# What does a map API actually cost?

Updated Nov 5, 2026

The price on the pricing page is rarely the bill. What matters is how a provider counts, what happens past the limit, and whether you're allowed to keep what you paid for.

## Three ways map APIs charge

- **Per 1,000 requests** (Google, Mapbox): a free allowance, then a price per 1,000. Simple, but the bill grows with traffic and there's no ceiling unless you set one.
- **Credits** (Stadia Maps, Geoapify): each request costs some credits and plans include a monthly or daily budget. Different products cost very different amounts.
- **Flat plans with caps** (PinSharing): a fixed price for fixed monthly allowances per product. Past the cap, requests pause instead of being billed.

## Three questions that decide the bill

1. **What happens at the limit?** Overage billing, a soft limit or a hard stop.
1. **May you keep results?** If you can't store a geocode or cache an image, you pay for it again every time it's shown.
1. **What does one page view cost?** An interactive map loads many tiles; a static image is one request, and once stored, none.

## Worked example: a listing site

20,000 new listings a month. Each gets one map image and one geocoded address, both stored with the listing.

| Provider | Monthly cost for the images and geocodes | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| PinSharing | **$19** (Starter) | Both stored indefinitely; Starter covers 100,000 of each |
| Google Maps Platform | **$70** | Images: 10,000 × $2.00 per 1,000 = $20. Geocodes: 10,000 × $5.00 per 1,000 = $50. Coordinates may be cached for 30 days, not kept. |
| Mapbox | **$100** for the geocodes | Permanent Geocoding at $5.00 per 1,000. The images fit in the free allowance, but the terms restrict serving static images or cached map content in place of the API. |
| Stadia Maps | More than Professional ($250) includes | 20,000 cacheable static maps at 2,000 credits each is 40 million credits; Professional includes 25 million. |

Prices read from each provider's pricing page on Nov 5, 2026. Billing methods differ, so treat this as a starting point and run your own numbers.

For your own numbers, use the [plan calculator](https://pinsharing.com/pricing#calc).

## Try it on your own addresses

Free key in under a minute, no card. New accounts get Growth's limits free for 14 days.

Get a free API key

See pricing

More from [Learn](https://pinsharing.com/learn).

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Source: https://pinsharing.com/learn/what-does-a-map-api-cost · Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · Index: https://pinsharing.com/llms.txt