Available traffic options

AI-generated Key Takeaways

• The Routes API offers options to customize how traffic data is used for route calculation, impacting both route selection and estimated travel times.

• You can choose to include or exclude traffic data, impacting the accuracy and speed of the results.

• Traffic-aware polylines provide detailed traffic conditions along the route but come with higher billing rates.

• Different traffic models can be selected to prioritize various factors like historical and live traffic conditions when estimating travel duration.

European Economic Area (EEA) developers

If your billing address is in the European Economic Area, effective on 8 July 2025, the Google Maps Platform EEA Terms of Service will apply to your use of the Services. Functionality varies by region. Learn more.

When you request a route, you can choose how the Routes API uses traffic data when calculating your route. A traffic model is a way to factor historical and live traffic conditions into your route generation, and can affect both which routes you get and how long the estimated travel time is.

Here are the traffic options for a route:

Traffic Option	Description
Specify how and if to include traffic data	Include traffic data for more accurate results, or exclude it for a faster response.
Select whether polylines reflect traffic	You can include information about the traffic conditions along the route in your returned polylines. This feature is billed at a higher rate.
Specify what traffic model to use	Specify which traffic model to use to prioritize different factors used in calculating duration in traffic.