Google Places API vs Mapbox Search Box API for AI agents
Google Places API is a paid Google Maps Platform web service that returns place data (search, details, photos, autocomplete) from Google Maps. Mapbox Search Box API is Mapbox's search API for addresses, places and POIs, with interactive (/suggest + /retrieve), text (/forward), category and reverse endpoints.
The short answer
- Google Places API: The broadest, freshest global place data, with ratings, reviews, hours and photos, for teams that can pay per call and follow Google's display rules.
- Mapbox Search Box API: Cheap autocomplete-style place and address search inside map apps, with a first-party hosted MCP server.
Side by side
| Google Places API | Mapbox Search Box API | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | Places worldwide from Google Maps: businesses, points of interest, addresses, through Text Search, Nearby Search, Place Details and Autocomplete. | Addresses, places and points of interest, including category search such as "coffee shops around me". |
| Returns | JSON. You pick fields with a field mask, and the most expensive field you ask for sets the price tier (Essentials, Pro, Enterprise). Fields include place ID, name, address, location, phone numbers, website, hours, ratings, photos and reviews. | JSON features with name, address, coordinates, POI categories, mapbox_id and optional metadata such as phone, website, open hours, rating and photos. Each response includes an attribution string. |
| Before the first call | A Google Cloud project with billing enabled, plus an API key or OAuth token. | A Mapbox account and access token. You can sign up without a credit card, but you get trial usage limits until you add a payment method. |
| Free | A free monthly usage cap for each SKU: 5,000 Text Search Pro or Nearby Search Pro calls, 1,000 at the Enterprise tier, 10,000 Place Details Essentials, and unlimited ID-only searches. The pricing page does not mention the old $200 monthly credit. | Introductory preview pricing: 500 interactive sessions a month and 50,000 /category or /reverse requests a month. The page also shows a "Standard pricing" table (2,500 and 25,000 free), and which table applies when was not stated in the text read. |
| Paid | Text Search Pro and Nearby Search Pro cost $32 per 1,000 calls (up to 100,000 a month). Enterprise, the tier that includes phone and website, costs $35 per 1,000. Place Details Pro costs $17 per 1,000. | Sessions: $3.00 per 1,000 under the introductory preview pricing, or $11.50 per 1,000 under the standard pricing. /category and /reverse: $1.00 per 1,000 (intro) or $1.70 (standard). |
| Acting on a result | Phone numbers and website are Enterprise-tier fields. There is no way to message a business through the API. | Retrieved POIs can include phone and website in metadata. There is no way to message a business through the API. |
| Limits on keeping or showing results | No pre-fetching, caching or storing beyond the stated exceptions. Place IDs may be stored indefinitely, and latitude/longitude for up to 30 days. Results may be shown without a map, but then the Google logo is required. When shown on a map it must be a Google Map, never a non-Google map. | All Search Box results are for temporary use only. Storing position data requires contacting Mapbox sales. |
| AI in its terms | The Maps Platform Terms forbid using Google Maps Content to improve ML or AI models, including to train, test, validate or fine-tune them. Grounding an LLM is allowed only through Maps Grounding Lite, which requires source links and forbids using Grounded Output to train models. | Not stated on its pages |
| Coverage | Worldwide (Google Maps place data). | Global. The docs have a supported-geographies section that was not reviewed in detail. |
| MCP server | Maps Grounding Lite, a Google-hosted MCP endpoint at https://mapstools.googleapis.com/mcp (tools include search_places). Docs: https://developers.google.com/maps/ai/grounding-lite | Mapbox MCP Server, hosted at https://mcp.mapbox.com/mcp (OAuth) and open source at https://github.com/mapbox/mcp-server. The search tools use the Search Box API. |
Where Openpath fits
If the agent needs a local business to message in Austin, Texas, Openpath returns the listings themselves, free and with no key. See Openpath vs Google Places API and Openpath vs Mapbox Search Box API.
Questions people ask
What do I need before I can use Google Places API?
A Google Cloud project with billing enabled, plus an API key or OAuth token.
Is Google Places API free?
A free monthly usage cap for each SKU: 5,000 Text Search Pro or Nearby Search Pro calls, 1,000 at the Enterprise tier, 10,000 Place Details Essentials, and unlimited ID-only searches. The pricing page does not mention the old $200 monthly credit.
What do I need before I can use Mapbox Search Box API?
A Mapbox account and access token. You can sign up without a credit card, but you get trial usage limits until you add a payment method.
