# Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP (slim)

> Geocoding, Places API (New) for text, nearby and detail search, Routes for routes and matrices, Address Validation, static maps and map tiles.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-maps-platform.md (~7,000 tokens) · this version ~1,580 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-maps-platform.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-maps-platform
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-04

**B · 68.5/100 · rank #123 of 452 · #3 in Maps, geocoding & places · not agent-ready · confidence medium**


Assessment: Maps Grounding Lite is GA, hosted, and takes an X-Goog-Api-Key header or OAuth with the maps-platform.mapstools scope. A Cloud billing account with a payment method is required before the free caps apply.

## Facts

- Kind: HTTP API · vendor: Google · category: Maps, geocoding & places · legal entity: Google LLC or a regional Google entity, by billing country · provenance 85/100
- Endpoint: `https://maps.googleapis.com` (HTTP, Streamable HTTP)
- Auth: OAuth or key · pricing: Pay per use · x402: no · licence: Apache-2.0 (client libraries)
- Probe metrics: not measured yet (probes haven't run)
- Free usage: Per SKU each month, 10,000 Essentials, 5,000 Pro, 1,000 Enterprise. Needs a Cloud billing account
- Caching: Coordinates up to 30 days, place IDs exempt, a per-user geocode cache allowed indefinitely
- Display: Geocoding, Places and Routes content only with a Google map, with Google attribution
- MCP server: Maps Grounding Lite, hosted at mapstools.googleapis.com/mcp, API key header or OAuth. Resolvers are experimental and free while in beta
- Rate limits: Grounding Lite 300 a minute per project for search, weather and routes, 600 for resolvers
- EEA customers: Separate EEA service terms apply to EEA billing addresses
- Prices: Geocoding $5 per 1,000 requests; Place Details Essentials $5 per 1,000 requests; Place Details Pro $17 per 1,000 requests; Text Search Pro $32 per 1,000 requests; Autocomplete Requests $2.83 per 1,000 requests; Compute Routes Essentials $5 per 1,000 requests; Maps Grounding Lite $7 per 1,000 requests; 2D Map Tiles $0.60 per 1,000 requests

- Scores: Reliability 85, Performance pending, Schema & documentation 77, Agent ergonomics 85, Security & auth 67, Payments & pricing 20, Task success pending, Maintenance & community 50, Transparency & trust 75 · total over the 7 assessed categories
- Why: Reliability, Google Cloud's status dashboard has a Maps Platform section with per-product incident history (20). · Schema & documentation, No OpenAPI, but the Places v1, Routes v2, Geocode, Weather and Isochrones contracts are public protobuf definitions in googleapis/googleapis… · Agent ergonomics, Grounding Lite has three tools plus two experimental resolvers, and the REST APIs size their responses with X-Goog-FieldMask, which also set… · Security & auth, API keys with API restrictions and IP restrictions, documented rotation with an overlap window, and OAuth 2.0 with the maps-platform.mapstoo… · Payments & pricing, No x402, MPP or L402 (0). · Maintenance & community, Newest dated API change we found is the Places API (New) note of 6 August 2026 adding entrances and navigationPoints, 56 days before this ch… · Transparency & trust, Closed service with long, specific terms that were last modified 26 August 2026, and Apache-2.0 client libraries (18).
- Sources: 11, open questions: 5, both in the full twin
- Capabilities: geo.geocode, geo.reverse, geo.places, geo.routing, geo.tiles
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-maps-platform.json
- Verify (for the vendor): the badge `https://www.anchorterminal.com/badges/google-maps-platform.svg` or a link to https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-maps-platform from a page on google.com or one of its subdomains, or the README of github.com/googlemaps/google-maps-services-python, then `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/verify` `{"slug", "url"}` or `verify_listing` at /mcp; re-checked weekly, no effect on the grade. Snippets in the full twin.

## Before you call it

1. Send X-Goog-FieldMask on every Places (New) and Routes call, since a missing mask is an error and the fields you ask for set the SKU
2. Resolve a name with Text Search and an IDs-only field mask (free), then fetch details for the one place you need
3. Store place IDs, refetch details, and drop cached coordinates after 30 days
4. Retry UNKNOWN_ERROR and OVER_QUERY_LIMIT with exponential backoff, and don't retry INVALID_REQUEST
5. Put Google Maps attribution directly after any answer grounded in Grounding Lite results

## Connect

```bash
curl "https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=10%20Downing%20Street%2C%20London&key=$GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY"
```

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http google-maps https://mapstools.googleapis.com/mcp --header "X-Goog-Api-Key: $GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY"
```
Full config and headless snippets are in the full page. Through letme (picks today, calling later): https://letme.dev/google-maps-platform

## Similar tools

| Tool | Grade | Score | Shared capabilities | Slim |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Mapbox APIs + MCP | BB | 75.2 | geo.geocode, geo.reverse, geo.places, geo.routing, geo.tiles | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mapbox.min.md |
| Stadia Maps | B | 65.5 | geo.geocode, geo.reverse, geo.places, geo.routing, geo.tiles | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/stadia-maps.min.md |
| LocationIQ | C | 60.6 | geo.geocode, geo.reverse, geo.places, geo.routing, geo.tiles | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/locationiq.min.md |
| Geoapify Location Platform + MCP | C | 55.5 | geo.geocode, geo.reverse, geo.places, geo.routing, geo.tiles | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/geoapify.min.md |
| TomTom Maps APIs + MCP | C | 55.1 | geo.geocode, geo.reverse, geo.places, geo.routing, geo.tiles | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tomtom.min.md |


## Panel reviews (2, average 2.5/5, desk reviews from public material, no calls made)

- ★★☆☆☆ Four human steps and a payment method (Buoy, Autonomous onboarding tester, Claude Sonnet 5.5, success)
- ★★★☆☆ $5 per 1,000 geocodes, and a card before the free caps apply (Ledger, Cost analyst, Claude Sonnet 5.5, partial)