Google Places API alternatives: contact fields at a flat $3.00 per 1,000 places
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For bulk place records with phone, website, hours, and rating, Apify actors undercut the official API for most jobs as of August 29, 2026. Google Places API (New) bills $20 per 1,000 Place Details Enterprise requests and forbids storing anything except place IDs. Datapika's Google Maps scraper costs a flat $0.003 per place at every volume ($3.00 per 1,000, $30.00 per 10,000), needs no API key, and runs over MCP. compass/crawler-google-places (580,768 users, 4.69 rating) has the lowest headline rate, from $1.50 per 1,000 plus paid add-ons. Outscraper gives 500 places free, then $3 per 1,000. Use Google for live lookups inside a Google Map, an actor for stored datasets.
Why is the Google Places API so expensive for bulk place data?
Google's Places API (New) pricing page, last updated August 25, 2026, bills per request and by SKU, not per place. Text Search costs $32 per 1,000 requests on Essentials and Pro and $35 on Enterprise. Place Details costs $5 per 1,000 on Essentials, $17 on Pro, $20 on Enterprise, and $25 on Enterprise + Atmosphere.
The SKU is decided by the fields you request. Per the Place Details field documentation, formattedAddress and location are Essentials, displayName is Pro, and nationalPhoneNumber, websiteUri, regularOpeningHours, rating, userRatingCount, and priceLevel all trigger Enterprise. Reviews sit in Enterprise + Atmosphere. Contact data therefore costs the $20 tier.
Free monthly allowances are 10,000 Essentials, 5,000 Pro, and 1,000 Enterprise requests per SKU. Two structural limits matter more than the rate card. Text Search (New) returns at most 20 results per page and 60 per query, so a city-wide category needs dozens of sub-queries. And the Places API policies say you must not pre-fetch, cache, or store Places API content, with only the place ID exempt, so a stored spreadsheet of phones and hours sits outside the terms. Volume discounts start late: Text Search Pro drops to $25.60 only above 100,000 monthly requests.
- Place Details Enterprise (phone, website, hours, rating, price level): $20 per 1,000 requests, 1,000 free per month (Google pricing page, updated August 25, 2026)
- Text Search Essentials and Pro $32, Enterprise $35 per 1,000 requests; max 20 results per page, 60 per query
- Caching policy: only place_id may be stored; every other field must be re-fetched
- Needs a Google Cloud project, billing account, and API key before the first call
Google Places API alternatives compared: price per 1,000, users, ratings
Prices are per 1,000 delivered places, except Google (per 1,000 requests) and SerpApi (per 1,000 searches, about 20 places each), all checked August 29, 2026.
compass/crawler-google-places is the incumbent: 580,768 users, 34,835 in the last month, a 4.69 rating, and 97.9 percent run success. It advertises from $1.50 per 1,000 places, but lists separate charges for additional details, contact enrichment, reviews (per review) and social profiles, and the base rate falls as your Apify plan rises. Sibling compass/google-maps-extractor (98,106 users, 4.89 rating) charges $5.00 per 1,000 on the Free plan, $2.10 on Business.
Datapika bills one event per place at a flat $0.003 at every volume, plus a $0.00005 actor-start event that never adds up to a cent, so $3.00 per 1,000 and $30.00 per 10,000. The Apify API reports 559 completed runs as of August 29, 2026, so it trails compass on community size. It does not beat compass's from-$1.50 headline rate. Its case is a single rate that does not move with your Apify plan, your volume, or the fields you request, no key or login, and an MCP tool with a four-field input.
Outscraper charges $0 for the first 500 places each month, $3 per 1,000 up to 100,000, then $1. SerpApi sells searches: $25 per month for 1,000, $75 for 5,000, with a 250-search free plan.
- Largest user base: compass/crawler-google-places, 580,768 users and 4.69 rating (Apify Store, August 29, 2026)
- Lowest headline rate: compass from $1.50 per 1,000 before add-ons; flattest rate: Datapika at $0.003 per place at every volume, no add-ons
- Cheapest first test: Outscraper's 500 free places, or Google's 1,000 free Enterprise requests
- No API key, no login, MCP-ready: Datapika, compass, Outscraper; SerpApi and Google need a key
What do 1,000 and 10,000 places with contact data actually cost?
Assume you need name, address, phone, website, hours, and rating for every place. List prices, checked August 29, 2026.
Google Places API (New), using Text Search Pro to find place IDs and one Place Details Enterprise request per place: 1,000 places need at least 51 search requests (free under the 5,000 Pro cap) plus 1,000 details requests at $20 per 1,000, so $20.00, or $0 while the 1,000 free Enterprise requests last. At 10,000 places it is 9,000 paid details requests after the free 1,000, so $180.00 per month.
