All terms
API & Integration
Google Places API
The Google Places API is a web service from Google Maps Platform that lets developers programmatically search for and retrieve information about places - including businesses and points of interest - returning details such as name, address, coordinates, ratings, opening hours, and contact information.
Also known asPlaces API
In depth
What Google Places API means.
The Google Places API is part of Google Maps Platform. It offers operations such as text and nearby search, place details lookups, autocomplete, and photos, letting an application find places by query or location and then fetch a structured record for each one. Returned fields commonly include the place name, formatted address, geographic coordinates, place types, average rating, review count, opening hours, and a phone number or website where available.
Developers use it to power store locators, mapping features, local search, and as a starting point for building business datasets. Access requires a Google Cloud API key, and usage is billed by Google according to the operations and fields requested, with its own quotas and rate limits.
The API is governed by the Google Maps Platform terms of service, which place conditions on how returned data may be stored, cached, and displayed. It also does not, on its own, perform website enrichment - it returns what Google holds about a place, so contact details beyond a listed phone or website often require a separate step.
How biz collect relates
Google Places API in biz collect.
biz collect uses live Google Places search as the discovery layer of its pipeline. When you POST a city and keywords, it queries Places to find matching businesses, dedupes them, and then adds a website-enrichment step of its own - crawling each business site for emails and social profiles - before returning a single structured record per business.
The practical difference for a developer is scope: instead of managing a Google Cloud project, stitching together search and details calls, and building your own enrichment and deduplication, you make one call to biz collect and receive enriched, deduplicated business records in a stable JSON schema, under a credit-based plan with a free tier.
Go deeper
Where this concept shows up across biz collect:
Google Places API
Frequently asked questions.
Does the Google Places API return business emails?
Generally no. The Places API returns the data Google holds about a place, such as a phone number and website, but not an email address. Obtaining emails typically requires separately crawling the business website.
Is the Google Places API free?
It requires a Google Cloud account and is billed according to Google Maps Platform pricing for the operations and fields you request, subject to Google's quotas and terms. Pricing and any free usage are set by Google.
Does Google allow scraping the Places API or Google Maps?
No. The official Google Maps Platform terms of service prohibit scraping, and customers must not export, extract, or otherwise scrape Google Maps Content for use outside the Services - including bulk-copying business names, addresses, or reviews. The Places API is Google's sanctioned, paid way to access place data programmatically. Always read the current Google Maps Platform terms and the Places API policies before storing or caching results.
Can I store or cache data from the Google Places API?
Only within the limits Google sets. The Places API policies restrict caching and storing place content beyond defined exceptions, though the place_id identifier is exempt from the caching restriction. Check Google's official Places API policies for the exact, current rules before persisting any field.
Still have questions? Talk to us.
Turn the concept into real data.
Sign up free with 200 signup credits, no credit card. POST a city plus keywords and get an enriched, structured list of businesses back as JSON.
No credit card required200 signup credits20 daily login credits