This is an old article that does well in the search engines!
September 07, 2018
Right, let's get the panic out of the way. It is now 2 months since the new pricing structure of Google services was launched. And that has had consequences, especially for the heavy users. The complex websites/applications that lean heavily on (for example) Google Maps are the ones that suffer. And it is precisely for those parties that this new structure was launched. This (virtually) free service has been used a lot, and for a long time. Some applications (mainly portals with business listings) run for 80% on this service. It was to be expected that that would come to an end at some point. The ones who will have to pay much more are predominantly also the ones who have a very large number of visitors. They undoubtedly make money from it. A bit of indignation about the change is certainly in order, but let's not exaggerate.
For the more 'standard' websites ( yes sorry, you probably have one of those if you are reading this) a regular placement is still free. Google has simply kept the simplest variants free. And everyone has a monthly usage credit of 200 dollars per month. For example, for the first more complex basic implementations of Google Maps, the first 14,000 are therefore still free. And after that 14.00 dollars per 1,000 calls. I think that if you have 14,000+ Google Maps calls on your website...there will also be a revenue model somewhere.
What is important, though, is to secure your API so that your key cannot be 'hijacked' and used by others. Shield your key so that only your websites and applications can use it.
To go to the price table, click the picture!
Need more help? Feel free to ask me: melvin@zaaks.nl.
Better safe than sorry, shall we say.