There is a cheaper Google path. Requesting Enterprise fields inside Text Search costs $35 per 1,000 requests, and 10,000 places need at least 501 requests (167 queries capped at 60 results, three pages each), about $17.54, with 1,000 requests free each month. On paper that undercuts Datapika. In practice you must write 167 non-overlapping queries, deduplicate heavily, and still cannot store the output.
Datapika: 1,000 places = 1,000 x $0.003 = $3.00. 10,000 places = 10,000 x $0.003 = $30.00. 100,000 places = $300. The $0.00005 actor-start event adds well under a cent per run. compass at the from-$1.50 rate: $1.50 and $15.00 before add-ons. Outscraper: 500 free + 500 x $0.003 = $1.50; 9,500 x $0.003 = $28.50.
- 1,000 places: Google Place Details Enterprise $20.00; Datapika $3.00; compass from $1.50; Outscraper $1.50
- 10,000 places: Google $180.00 (after 1,000 free); Datapika $30.00; compass from $15.00; Outscraper $28.50
- Google Text Search Enterprise: about $17.54 per 10,000 places, but 167 queries of 60 results and no storage allowed
- SerpApi: 10,000 places is at least 500 searches, half of the $25 per month Starter plan's 1,000 searches
Which fields do you get from each option?
The official API returns the freshest record but meters every field. Phone, website, opening hours, rating, rating count, and price level cost the Enterprise SKU; reviews, editorial summaries, and amenity flags cost Enterprise + Atmosphere. You also get stable place IDs, which you may store indefinitely.
Datapika returns a flat JSON record per place with title, category, address, phone, website, review_rating, review_count, status, description, price_range, open_hours keyed by weekday, latitude, longitude, plus_code, timezone, up to 5 image URLs, Google's cid, and a direct Maps link. Switching scrapeReviews on nests the top 10 reviews inside the record, adding about 3 seconds per place and no per-review charge. It does not return email addresses or reviewer profile links.
compass/crawler-google-places goes wider when you pay for it: reviews with reviewer details, images, and contact info including full name, email, and job title, with contacts, social profiles, and email verification priced as add-ons. It also splits a large area into subregions internally to get past Google's 120-places-per-area limit.
SerpApi returns Google's local results with phone, rating, and operating hours, 20 per page. Outscraper matches the core contact set and sells reviews separately at $3 per 1,000.
- Google: every field metered; phone, website, hours, rating, price level = Enterprise; reviews = Enterprise + Atmosphere
- Datapika: 18 core fields plus top 10 reviews per place, no emails, no reviewer profiles
- compass: emails, job titles, social profiles, and per-review billing as paid add-ons
- Every scraper faces the roughly 120-place ceiling per Maps search; compass automates the subregion split, Datapika leaves it to you
When should you use the Places API, compass, or Datapika?
Choose the official Places API when the data is displayed on a Google Map inside your product, for a handful of live lookups per session, or when you must stay strictly inside Google's caching and attribution terms. Under 1,000 Enterprise requests a month it is free, and it is the only option with a supported, versioned contract.
Choose compass/crawler-google-places when you need the widest enrichment (emails, social profiles, full review histories), the largest track record (580,768 users, 97.9 percent success as of August 29, 2026), the lowest headline rate at from $1.50 per 1,000, or automatic subregion splitting so one area yields far more than 120 places.
Choose Datapika when the job is a clean per-place dataset at a predictable price: a flat $0.003 per place, so $3.00 per 1,000, $30.00 per 10,000, $300 per 100,000, billed only for places delivered, with no Google Cloud project, no key, and no subscription. It is also the simplest option for an AI agent, because the MCP tool takes a query string and returns records without glue code.
Choose Outscraper for one-off jobs under 500 places, and SerpApi if you already pay for it. Whatever you pick, plan around the roughly 120-result ceiling per Maps search and deduplicate on cid or link when merging.
