How to Generate Google Maps API Key
Most of the WordPress themes and plugins uses Google Maps to power maps as its most intuitive and has a variety of user-friendly features. With the recent pricing changes to the Google Maps Platform, Google requires that each website owner obtain an “API key” for their website in order to show a Google Map.
Steps below will guide you on how you can get a Google Maps API key:
- Sign in to a Google account in order to create a key.
Please check what you see on the Google Account page:- If you see a sign-in screen, sign in to the Google account you’d like to use to create your key.
- If you’re signed in but don’t want to use that account, sign out, then sign back in with the right account.
Once you’re signed in (the page will say Welcome, [your name]), continue below. Take note of which account you’re signed in to, in case you need to make any changes later.
- Go to the Google Maps Platform
- If a popup doesn’t appear immediately, click Get Started in the top-right corner of the page as shown in screenshot below:
- In the popup that appears, select all three checkboxes next to Maps, Routes, and Places, then click Continue:
- On next screen, if you want to use an existing project, please select it from the list. Otherwise, select ‘Create a new project’ and enter a project name.(eg: Project X) This name won’t be visible to your customers. Once you’ve chosen the name click “Next”.
- If you haven’t set up your billing account yet, you may be prompted to set up a billing account, as shown below:
- Click “Create Billing Account”
- Confirm your country and the other requested details, then click Continue:
- At this point, choose an account type, fill out all the required information like billing details and credit card id. When you are done with it, just click on the “Start my free trial button” – and you are done setting up your billing account and there are only a few steps left to get Google API key.
- After billing account is created, you are taken to a page with a prompt to enable Google services. Click Next.
- Finally, we have Google maps api key generated. Copy the generated API key from the popup and add this key to your relevant themes/plugins settings page.
NOTE: Google offers a monthly credit of $200 which we can utilize for API display/calls. A $200 credit means that you can, for example, load 100,000 static maps, or 28,000 dynamic maps, etc. for free. A detailed table of pricing can be found here. For most of the websites with normal traffic, the provided credit should be enough.
