Street View Static API overview

Before you begin: Before you start using the Street View Static API, you need a project with a billing account and the Street View Static API enabled. We recommend creating multiple Project Owners and Billing Administrators, so that you'll always have someone with these roles available to your team. To learn more, see Get Started with Google Maps Platform.

Introduction

The Street View Static API lets you embed a static (non-interactive) Street View panorama or thumbnail into your web page, without the use of JavaScript. The viewport is defined with URL parameters sent through a standard HTTP request, and is returned as a static image.

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/streetview?size=400x400&location=47.5763831,-122.4211769
&fov=80&heading=70&pitch=0
&key=YOUR_API_KEY&signature=YOUR_SIGNATURE

Before you begin

This document is intended for website and mobile developers who want to include static Street View Static API panorama images within a webpage or mobile application. It provides an introduction to using the API and reference material on the available parameters.

Before you start developing with the Street View Static API, review the authentication requirements (you need an API key) and the API usage and billing information (you need to enable billing on your project).

URL parameters

A Street View Image request is an HTTP URL of the following form:

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/streetview?parameters

The image is specified using request parameters. As is standard in URLs, all parameters are separated using the ampersand (&) character. Allowed parameters and their possible values are listed below.

Required parameters

Either:

• location can be either a text string (such as Chagrin Falls, OH) or a lat/lng value (40.457375,-80.009353). The Street View Static API will snap to the panorama photographed closest to this location. When an address text string is provided, the API may use a different camera location to better display the specified location. When a lat/lng is provided, the API searches a 50 meter radius for a photograph closest to this location. Because Street View imagery is periodically refreshed, and photographs may be taken from slightly different positions each time, it's possible that your location may snap to a different panorama when imagery is updated.

Or:

• pano is a specific panorama ID. These are generally stable.

As well as:

• size specifies the output size of the image in pixels. Size is specified as {width}x{height} - for example, size=600x400 returns an image 600 pixels wide, and 400 high.
• key allows you to monitor your application's API usage in the Google Cloud Console, and ensures that Google can contact you about your application if necessary. For more information, see Get a Key and Signature.

  Note: Google Maps Platform Premium Plan customers may use either an API key and digital signature, or a valid client ID and digital signature, in your Street View requests. Get more information on authentication parameters for Premium Plan customers.

  Customers with a previous Google Maps APIs for Work license must include valid client and signature parameters with their requests, instead of a key. For more information, please refer to the Client IDs and signatures section of the Get a Key and Signature page.

Optional parameters

• signature (recommended) is a digital signature used to verify that any site generating requests using your API key is authorized to do so. Requests that do not include a digital signature might fail. For more information, see Get a Key and Signature.

  Note: for Google Maps Platform Premium Plan customers, the digital signature is required. Get more information on authentication parameters for Premium Plan customers.

• heading indicates the compass heading of the camera. Accepted values are from 0 to 360 (both values indicating North, with 90 indicating East, and 180 South). If no heading is specified, a value will be calculated that directs the camera towards the specified location, from the point at which the closest photograph was taken.
• fov (default is 90) determines the horizontal field of view of the image. The field of view is expressed in degrees, with a maximum allowed value of 120. When dealing with a fixed-size viewport, as with a Street View image of a set size, field of view in essence represents zoom, with smaller numbers indicating a higher level of zoom.

  
  
  (Left: fov=120; Right: fov=20)

• pitch (default is 0) specifies the up or down angle of the camera relative to the Street View vehicle. This is often, but not always, flat horizontal. Positive values angle the camera up (with 90 degrees indicating straight up); negative values angle the camera down (with -90 indicating straight down).
• radius (default is 50) sets a radius, specified in meters, in which to search for a panorama, centered on the given latitude and longitude. Valid values are non-negative integers.
• return_error_codes indicates whether the API should return an error code when no image is found (404 NOT FOUND), or in response to an invalid request (400 BAD REQUEST). Valid values are true and false. If set to true, an error message is returned in place of the generic gray image. This eliminates the need to make a separate call to check for image availability.
• source (default is default) limits Street View searches to selected sources. Valid values are:
  • default uses the default sources for Street View; searches are not limited to specific sources.
  • outdoor limits searches to outdoor collections. Indoor collections are not included in search results. Note that outdoor panoramas may not exist for the specified location. Also note that the search only returns panoramas where it's possible to determine whether they're indoors or outdoors. For example, PhotoSpheres are not returned because it's unknown whether they are indoors or outdoors.

An example request is shown below.

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/streetview?size=600x300&location=46.414382,10.013988&heading=151.78&pitch=-0.76&key=YOUR_API_KEY&signature=YOUR_SIGNATURE

No imagery available

For locations where Street View imagery is not available, the Street View Static API returns a gray generic image, with the text "Sorry, we have no imagery here.", as shown in the following example:

Figure: Generic image displayed when no imagery is available for the specified location.

Show only valid images

To avoid displaying the generic image, and ensure that your web page displays only valid Street View Static API images, follow these suggestions:

• Set the return_error_codes parameter to true. This will cause the Street View Static API to return a 404 NOT FOUND error in place of the generic gray image, if no image is available for the specified location.
• Request Street View image metadata to determine if there is imagery available for the specified location prior to sending a request.

More information

For more information on using the Street View Static API, or other Google Maps API products, be sure to check out the Maps API Support page.