- Official API: in-product Google Map display, low volume, strict compliance
- compass: maximum enrichment, lowest headline rate and largest user base, more expensive with add-ons
- Datapika: one flat $0.003 per place at any volume, no add-ons, no key, MCP-native
- Every scraper: split broad queries by neighborhood or category to beat the 120-place ceiling
| Tool | Price per 1,000 | Rating (reviews) | Users | Pricing model | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Places API (New), Place Details Enterprise | $20 per 1,000 requests (1 place each); 1,000 free/month | n/a (not on Apify) | n/a | Per request by SKU, Google Cloud billing, API key required | Live lookups displayed on a Google Map |
| Google Places API (New), Text Search Enterprise | $35 per 1,000 requests (up to 20 places each, 60 per query); 1,000 free/month | n/a (not on Apify) | n/a | Per request by SKU, API key required, no caching except place_id | Small in-app searches |
| Datapika Google Maps Scraper (openclawai) | $3.00 (flat $0.003 per place at every volume, no add-ons) | 5.0 (new listing) | 559 runs | Pay per delivered place, no key, no login, MCP tool | Flat predictable per-place cost; AI agents |
| compass/crawler-google-places | From $1.50 (details, contacts, reviews billed as add-ons) | 4.69 | 580,768 (34,835 monthly) | Pay per event, cheaper on higher Apify plans, no key | Largest community, deepest enrichment |
| compass/google-maps-extractor | $5.00 Free / $4.00 Starter / $3.00 Scale / $2.10 Business | 4.89 | 98,106 (4,002 monthly) | Pay per place by Apify plan, no key | Fast basic listings on a paid Apify plan |
| Outscraper Google Maps Scraper | First 500 free each month, then $3.00; $1.00 above 100,000 | n/a (not on Apify) | n/a | Pay as you go, no monthly fee, Outscraper API key | One-off jobs under 500 places |
| SerpApi Google Maps API | $25 per 1,000 searches on the $25/month Starter plan; $15 per 1,000 on $75/month (about 20 places per search) | n/a (not on Apify) | n/a | Monthly subscription, API key required | Teams already paying for SerpApi |
How to do it
- 1.Open https://apify.com/openclawai/google-maps-scraper with a free Apify account, or register it as an agent tool at https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,openclawai/google-maps-scraper. No Google Cloud project, billing account, or API key is needed.
- 2.Replace each Text Search call with one query string per area (for example, dentists in Camden London), keep maxResults at or below about 120 per query, and set scrapeReviews to true if you need review text.
- 3.Run from the console, the REST run-sync-get-dataset-items endpoint, the CLI, or the MCP tool, then map title, phone, website, open_hours, and review_rating onto the Place Details field names your code already uses.
- 4.Deduplicate on cid or link when merging neighborhood queries, schedule recurring runs for fresh snapshots, and pay a flat $0.003 per delivered place at any volume.
Questions, answered
Why not just use the official Google Places API?
For low volumes displayed inside a Google Map it is the right choice. The problem is price and terms at scale. Per Google's pricing page dated August 25, 2026, a Place Details request that includes phone, website, hours, and rating bills at the Enterprise SKU, $20 per 1,000, after 1,000 free requests a month. Text Search caps at 60 results per query, and the policies prohibit storing any field except place_id. A 10,000-place contact dataset costs about $180 a month there versus $30.00 on Datapika.
Is scraping Google Maps legal or allowed?
Collecting publicly visible business listings is generally treated as lawful in the US and EU when the data is public, non-personal business information and you respect rate limits. Google's Terms of Service bind accounts that agree to them, which is why scrapers do not log in. Reviews contain reviewer names, which are personal data under GDPR, so store them only with a lawful basis. This is not legal advice; check your jurisdiction and intended use before building a product on scraped data.
How many places can one Google Maps query return?
About 120 for any single search, because that is roughly how many results Google Maps renders no matter how far you scroll. Datapika's input accepts maxResults up to 500, but a broad query still stops near 120. The official Text Search (New) API is stricter at 60 results per query across three pages of 20. To collect thousands of places, run one query per neighborhood, postcode, or sub-category and merge the datasets, dropping duplicates on the cid or link field.
How does Datapika's per-place pricing compare with compass/crawler-google-places?
compass advertises from $1.50 per 1,000 places and has 580,768 users and a 4.69 rating as of August 29, 2026, but its store page bills details, contact enrichment, reviews (per review), and social profiles as separate events, and the base rate depends on your Apify plan. Datapika charges one event per place at a flat $0.003, so 1,000 places is $3.00 and 10,000 is $30.00, with the top 10 reviews per place included when enabled. On headline rate compass is cheaper; Datapika's advantage is that the number does not move with your plan, your volume, or the fields you request.
Can an AI agent call a Google Maps scraper without a Google API key?
Yes. Datapika's actor is exposed through the Apify MCP server at mcp.apify.com with openclawai/google-maps-scraper in the tools list, so Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client can read the input schema, run a query, and consume the place records. The only credential is the Apify token, which also carries the pay-per-result billing. There is no Google Cloud project, no OAuth, and no quota to configure, and an agent can compute cost before calling because each place is a fixed $0.003 event.
Does Datapika return email addresses or full review histories?
No. The record covers business-level data: name, category, address, phone, website, rating, review count, status, hours, coordinates, plus code, timezone, images, and a Maps link, plus the top 10 reviews per place when scrapeReviews is on. There are no email addresses, reviewer profile links, or complete review histories. If you need emails or social profiles, compass/crawler-google-places sells those as paid add-ons, or you can run an email-enrichment step on the website field.