Google Places API vs Yelp Places 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. Yelp Places API is Yelp's licensed API (formerly Yelp Fusion) for searching businesses and reading Yelp business details, ratings, photos and review excerpts.
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.
- Yelp Places API: Yelp ratings, review excerpts and photos for restaurants and local services in consumer apps that display Yelp content. The terms rule out passing that content to an LLM.
Side by side
| Google Places API | Yelp Places API | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | Places worldwide from Google Maps: businesses, points of interest, addresses, through Text Search, Nearby Search, Place Details and Autocomplete. | Local businesses listed on Yelp. Yelp says it covers "millions of businesses around the world," and the supported-locales page lists 32 countries. |
| 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 over REST at https://api.yelp.com/v3. Results include name, address, phone, Yelp rating, price level, review count, coordinates, categories, image and Yelp URL. Photos and review excerpts depend on the plan. |
| Before the first call | A Google Cloud project with billing enabled, plus an API key or OAuth token. | A Yelp developer account (a business email is required for the trial) and a private API key. Paid plans need a credit card on file. |
| 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. | A 30-day trial with up to 5,000 API calls, for evaluation only, not commercial use. There is no permanent free tier. |
| 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. | Base costs $229 a month plus $5.91 per extra 1,000 calls. Enhanced costs $299 a month plus $6.57 per 1,000. Premium costs $643 a month plus $14.13 per 1,000. The FAQ says paid plans include 30,000 calls a month by default. |
| Acting on a result | Phone numbers and website are Enterprise-tier fields. There is no way to message a business through the API. | Results include the business phone number and its Yelp page URL. There is no way to message a business through the Places 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. | No caching or storing of Yelp Content for more than 24 hours. No building your own business-listing database from it. Display Requirements apply, and Yelp can require removal of content within 24 hours. |
| 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. | Very restrictive. Section 9 bans training or fine-tuning generative AI models on Yelp Content. Section 9.4 bans submitting or ingesting any Yelp Content into any Generative AI Model, for example in prompts to ChatGPT. Yelp sells a separate Yelp AI API for conversational use at $25 per 1,000 calls. |
| Coverage | Worldwide (Google Maps place data). | 32 countries in Yelp's supported-locales list, including the US. |
| 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 | Yelp/yelp-mcp on GitHub (https://github.com/Yelp/yelp-mcp). It wraps the Yelp Fusion AI API with one yelp_agent tool and needs a Yelp Fusion AI key, not a Places API key. |
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 Yelp Places 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 Yelp Places API?
A Yelp developer account (a business email is required for the trial) and a private API key. Paid plans need a credit card on file.
Is Yelp Places API free?
A 30-day trial with up to 5,000 API calls, for evaluation only, not commercial use. There is no permanent free tier.
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”
Yelp Places API, read on October 15, 2026:
- business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing: “$229 per month plus $5.91 per additional 1,000 API calls”
- business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing: “$299 per month plus $6.57 per additional 1,000 API calls”
- business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing: “$643 per month plus $14.13 per additional 1,000 API calls”
- business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing: “Receive 5,000 free API calls during the 30-day trial period”
- business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing: “Start 30-day free trial Business email required”
- business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing: “$25 / 1,000 API calls Minimum 1,000 daily API calls”
- docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/places-faq: “These API calls are STRICTLY FOR EVALUATION AND NOT FOR COMMERCIAL DEPLOYMENT”
- docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/places-faq: “This plan includes 30,000 API calls per month by default”
- docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/places-intro: “valuable information such as name, address, phone number, Yelp rating, price levels, and review counts”
- docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/places-intro: “The Yelp Places API uses private key authentication to authenticate all endpoints.”
- docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/places-intro: “millions of businesses around the world”
- terms.yelp.com/developers/api_terms: “opt into a paid subscription program by providing credit card and other necessary information”
- terms.yelp.com/developers/api_terms: “cache, record, pre-fetch, or otherwise store any portion of the Yelp Content for a period longer than twenty-four (24) hours”
- terms.yelp.com/developers/api_terms: “use it to update or create your own database of business listing information”
- terms.yelp.com/developers/api_terms: “Submit or ingest any Yelp Content into any Generative AI Model (e.g., prompts that contain any Yelp Content into ChatGPT”
- terms.yelp.com/developers/api_terms: “for the purpose of training, developing, enhancing, or fine-tuning any Generative AI Models without Yelp’s prior written approval”
- github.com/Yelp/yelp-mcp: “MCP server for exposing tools powered by Yelp's data”
- docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/resources-supported-locales: “Following are the locales Yelp Places API supports.”