You are reading this article because we (JUCRA) created a website for you and we installed google maps on your site and they no longer work.
Up until 2018, google maps were free, so when we created a website for a client, we would simply add your domain to our google cloud account and you would enjoy free google maps.
However, in June 2018, google changed to a "freemium" model saying that google maps were only going to be free up to $200 a month per cloud account, which meant that because we had stacked a lot of clients onto our account would mean that all the request up until $200 would be free and anything after that would be charged.
Ref: Is the Google Maps API Free To Use?
Up until September 2021, this was working fine and our clients were getting free google maps because the requests were never going over $200, but during the month of July and August, our google cloud bill was $180 for July and $220 for August and September looks like it's going to be in the region of $250. This was due to some of our clients getting 100,000 + google maps requests.
| So during the first week of September, we have started removing clients from our google cloud account in order to curb this expense. The result of this is some sites are no longer showing google maps. |
SO HOW DO I SHOW GOOGLE MAPS ON MY WEBSITE?
The short story is, you will need your own google cloud account and send us your unique google maps API key.
Below is a tutorial on how to create your cloud account and send us your API key.
How to Send Us Your Google Maps API Key
1. Go to the Google Cloud Platform Console. If you don’t have an account yet, create one, it’s free.
2. Select or create a project.
3. Set up your billing account. Even though they will require you to put a credit card on file, you should never be charged, unless you do go over the high usage limits.
4. You will be asked to pick one or more products. You would pick the Google Maps Embed API.
5. Click “Enable.”
6. Click on “APIs” and then under “Credentials”, you will see your API key.
!!! BEFORE YOU COPY THE API KEY, SEE THE NEXT STEP ON HOW TO SECURE YOUR API KEY!!!
7. THE NEXT STEP IS SUPER IMPORTANT
You need to edit the settings of the API keys so someone does not steal your key and use it on their site and rack up a huge bill on your credit card.
DONT FORGET TO CLICK THE SAVE BUTTON after making your changes.
8. Now that your API key is locked down to your website, you can submit the API key to us using our secure form here.
Please include the domain name the API key is being used for and we will proceed and add your API key to your website.
