TomTom Search API vs SerpApi Google Maps API for AI agents
TomTom Search API is a family of TomTom location search APIs: the Orbis-based Places Search API (Suggest, Discover, Details) is now recommended, and the older Search API is labelled previous-generation. SerpApi Google Maps API is a third-party API that scrapes Google Maps search results and returns them as structured JSON.
The short answer
- TomTom Search API: Navigation-grade POI search with a real no-card free tier and EU-priced pay-as-you-go. Strong in automotive and routing contexts.
- SerpApi Google Maps API: Getting Google Maps listing data (phone, website, hours, ratings) as JSON without Google's billing or display rules. Legal risk from the scraping model sits partly with you.
Side by side
| TomTom Search API | SerpApi Google Maps API | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | Addresses and points of interest (POIs) on TomTom Orbis Maps, or on TomTom Maps for the legacy Search API. | Whatever Google Maps returns for a query and location (ll parameter), including local businesses, place details and reviews. |
| Returns | JSON (Discover returns a results array). POI results include a title, address, GeoJSON position, poiTypes (categories), contacts (phones and websites) and opening hours. | JSON local_results with fields such as title, address, phone, website, hours, rating, reviews and description, plus place IDs. |
| Before the first call | A free TomTom developer account and API key. No credit card is needed until you add prepaid credit. | A SerpApi account and API key. |
| Free | Places Search API: 5,000 Discover and 5,000 Details requests a month, plus 10,000 Suggest. Legacy Search API: 2,500 a month. The free tier does not expire. | Free plan: 250 searches a month (50 an hour throughput). Cached, errored and failed searches are not counted. |
| Paid | Places Search API Discover costs EUR 18.00 per 1,000 (5K–100K), Details EUR 12.00 per 1,000 and Suggest EUR 1.00 per 1,000. The legacy Search API costs EUR 3.00 per 1,000 (2.5K–100K). Billing is prepaid credit. | Starter costs $25 a month for 1,000 searches. Developer costs $75 a month for 5,000. Production costs $150 a month for 15,000. |
| Acting on a result | Discover results can include phone numbers and websites. There is no way to message a business through the API. | Results include the business phone and website as shown on Google Maps. There is no messaging. |
| Limits on keeping or showing results | Caching or storing Results is prohibited except in clients, within cache-control header max-age. Caching to serve multiple users is not allowed. Logo and copyright attribution is required. | Not stated on its pages |
| AI in its terms | The Portal Terms forbid applying ML or AI to the Licensed Products in a way that makes them redundant. They also forbid using them with any ML/AI process where the information would be stored in a "Public Reference Data Set". | Not stated on its pages |
| Coverage | The market list (search on TomTom Orbis Maps) marks POI coverage per country, including the United States. TomTom says markets not listed are not supported. | Follows Google Maps. SerpApi warns that results are not guaranteed to fall within the location given. |
| MCP server | TomTom Maps MCP Server, remote at https://mcp.tomtom.com/maps (public preview). Open source at https://github.com/tomtom-international/tomtom-maps-mcp | SerpApi MCP Server, hosted at https://mcp.serpapi.com/mcp (API key) and open source at https://github.com/serpapi/serpapi-mcp |
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 TomTom Search API and Openpath vs SerpApi Google Maps API.
Questions people ask
What do I need before I can use TomTom Search API?
A free TomTom developer account and API key. No credit card is needed until you add prepaid credit.
Is TomTom Search API free?
Places Search API: 5,000 Discover and 5,000 Details requests a month, plus 10,000 Suggest. Legacy Search API: 2,500 a month. The free tier does not expire.
What do I need before I can use SerpApi Google Maps API?
A SerpApi account and API key.
Is SerpApi Google Maps API free?
Free plan: 250 searches a month (50 an hour throughput). Cached, errored and failed searches are not counted.
Sources
Every line about another company comes from its own pages. Prices and terms change, so check the source before you rely on one.
TomTom Search API, read on October 15, 2026:
- docs.tomtom.com/pricing: “Places Search API Discover ... Free Up to 5K Tier 1 5K–100K € 18.00”
- docs.tomtom.com/pricing: “Search API Serve search results using TomTom's previous-generation map format. For new projects we recommend Places Search API.”
- docs.tomtom.com/pricing: “Free Up to 2.5K Tier 1 2.5K–100K € 3.00”
- docs.tomtom.com/pricing: “The more you use, the less you pay per 1,000 requests”
- docs.tomtom.com/pricing: “Free means free — no time limit, no credit card required.”
- docs.tomtom.com/pricing: “You only need a payment method when you're ready to add prepaid credit and go beyond the free monthly allowance.”
- docs.tomtom.com/places-search-api/documentation/places-search/discover: “Delivers fully resolved location or discoverAction results based on complete input criteria.”
- docs.tomtom.com/legal/terms-and-conditions: “The caching or storing of any Results shall be prohibited except that you may cache Results delivered by the Licensed Products provided that”
- docs.tomtom.com/legal/terms-and-conditions: “Nothing under Clause 11.4 entitles any form of caching for the purpose of scaling results to serve multiple clients or users.”
- docs.tomtom.com/legal/terms-and-conditions: “you agree to implement to the TomTom Copyright API in order to generate the applicable copyright and logo attribution”
- docs.tomtom.com/legal/terms-and-conditions: “would be stored or retained in any Public Reference Data Set by such machine learning, AI algorithm or other software related process”
- docs.tomtom.com/tomtom-maps-mcp/documentation/overview: “The TomTom Maps Remote MCP Server is in public preview.”
- docs.tomtom.com/search-api/documentation/tomtom-orbis-maps/product-information/market-coverage: “If a market is missing in the following tables, it is not currently supported.”
SerpApi Google Maps API, read on October 15, 2026:
- serpapi.com/google-maps-api: “Scrape Google Maps data with our Google Maps API.”
- serpapi.com/google-maps-api: “Results are not guaranteed to be within the geographic location provided in the ll parameter.”
- serpapi.com/google-maps-api: “"phone": "(646) 559-4878", "website": "http://joespizzanyc.com/"”
- serpapi.com/pricing: “Free $ 0 / month Get Started 250 searches per month 50 throughput per hour”
- serpapi.com/pricing: “Starter $ 25 / month Get Started 1,000 searches per month”
- serpapi.com/pricing: “Only successful searches are counted toward your monthly searches. Cached, errored, and failed searches are not.”
- serpapi.com/legal: “SerpApi assumes liability for the lawful collection of public search data ... but not for how that data is ultimately used.”
- github.com/serpapi/serpapi-mcp: “SerpApi MCP Server is available as a hosted service at mcp.serpapi.com”