How to scrape data from Google Maps

We don’t have to tell you how popular and ubiquitous using Google Maps is. Over its 18+ years of existence, Google Maps has transformed from a simple navigation tool to an app presenting a whole different level of opportunities for both individual users and big and small fish in business.

We’re going to show you how to use the Apify platform and a ready-made tool called Google Maps Scraper to extract data from Google Maps. This scraper, or crawler, will enable you to extract the most recent Google Maps data directly from the website, including reviews, images, opening hours, and popular times.

To learn how to achieve this, you can follow a step-by-step guide here or head over to our short YouTube tutorial 📹🔴▶️

📝 What data can I extract from Google Maps?

💿 Why not use the official Google Maps API?

Some massively popular websites such as Instagram, Twitter, and Amazon do provide APIs for their users to access part of their data, scraping purposes included. Google Maps is among these websites. So why do people search for unofficial Google Maps API in the first place when there’s an official API around?

The answer is the limitations of the Google Maps API and the need to find alternatives to get around these limitations. Back in 2010, Google Places API introduced considerable limitations on scraping their data. Here are just a few reasons why alternatives to Google Maps API are popular:

🏷 Prices got pretty high. In 2010, Google Places made using their APIs paid. 8 years later, in 2018, Google introduced a new billing model for businesses using Google Maps APIs. The amount of free API calls has been cut, and the new pricing wasn’t welcome.

🤔 Pricing model is also tricky. After using up the freemium monthly credits of $200, which include a seemingly safe package of 28K Dynamic Maps loads, 100K Static Maps loads, 40K Directions calls and 40K Geolocation calls, things get tricky. However, the costs go pretty high if you decide to use Embed API in Directions, Views, or Search mode. And don’t even get us started on autocomplete - that one consumes credits like wildfire.

🔒 Authentication gate. Your API calls have to include a valid API key linked to a Google Cloud Platform account; yes, even if your usage remains within the initial free $200 credit.

📞 Limited number of free API calls. 28K dynamic loads per month for free (compared to 25K per day before 2018 pricing change). All this leads to…

👀 Anxious monitoring. You have to constantly keep an eye on your API usage so as to stay within the limits because you don’t want to face consequences when your account gets blocked out of the blue for overusage.

⏱ Imposed limitations on results. Google Places API enforces rate limits (100 requests per second) and IP quotas. Some features are still unavailable in Place API such as Popular place times histogram.

🌋 Unpredictability. Google can make any changes to the paid API, or impose new restrictions at any moment. Adapting to those changes can influence your solution significantly and without warning.

These are just a few reasons that encouraged businesses and developers around the world to find alternative ways to scrape the Google Maps website, such as Google Maps Scraper 🔗, which now accounts for 30+K users. While the official Google Maps Places API can be an adequate option in some cases, low-code crawlers such as ours can provide:

🧬 Unlimited results

🌟 All place reviews

🏞 All place images

📊 Popular place times histogram

💸 All for a better price

Now let's walk you through every step of the process of scraping Google Maps.

‍🗺 How do I scrape data from Google Maps?

Step 1. Go to Google Maps Scraper

First, go to the Google Maps Scraper page and click the Try for free button.

You can log in using only your email address or GitHub account. Afterward, you will be redirected to Apify Console - your workspace for all things data extraction.

Step 2. Indicate the search term or URL to scrape

There are two ways to get your Google Maps data. Choose your starting point: search terms 🔎 or URLs ‍🔗 .

🔎📍  How to scrape Google Maps by search term + location

Enter your search terms in the first fields of the scraper, e.g., bagel -> New York -> United States. That would be enough for a regular scrape. The scraper will find places in New York City that mention Bagel 🥯.

But you can make your search even more granular in the 📡 Define the search area either by typing the rest of the address (state, US county, postal code) or by inserting the latitude and longitude coordinates of the area of your interest. More detailed guide here 🛰.

🔗 🗺  How to scrape Google Maps by URL?

Open the Google Maps website in a separate tab, search for New York -> bagel and, once Google Maps provides you with results, copy the URL and paste it into s respective field.

With this option, you can also adjust the zoom level of the area to scrape, before you copy-paste the URL. If you zoom in, you will get more detailed results, including smaller businesses. Otherwise, you will obtain what Google Maps will consider the most relevant places over a larger area. More detailed guide here 🔎.

Step 3. Click Start ▶️

Once you are all set, click the Start button. Notice that your task will change its status to Running🏃‍♂️, so wait for the scraper to finish. It might take a few minutes before you see the status switch to Succeeded 🏁; this depends on the complexity of your search and how many places you've indicated.

Step 4. Download data from Google Maps

To preview and download the dataset, move over to the Storage tab. It will contain your scraped data in various formats, including HTML table, JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, and RSS feed.

