How to Scrape Google Maps Business Data in 2026 (API vs Scraping)

Google Maps is the richest public source of local business data on the planet — over 200 million businesses indexed with names, addresses, phone numbers, ratings, reviews, and operating hours. Whether you're building a lead generation pipeline, doing market research, or analyzing competitors, getting this data programmatically is a common need. But Google doesn't make it cheap or easy. Let's break down the realistic options in 2026. Google Maps Places API: The Official (Expensive) Route Google's Places API is the sanctioned way to access business data. The pricing as of 2026: Place Search: ~$17 per 1,000 requests Place Details: ~$17 per 1,000 requests Autocomplete: ~$2.83 per 1,000 requests To get full business details (name, address, phone, rating, reviews, hours), you need at minimum a search request + a details request per business. That's $34 per 1,000 businesses. If you're scraping 50,000 businesses for a market research project, that's $1,700 just for the API calls. For many use