Is Mapbox Search Box API free?
Introductory preview pricing: 500 interactive sessions a month and 50,000 /category or /reverse requests a month. The page also shows a "Standard pricing" table (2,500 and 25,000 free), and which table applies when was not stated in the text read.
Sources
Every line about another company comes from its own pages. Prices and terms change, so check the source before you rely on one.
Google Places API, read on October 15, 2026:
- developers.google.com/maps/billing-and-pricing/pricing: “Places API Text Search Pro 4FDA-34B1-A910 5,000 $32.00”
- developers.google.com/maps/billing-and-pricing/pricing: “Places API Text Search Enterprise E967-44BC-B44D 1,000 $35.00”
- developers.google.com/maps/billing-and-pricing/pricing: “Places API Place Details Pro 4ED6-464A-2AFC 5,000 $17.00”
- developers.google.com/maps/billing-and-pricing/pricing: “Places API Text Search Essentials (IDs Only) 635D-A9DD-C520 Unlimited”
- developers.google.com/maps/documentation/places/web-service/usage-and-billing: “To use the Places API, you must enable billing on each of your projects and include an API key or OAuth token”
- developers.google.com/maps/documentation/places/web-service/usage-and-billing: “if you select fields in both the Essentials and the Pro SKUs, you are billed based on the Pro SKU”
- developers.google.com/maps/documentation/places/web-service/data-fields: “International phone number internationalPhoneNumber Place Details Enterprise Text Search Enterprise Nearby Search Enterprise”
- developers.google.com/maps/documentation/places/web-service/data-fields: “Website URI websiteUri Place Details Enterprise Text Search Enterprise Nearby Search Enterprise”
- developers.google.com/maps/documentation/places/web-service/overview: “returns a JSON response. Places API (New) supports authorization by API key and OAuth token.”
- developers.google.com/maps/documentation/places/web-service/policies: “You must not pre-fetch, cache, or store Places API content beyond the allowed exceptions.”
- developers.google.com/maps/documentation/places/web-service/policies: “You can therefore store place ID values indefinitely.”
- developers.google.com/maps/documentation/places/web-service/policies: “When displaying Places API data without a Google Map, you must include the Google logo”
- cloud.google.com/maps-platform/terms/maps-service-terms: “Customer may temporarily cache latitude and longitude values from the Places API for up to 30 consecutive calendar days”
- cloud.google.com/maps-platform/terms/maps-service-terms: “Customer may use Google Maps Content from the Places API in Customer Applications without a corresponding Google Map.”
- cloud.google.com/maps-platform/terms: “use Google Maps Content to improve machine learning and artificial intelligence models, including to train, test, validate or fine-tune the models”
- cloud.google.com/maps-platform/terms/maps-service-terms: “use Grounded Output to train, develop, or improve any machine learning models or artificial intelligence systems”
- developers.google.com/maps/ai/grounding-lite: “a service with Model Context Protocol (MCP) support”
- developers.google.com/maps/documentation/places/web-service/overview: “built on one of the most accurate, up-to-date, and comprehensive place models of the real world”
Mapbox Search Box API, read on October 15, 2026:
- mapbox.com/pricing: “Introductory preview pricing* Monthly sessions Up to 500 501 - 100,000 ... Cost per 1,000 Free $3.00”
- mapbox.com/pricing: “Standard pricing Monthly requests Up to 2,500 2,501 - 100,000 ... Cost per 1,000 Free $11.50”
- mapbox.com/pricing: “Request to /category and /reverse endpoints are billed on a per-request basis.”
- mapbox.com/pricing: “Monthly requests Up to 50,000 50,001 - 500,000 ... Cost per 1,000 Free $1.00”
- mapbox.com/pricing: “A session includes 50 /suggest calls, and 1 /retrieve call, and it will automatically expire after 2 minutes of inactivity.”
- docs.mapbox.com/accounts/guides/signup: “Quick sign-up without a credit card gives you access to Mapbox services with trial usage limits.”
- docs.mapbox.com/api/search/search-box: “all data returned by the Search Box API endpoints is only available for temporary use”
- docs.mapbox.com/api/search/search-box: “"metadata" : { "phone" : "PHONE_NUMBER" , "website" : "WEBSITE_URL" , "open_hours"”
- docs.mapbox.com/api/guides/mcp-server: “This endpoint is available at https://mcp.mapbox.com/mcp”