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Google Maps Platform COVID-19 Developer Resource Hub

As communities around the world come together in response to COVID-19, the developer community is playing an active and important role in relief efforts. We’ve seen an inspiring response from developers looking to build crisis response apps and sites to help keep their users and the public informed and healthy. To support them in developing these experiences, we’ve begun expediting applications for Google Maps Platform Crisis Response credits and created a collection of best practices for the APIs and SDKS that are most commonly used for crisis response implementations.

To apply for credits, please fill out the Application for Credits form by clicking the button below. Note that as all customers will need a billing account to access our services, we ask you to set up a billing account before submitting your application for credit.

Apply for Credits

What are Google Maps Platform credits?

Google Maps Platform issues credits in a dollar amount that is automatically applied to your billing account at the end of the month against the cost of your usage of any Google Maps Platform APIs or SDKs that month.

Who is eligible for credits?

The program is available to not-for-profit developers offering a publicly-available website or mobile app related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Please note that only those websites and apps offering legitimate services and/or disseminating information from authoritative sources (e.g. Centers for Disease Control, World Health Organization, state and local health agencies) are eligible. Our team will closely review all applications for credits to determine eligibility. Also, if you're an Android app developer, please make sure you're familiar with the Google Play Store's app publishing policies and guidelines.

Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ - Billing

Do I need to enable a billing account?
Yes. To use Google Maps Platform, you must have a Google Cloud Platform account with a valid billing account enabled.
Learn more about how to enable a billing account.
If I don’t have access to a credit card for my company or government entity, how do I set up a billing account?
For some companies, government entities, and non-profits, employees often do not have direct access to a company credit card that can be used to set up a billing account.

If this is your situation, please contact our team and we will put you in contact with one of our regional reseller partners, who will be able to set up alternate billing arrangements, such as monthly invoicing, that do not require a credit card to enable a billing account.

To contact our team to be connected with one of our regional reseller partners, please fill out our Contact Sales form by doing the following:

  1. Go to the Contact Sales page.
  2. Click I want to talk to someone in sales.
  3. Click the Go to contact form button.
  4. Fill out the form with your information.
  5. Click the Submit button.

Once your billing account has been enabled, we will automatically begin applying monthly credits to your account.

FAQ - Using Google Maps Platform

How do I get started with Google Maps Platform?

The basic steps for getting started with Google Maps Platform are:

  1. Create a Google Cloud Platform account.
  2. Enable a billing account for your Google Cloud Platform account.
  3. Enable the Google Maps Platform APIs and SDKs you want to use.
  4. Generate an API key to authenticate your requests to the platform.

For a complete list of setup steps and requirements, see Get Started with Google Maps Platform.

Videos that walk through basic onboarding steps, including enabling APIs and SDKs, setting up a billing account, and generating API keys are available on the Google Maps Platform YouTube channel.

Do I need an API key to use Google Maps Platform APIs and SDKs?

Yes. To use Google Maps Platform APIs and SDKs, you will need to generate an API key and use it for all requests.

Learn more about how to generate an API key.

Which APIs and SDKs are available?

See our documentation for a complete list of APIs and SDKs.

You can also browse APIs and SDKs by platform (i.e. web, iOS, Android, web services).

Where can I learn the basics of using Google Maps Platforms APIs and SDKs?

Many COVID-19 related apps are currently focused on tracking the spread and statistics of the pandemic. In most cases, the basic functionality needed is showing a map with markers to represent the data.

For a basic tutorial on displaying a map with markers, check out our introductory walkthroughs for the Maps JavaScript API, Maps SDK for Android, and Maps SDK for iOS.

You can also view tutorial videos on how to implement a variety of Google Maps Platform features in the Geocasts series on our YouTube channel.

How can I determine whether a business closure is permanent or temporary?

The Places API now supports the business_status field for Place Search and Place Details. The business_status result indicates whether a business is operational, or has been closed either temporarily or permanently. Do not use the results from the field permanently_closed, as it does not distinguish between temporary and permanent closures.

What Google Maps Platform features should I consider using?

As a full-featured mapping, places, and routing platform, any of the platform's APIs and SDKs can be useful to you, depending on what you are trying to build. Here is a short list of features that you may want to start by considering:

Displaying a map:

Styling a map:

Visualizing data on a map:

Searching for places:

Routing and directions:

Location awareness:

Delivery:

Buy online, pick up in store:

I’m trying to visualize a very large dataset (i.e. tens of thousands or millions of datapoints). What is the best solution?

Google Maps Platform has support for many of the visualizations in the open- source deck.gl framework, which provides a wide variety of out-of-the-box data visualizations for the web that are purpose-built to handle very large datasets.

For more information on what deck.gl offers for Google Maps Platform, see our blog post.

Read the introduction to using deck.gl with the Maps JavaScript API. You can also reference our sample code, and view a demo app.

FAQ - Support

Where can I get help implementing Google Maps Platform features?
The Google Maps Platform documentation offers step-by- step walkthroughs for implementing all of the features of the platform. We also offer a number of Codelabs that can help you learn how to use various features.
In addition, the google-maps tag on Stack Overflow is a great place to ask coding questions and get help from experienced Google Maps Platform developers around the world.
What support options are available?
For more hands-on assistance, you can open a support case or chat with our support team in the Support tab of the Google Maps console.
A complete list of available support options is available on our Support page.
If you are working with one of our reseller partners to manage your account, they may also have additional support options available.