 10,000 unique businesses in your area and trade use 10,000 business credits, and up to about 4,300 checked emails need 4,300 checked-email credits. That fits the Growth plan: $49 a month for 100,000 business credits and 5,000 checked-email credits. If you only need 1,000 checked emails, Starter at $19 covers it (25,000 business credits). Out-of-area and wrong-trade results aren't charged, the same business is never charged twice, and credits roll over. See pricing.

What does it cost at 100,000 or 1 million businesses?#

Google's price per 1,000 drops at higher monthly volumes, so the cost per business falls, but the totals still climb fast. This table scales up the 10,000 example above with the same assumptions: Method A at one Text Search Enterprise request per two businesses, Method B at one Place Details Enterprise call per business, 80% of businesses with a website, about 43% of businesses yielding an email, and Outscraper's published rates (as of October 2026) for emails, verification and the scraper row. Everything is assumed to run in one billing month, with Google's volume tiers counted from the first call that month.

How a Google row is built, for 1 million businesses on Method B: the first 1,000 calls are free, the next 99,000 cost $20 per 1,000 ($1,980), the next 400,000 cost $16 ($6,400) and the next 500,000 cost $12 ($6,000), for $14,380. Google's published tiers are $35, $28 and $21 per 1,000 for Text Search Enterprise, and $20, $16 and $12 for Place Details Enterprise, across 0 to 100,000, 100,001 to 500,000 and 500,001 to 1,000,000 calls a month.

The ratios are assumptions, not measurements. Your request count depends on how dense the area is and how many keyword variants you run, and your email yield depends on the trade. Put your own numbers into the lead list calculator. The API rows also leave out the engineering time and the terms problem with keeping the data.

Cost per 1,000 businesses, side by side#

Using the 10,000-business example above:

The scraper and API rows are the cost of a single pull. Repeat it next month and you pay again. The lead-tool rows depend on how much of the plan you use. On a single small pull, the cheapest scraper rows come close to Leadraft's per-1,000 figure; what doesn't show in a per-row price is the work Leadraft does for you: tiling, area and trade filtering, deduping across months so a business is never charged twice, and verified emails without building the pipeline. Our lead list calculator runs these numbers with your own volumes.

Where does Leadraft fit?#

Leadraft is built for lead lists you'll email or call: every business of a trade inside your area, with emails found on each business's own website and checked against the mail server. For the 10,000-business example on this page, that's the Growth plan at $49 a month, about $4.90 per 1,000 businesses with checked emails included, against $175 to $215 for the Places API route and $79 for a scraper chain before your own engineering time.

What Leadraft isn't: an API for showing places live inside your own app or website, and it doesn't return review text or photos. If that's your job, it's a different one from building a lead list.

For leads, the reasons come down to four things: checked emails included, an area fence so out-of-area and wrong-trade results aren't charged, one charge per business ever, and credits that roll over.

If you're still choosing a method, how to scrape Google Maps walks through each one, and the Google Maps scraper guide has an evaluation checklist.

FAQ#

How much does the Google Places API cost?#

As of November 2026, Text Search costs $32 per 1,000 requests at the Pro tier and $35 at the Enterprise tier (needed for phone, website and rating), after 5,000 and 1,000 free requests a month. Place Details Enterprise costs $20 per 1,000 after 1,000 free. Text Search returning IDs only is free and unlimited. Prices fall at higher monthly volumes.

Is the Google Places API free?#

Partly. Since March 1, 2025, each SKU has a monthly free allowance instead of the old $200 credit: 10,000 calls for Essentials SKUs, 5,000 for Pro and 1,000 for Enterprise. ID-only Text Search and Place Details are free without a cap.

Does the Google Places API return email addresses?#

No. The Place data fields include phone and website but no email or social media field. To get emails you have to crawl each business's website and verify what you find.

Can I store data from the Places API in a lead list?#

Mostly no. The Maps Platform terms bar copying and saving business names and addresses outside the services. You may cache place IDs, and latitude and longitude for up to 30 days. That makes the API a poor fit for building a list you keep.

How many reviews does the Places API return?#

At most 5 per place, sorted by relevance, and at most 10 photos, according to Google's Place resource reference. If you need full review text, the API isn't the source.

Is scraping cheaper than the Places API?#

Per row, usually yes: scrapers charge roughly $1.50 to $3 per 1,000 rows as of October 2026, against $20 to $35 per 1,000 calls for the API's Enterprise SKUs after the free allowance. But scraping breaks Google's terms, and both routes leave you to find and verify emails.

Sources#

1. Google for Developers, Google Maps Platform core services pricing list, last updated October 30, 2026; volume tiers re-checked November 3, 2026.
2. Google for Developers, Google Maps Platform billing overview ("Free usage caps replace monthly $200 credit").
3. Google for Developers, Text Search (New) (60-result maximum; fields by SKU), seen October 31, 2026.
4. Google for Developers, Place data fields (New), seen October 31, 2026.
5. Google for Developers, Place types (New).
6. Google, Google Maps Platform Terms of Service §3.2.3, seen October 31, 2026.
7. Google, Google Maps Platform Service Specific Terms (Google ID caching; Places API §14), seen October 31, 2026.
8. Outscraper, Pricing; Apify, Google Maps Scraper actor; Bright Data, Google Maps scraper, all seen October 31, 2026.
9. Circleboom, Google Business Profile categories (4,102 as of February 17, 2026; third-party count).
10. Leadraft, Pricing.
11. Google for Developers, Place resource reference ("A maximum of 5 reviews can be returned"; up to 10 photos), seen November 3, 2026.