Solar API Usage and Billing

The Solar API uses a pay-as-you-go pricing model. Solar API requests generate calls to one SKU for all but mobile-native apps. Along with the overall Google Terms of Use, there are usage limits specific to the Solar API. Manage your costs and usage with tools available in the Google Cloud console.

How the Solar API is billed

The Solar API uses a pay-as-you-go pricing model. The Google Maps Platform APIs and SDKs are billed by SKU. Usage is tracked for each SKU, and any API or SDK may have more than one product SKU. Cost is calculated by

SKU usage × Price per each use

Use our Pricing and Usage calculator to estimate your usage cost per API or SDK. For qualifying Google Maps Platform SKUs, a $200 USD Google Maps Platform credit is available each month for each billing account. This credit is automatically applied to the qualifying SKUs.

Pricing for the Solar API

SKU: Solar API Building Insights

A request to buildingInsights.

Note: Requests to the buildingInsights service that result in a NOT_FOUND error are not charged, but do count against usage limits.

MONTHLY VOLUME RANGE (Price per REQUEST)
0–100,000	100,001–500,000	500,000+
0.01 USD per each (10.00 USD per 1000)	0.005 USD per each (5.00 USD per 1000)	Contact Sales for volume pricing

SKU: Solar API Data Layers

A request to dataLayers.

Accessing multiple imagery URLs from the same request does not generate additional charged queries.

Note: Requests to the dataLayers service that result in a NOT_FOUND error are not charged, but do count against usage limits.

MONTHLY VOLUME RANGE (Price per REQUEST)
0–100,000	100,001–500,000	500,000+
0.075 USD per each (75.00 USD per 1000)	0.0375 USD per each (37.50 USD per 1000)	Contact Sales for volume pricing

Other usage limits

While there are no maximum number of requests per day, the following usage limits are still in place for each API:

Maximum Queries per Minute: 600 QPM

This quota is applied separately to buildingInsights and dataLayers, meaning you can make a maximum of 600 QPM to each API.

Terms of Use restrictions

For information on terms of use, see policies for the Solar API, and the License Restrictions section of the Google Maps Platform Terms of Service.

Manage your cost of use

To manage your cost of use of the Solar API or to meet the demands of your production traffic, set daily quota limits on all requests to any API. Daily quotas are reset at midnight Pacific time.

To view or change quota limits for the Solar API:

In the Cloud console, open the Google Maps Platform Quotas page.
Click the APIs drop-down and select the Solar API.
To view the quota limits, scroll down to the Requests card.
A table lists the quota names and limits.
To change a quota limit, click the Edit icon for that limit.
In the dialog that appears, in the Quota Limit field, enter the preferred billable daily quota limit (up to the quota limit, if any, specified by Google) and select Save.

If your API usage reaches your billable quota limit on any given day, your application will not be able to access the API for the remainder of that day.