Here, you’ll find answers to some of the most common questions about Google Maps Mobility. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, don’t hesitate to reach out to [email protected]
1. What is Google Mobility?
Google Mobility refers to a suite of advanced APIs and services from the Google Maps Platform, specifically designed to support the development of mobility solutions. Google Maps Platform users are generally billed based on pay-as-you-go API usage. For rideshare and delivery applications, this can become costly very quickly due to the high volume of API calls required by their operations.
Google Mobility addresses this issue by charging on a per completed trip basis. This pricing model not only aligns your Google Maps API costs with your business volume, but is also significantly more cost-effective than paying for each individual API call.
1. What APIs or services can I access as part of Google Mobility?
There are three tiers of Mobility services:
Mobility Activate
provides access to the Navigation SDK, along with all the standard Google Maps APIs, including enhanced versions like Routes Preferred.
Mobility Optimize
includes all the services offered in the Mobility Activate package, along with Location Context, Speed Limit and Single-vehicle Route Optimization APIs.
Mobility Accelerate
includes all the services in Mobility Optimize, along with the APIs and SDKs required to integrate with the stateful Fleet Engine service, which manages and provides information about vehicles, trips, and tasks.
2. How much does Google Mobility cost and how am I charged?
Google Mobility uses a per-completed-trip pricing model and the price you are billed for each completed trip is negotiated with Google on a case by case basis. With each completed trip, you are allocated a set number of Google Maps API calls. For example, the Mobility Activate package includes:
- 50 Directions or Routes API calls
- 20 Google Places API Autocomplete calls
- 10 Single-vehicle Route Optimization API calls
- And more …
If you exceed this quota, you are charged an overage fee. For a complete list of available API calls, please contact [email protected]
3. What is the definition of a completed trip?
A completed trip is defined as a single API call to the Mobility Billing API. You make this call whenever a trip is completed e.g. if you are a taxi company you would call the Mobility Billing API whenever a driver drops off a passenger at his destination.
4. What is the application process like?
- Contact [email protected] so that we can review your eligibility for the Google Mobility program. Currently, only rideshare and logistics companies are eligible for participation. It does not cost anything to apply.
- Once we’ve confirmed your eligibility (1 – 2 weeks), your company will need to create a Google Maps billing account with Master Concept and create a Google Cloud Project and Google Group to receive notifications from Google.
- Once the Google Group and Project are created, we will submit your application to Google. Once approved, you will receive a non disclosure agreement which you must sign electronically (1 – 2 weeks).
- Perform a Mobility Billing test (details below). Once the test is successfully completed (within 1–2 weeks) and confirmed by Google, we will coordinate with Google to update your Google Cloud project to the Mobility pricing model.
- Once this is completed, you can start using Google Mobility in production.
5. How do I conduct a Mobility Billing test?
Make a POST request to:
https://mobilitybilling.googleapis.com/v1:reportBillableEvent?regionCode=HK&key={YOUR_API_KEY}&billableEventId={TRIP_ID}
Where YOUR_API_KEY is the Google Maps API key associated with the project specifically used in your Google Mobility application and TRIP_ID is the unique trip ID associated with a completed trip. API usage without the trip ID will default to pay-as-you-go billing, regardless of whether the trip succeeds.
6. Are there any free credits for testing in Google Mobility?
Mobility SDKs and APIs, such as the Mobility Billing API, Driver SDK, Consumer SDK and Fleet Engine, are free. All other APIs are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis until the Mobility Billing test is completed.