Finally, if this particular scraper seems too advanced for your needs, have no fear. There is also Easy Google Maps Scraper. We think you'll agree with us that it is...well, easy!

Easy Google Maps Scraper · Apify

Collect data from Google Maps. Just enter what you want to scrape, e.g. restaurants, and where you want to search, e.g. New York. Free and easy web scraping of map data.

ApifyCompass

❓ FAQ

🧑‍⚖️ Is it legal to extract data from Google Maps?

Anybody can get information from publicly available websites - web scraping is just a faster and more efficient way to get the job done. It is therefore legal, as long as you respect the personal data and copyright laws. To learn more about the legality of web scraping, read our blog post on the subject.

📇 Can I scrape Google Place IDs?

Yes. Google Maps Scraper 🔗 extracts Google Place IDs, among other things like place name, address, contact details like website and phone number, reviews, opening hours, popular times, open/closed status, menu, and prices.

💳 Is Google Maps API free?

No. Google Places APIs used to have a free tier, but in 2018, they introduced a new billing model which reduced the amount of free API calls available. After using up the free credits, costs can quickly become expensive, especially if you use certain features like Embed API or Autocomplete.

⛽️ Can I scrape gas prices from Google Maps?

Yes. Any data that you can see on Google Maps website you can also extract. That data includes gas prices, gas type, gas station location and details, price update time, etc. Check out how you can use a Gas Prices Scraper to that end.

🛡 Do I need proxies to scrape Google Maps?

It's preferable to scrape such a huge website as Google Maps by using proxies, that way, it's faster and more efficient. Because of this, if you get serious about scraping Maps, it will eventually start costing you at least a little cash, but in the meantime, you can get one month of Apify Proxy free as soon as you sign up at Apify.

💼 What are the top scrapers of Google Maps for business?

The influence of a simple map has evolved to the point where every type of business, from e-commerce to pharmaceuticals, wants to have its name featured and ranked as high as possible in Google Maps ratings. Check out our list of tools able to scrape Google Maps business listings.

👷‍♀️ Can I build my own Google Maps data scraper?

If you want to make a map scraper of your own, you can do it, but these days you don't have to start from scratch. Start off with a simple web scraping template in Python, JavaScript, and TypeScript. You can host your scraper on the Apify platform which will cover the proxy, monitoring, and scheduling.  

🛰 Can I scrape Google Maps by geolocation?

Yes. Extracting data by geolocation can be very handy because you can create various irregular shapes for specific areas on the map. We recommend using Geojson.io for an easy coordinates definition and following our guide to see how to apply those coordinates in Google Maps scraper.

📍 How to use data extracted from Google Maps

These days, without a digital presence on Google Maps, a local business can count itself as pretty much invisible. That's why Google Maps is a colossal free data repository for businesses and organizations, which makes it a goldmine for extracting all kinds of invaluable data: from reviews, geolocation, and gas prices to contact data such as emails, phone numbers, addresses, and websites companies in the general vicinity. Here's just a couple of examples of how you can use this extracted data:

☎️ Generate leads. By scraping Google Maps, you can build your own database of emails, phone numbers, reviews, ratings, and businesses for a targeted place, industry, or country.

🧸 Monitor brand sentiment. You can analyze collected Google Maps reviews for positive/negative sentiment, quality of service, and specific phrases. Our Google Maps Reviews Scraper focuses specifically on Google Maps reviews, including reviewer name, reviewer ID & URL, reviewer number of reviews, and Is Local Guide parameter.

🧑‍💻 Create a potential customer base. Websites and contact information are scattered all over the internet, but trying to find them takes a lot of time. Google Maps is one place where many of your prospects are gathered together.

👁 Search, monitor, and analyze the competitors' offers. Scraping Google Maps reviews about competitors can be a useful review framework for your business and can give you the capability to provide your clients with a better marketing service.

🗺 Analyze geospatial data for scientific or engineering work. For instance, when working with satellite data and geolocation or analyzing territorial changes before and after an event, as has been thoroughly done in this Bellingcat study.

⛽️ Get gas prices. Google Maps also provides an opportunity to get recent gas prices from the area, along with details on field type, company supplier, and more. You can use Gas Stations Scraper to that end.

🕵️ Carry out a product hunt. Find businesses offering the product you're searching for and choose the best option out of the pool of results.

📀 Benefit from big data, even if you're a small player. Find opportunities for expanding your business or organization and developing a working market strategy.

There are many other ways to use that Google Maps data. However, in order to create a whole database, you may need to automate the process of data collection. One way to do that is via an official Google Maps API, but it won't be easy, as you know by now. You can always opt for a completely different Google Maps data extraction tool that can provide a full range of results, such as this free Google Maps Scraper or other Google scraper tools.