Pay 70% less for this popular Google product starting August 1 – Trak.in

Notably, Google is slashing prices of its Google Maps Platform for Indian developers by as much as 70% starting August 1, 2024. This shift introduces a new, country-specific pricing structure aimed at facilitating the development of location-based solutions in India.

Google slashes Maps API prices, takes on Ola in India

Importantly, Google is partnering with Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to offer even greater discounts to developers building for ONDC, with discounts of up to 90% on select APIs used for ecommerce and connected use cases. The announcement was made at Google I/O Connect Bengaluru on July 17, where Google also revealed that it will begin accepting payments in Indian rupees (INR), a change from its previous practice of charging in US dollars.

The price cut is planned to make the Google Maps Platform more accessible to developers in India. This comes as Ola CEO Bhavesh Aggarwal is promoting Ola Maps by offering a year of free access to encourage developers to switch. Bhavesh Aggarwal’s AI startup Krutrim introduced mapping services through Ola Maps API in May, highlighting an “India-first” pricing structure. Ola Cabs recently migrated completely from Google Maps to Ola Maps, a move that is expected to save Rs 100 crore annually. Aggarwal has drawn attention to the growing adoption of the Ola Maps API on social media.

Google Maps platform offers lower prices and discounts for Indian developers

Google’s new pricing structure is exclusively for customers in India with significant usage in the country, who will be billed in INR. New customers will be automatically billed in INR, while existing customers can choose to switch from USD to INR starting August 1. Developers will be able to use the same billing account for both Google Maps Platform and Google Cloud services. The new pricing reduces pay-as-you-go rates and increases the number of monthly requests in each tier. For example, the Geocoding API, which currently costs $5.00 per 1,000 requests for the first 100,000 monthly requests, will be reduced to $1.50 per 1,000 requests for the first 5,000,000 monthly requests for Indian customers.

Developers building for ONDC can access further discounts on specific APIs through Google Maps Platform partners. These discounts are open to small businesses across all roles in the ONDC network: seller, buyer, technology service provider, and gateway. The discounted pricing is available for one year from August 1, 2024 and will be valid until April 1, 2027.