This is a ridiculous update. Are they trying to get rid of the smaller websites and cater to Uber, Lyft, etc. 28k monthly dynamic map loads is under 1k in daily map loads a day. So they went from allowing 25k/day to 1k/day. Unbelievable.

Are they trying to get rid of the smaller websites

It comes down to money. Slowly whitling away the "freeloaders" (who use Google's resources for free) by starting to charge more people and/or chase them away to other platforms.

Anyone who expected Google to give Maps (or any of their other free services) away for free forever was clearly delusional. They are just following the tried and true business model of crack dealers- get people hooked for free, then start charging them.

Nice, charge taxpayers to use maps made with taxpayer funded satellites.

Nice, charge taxpayers to use maps made with taxpayer funded satellites.

If it's free to access and process data from taxpayer funded satellites, why do you rely on Goolgle? You should do it yourself.

I have maps everywhere and already pay a modest amount every month. I can't quite get my head around how much I'd be paying on the new pricing structure, possibly $1000s

Google maps have provided an easy to use solution for me for many years but there is no way I can justify this kind of money.

Suffice to say I will be drastically cutting down on my map use and/or looking for a different solution - probably OSM with local caching... Might even look into hosting map tiles.

I can't quite get my head around how much I'd be paying on the new pricing structure, possibly $1000s

Same boat. I have started moving to OSM. There is no way I can sustain with usage fees like that.

Leaflet + leaflet-providers. 20 minutes - job done...

Plus I now know a lot more about how these maps work and what leaflet actually does

Google map eclipsed a lot of services / companies when it appeared. Now, may be those who succeeded to survive, or new ones will get another chance.

Leaflet + leaflet-providers. 20 minutes - job done...

What tile provider do you use?
I would love a free tile provider that hopefully doesn't have usage limits.
Have you ever used Tilehosting [tilehosting.com ]? It looks like they have a flat fee every month and not pay as you go. I could be mistaken.

@Travis - yes, I expect this move was philanthropically motivated ;) But, yes that would be good for Google not to have a near monopoly

@kelsheikh - am using Esri World Street Map. Not sure what the terms are - seems to be free and unlimited, but I could be wrong. Am still looking at options, including self-hosted tiles

I'm only a small time user - but have a number of Google maps up and running... I should easy fall into their 'free' level but Google are saying you MUST have billing in place with credit card details etc. which is a pain!

They do contradict themselves though as their guide says:
"all Google Cloud Platform services require a credit card and billing account"
"If you choose not to add a billing account..."

I've tried asking them to clarify but didn't get a real answer - just told to look at their guide. I wrote back saying I'm quoting from their guide which is why I was asking via Twitter but they stopped replying :(

Will all the hobby and school produced website maps all stop working in June? It's not clear to me.

Google - Do no evil > Do the right thing...

@Badger37 this is a really good point. What will happen to all those maps on small sites in June? Is this Google's Photobucket moment?

Also a problem (and an opportunity for on-the-ball designers) in the travel sector with all of the small providers who paid for their site years ago and have a Google map as the location with no API key (because it didn't exist back then).

their biz model to a tee over the next decade or so:

move into space
free! we LUV google!
dominate, 90%+ market share
crush or buy competitors
...start charging

their biz model to a tee over the next decade

Er, yes.

Is this a surprise to anyone? Plenty here have called it, though @tangor (for my money) has been the most vocal.

dominate, 90%+ market share

It's one thing dominating the market when you charge nothing. When you start charging at a price that isn't justifiable to many of your users applications, then you will no longer be so dominant...

When you start charging at a price that isn't justifiable to many of your users applications, then you will no longer be so dominant...

Yea, i don't understand this level of a price hike. This whole update from Google has been ridiculous. They push these emails out about their price hike and their documentation isn't even updated. Oh and why give devs and companies only 5 weeks to make changes. Did they think if they rushed this change in that people wouldn't have enough time to jump to another provider.