In a move to counter rising competition from Ola Maps, Google has announced a significant price reduction for its Maps API platform for Indian developers. This announcement comes just a week after Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal offered developers one year of free access to Ola Maps.
At the Google I/O Connect Bengaluru event on July 17, Google revealed that starting August 1, its Maps platform will be available to Indian developers at up to 70% lower costs compared to most APIs. Additionally, the company introduced India-specific pricing and will accept payments in Indian rupees instead of US dollars.
‘For developers using Google Maps Platform, we’re introducing India-specific pricing that is up to 70% lower on most APIs to make it even easier to build location-based solutions,’ Google stated in a blog post.
The new pricing structure will be exclusive to India-based customers who primarily use the service within the country. Google will monitor eligibility through the Google Maps dashboard and may disqualify users who do not meet these criteria.
Developers can use the same billing account for both Google Maps and Google Cloud services. Google is also reducing ‘pay-as-you-go rates’ and increasing the number of monthly requests available in each pricing tier. For example, the Geocoding API, previously priced at $5.00 per 1,000 requests for the first 100,000 monthly requests, will now cost $1.50 per 1,000 requests for the first 500,000 monthly requests for Indian customers.
In a collaboration with the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), Google announced a discount of up to 90% on select Google Maps platform APIs for developers building apps on the state-backed network. This discounted pricing will benefit small businesses across all four roles on the ONDC: seller, buyer, technology service provider, and gateway.
The reduced prices will be available for one year and can be availed between August 1, 2024, and April 1, 2027. At the same event, Google also announced a partnership with the Ministry of Electronics and IT’s (MeitY) Startup Hub to upskill 10,000 homegrown startups in artificial intelligence (AI).
Reacting to Google’s announcement, Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal criticised the move on X (formerly Twitter), stating, ‘Dear @Google, too little too late! Reducing prices for @googlemaps, ‘offering to price in ₹’ after #ExitGoogleMaps. Don’t need your fake generosity! Tomorrow, I’ll be writing a blog response and announcing major updates on Ola maps @Krutrim.’
Aggarwal’s comments came shortly after he urged Indian developers to abandon Google Maps and offered one-year free access to Ola Maps on the AI-driven Krutrim platform, along with over ₹100 crore in free credits to developers.
