Google Places API alternatives with more data per business

What are the alternatives to the Google Places API that return more data per business?

The Google Places API caps a place at 5 reviews and 10 photos, has no email field, and lets you store only the place ID long term. For more per business, use a Google Maps data API such as Outscraper, Apify's Google Maps Scraper or String's Google Maps integration, which return hundreds of reviews per place. Use Foursquare when you need emails and social links in one licensed record, and Yelp's Places API for Yelp's own reviews. Then fetch each business's own website for contact details no directory carries.

Google Places API alternatives at a glance

Prices are each vendor's published list prices, checked on November 10, 2026.

What does the Google Places API leave out?

The Places API is limited by design: it returns enough to show a place on a map, not to build a database. These limits are from Google's own docs, checked on November 10, 2026.

• Reviews: "A maximum of 5 reviews can be returned" per place (Place reference).
• Photos: at most 10 per place, from the same reference.
• Email: the Place object has a websiteUri field and no email field.
• Results per search: Text Search (New) returns at most 20 places a page and 60 across all pages (Text Search docs).
• Storage: the Maps Platform Terms forbid caching Google Maps content except where the service terms allow it. Place IDs may be stored indefinitely, and latitude and longitude for up to 30 consecutive days (Service Specific Terms, section 14.3).
• Maps: Places content must not be shown on a non-Google map (section 14.2 of the same terms).

Price also climbs with the fields you ask for. Per 1,000 requests, Place Details costs $5 at the Essentials tier, $17 at Pro, $20 at Enterprise and $25 at Enterprise + Atmosphere, after a monthly free cap of 10,000, 5,000, 1,000 and 1,000 requests (Google pricing, updated November 9, 2026). Text Search costs $32 to $40 per 1,000. Prices fall at higher volumes.

Which alternatives return full Google Maps reviews?

Three return far more than 5 reviews per place. Prices were checked on November 10, 2026.

• Outscraper charges $3 per 1,000 places after the first 500, falling to $1 per 1,000 after 100,000. Reviews are $3 per 1,000 after the first 500, and photos $2 per 1,000 (pricing). Its place records carry popular times, reviews per star rating and owner IDs (Google Maps scraper).
• Apify's Google Maps Scraper charges per place: $4 per 1,000 on the free plan, $3 on Starter, $2 on Scale and $1.50 on Business. On Starter, reviews add $0.50 per 1,000, images $0.50 and contact enrichment $2 (pricing).
• String's Google Maps integration returns up to 500 reviews per call, newest, most relevant, highest or lowest first. Each review carries its text, rating, exact publish time, author, photo count and a permalink (docs).

SerpApi returns Google Maps search results as JSON, 20 a page, and counts each page as one search: $25 a month buys 1,000 (pricing, Maps API).

Which alternatives return emails and social links?

Google Maps listings carry a website, not an email. Three routes add contact details.

• Foursquare's Places API includes email, website and social_media in its Pro fields, and adds hours, photos, tips, popularity, price, rating and menus in its Premium fields (response fields). Pro calls cost $15 per 1,000 at the first paid tier and Premium $18.75 (pricing, November 10, 2026).
• Outscraper's Emails & Contacts add-on visits each business's website and returns up to three emails and links to Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn and YouTube, at $3 per 1,000 domains (pricing).
• You can also fetch the website yourself: take the website field from any of these sources and fetch the contact page. String's /v1/fetch returns it as Markdown, or as JSON fields when you pass a JSON Schema (structured extraction).

Business emails can still be personal data, such as an owner's own address. Our page on scraping personal data under GDPR and CCPA covers the rules.

How String returns Google Maps business data

String is a web data API for developers and AI agents that fetches, searches and maps any public site without getting blocked. For Google Maps it adds a site integration with three typed actions (docs).

• search returns up to 100 places per query. Each row has the place ID, name, address, category, coordinates, rating, review count, phone and website.
• place reads up to 300 place IDs per call. It adds every category, the owner's description, the time zone, whether the place is open now, and opening hours for the next seven days.
• reviews returns up to 500 reviews per call. Sort by newest, most relevant, highest or lowest rating.
• There is no separate charge for an action. Each request an action makes bills at your plan's fetch rate, and the response lists each request (integrations overview).
• Yelp is covered too. The Yelp integration returns business records, search results and full review histories.

Here is a search near a point:

curl https://request.usestring.ai/v1/integrations/googlemaps/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $STRING_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "plumber", "latitude": 30.2672, "longitude": -97.7431, "limit": 50}'

Pass a row's placeId to place for hours, and its dataId to reviews for the review list. The first 20,000 standard fetches are free and need no card.

How often do scraping APIs get review and directory sites?

Review sites block scrapers more than most. In the October 30, 2026 run of String's Web Data Frontier Benchmark, 17 APIs loaded 6 reviews and local sites five times each, and a request counted only when the real page content came back.

• The median API returned 70% of requests on the 6 reviews and local sites.
• String returned 96.7%.
• On yelp.com, 5 of the 17 APIs returned all five attempts, and 7 returned none.

Eight providers ran below their current anti-bot setting: Scrapfly, Firecrawl, ScraperAPI, Zyte, ScrapingAnt, ScrapingBee, Scrapingdog and Nimble. The benchmark does not include Google Maps. The targets and the test code are open on GitHub.

What do Google's terms say?

The Google Maps Platform Terms bind the customers of Google's APIs. Section 3.2.3(a) says a customer "will not export, extract, or otherwise scrape Google Maps Content for use outside the Services", and lists copying business names, addresses or user reviews as an example (terms, checked November 10, 2026).

So data taken from the Places API cannot become your own business database, apart from the place IDs and short-lived coordinates the terms allow. Collecting public listings by other routes is a separate question, governed by the terms of the site you collect from and the law where you operate. This is a summary, not legal advice. Our page on whether web scraping is legal covers the general rules, and your counsel covers your case.

Where String fits

• For: teams building local business databases, lead lists or review monitoring that need full review histories and want Google Maps, Yelp and business websites through one API.
• Not for: an app that shows places on a Google map for its users, which the Places API is built for.
• Price: as of October 2026, Starter is $19 a month and Growth $99, each with that amount of usage included. A standard fetch is $0.25 per 1,000 on Starter and $0.16 on Growth, and a fetch on the premium proxy, used only when a page needs it, is $2.40 and $0.90 (pricing). Blocked requests are not billed.
• Integrations: a REST API, an MCP server for Claude, Cursor and ChatGPT, n8n and Zapier, and String Actors in the Apify Store.
• Limits: 15 requests a second on Starter and 30 on Growth, and up to 10,000 concurrent fetches (pricing).

For the full workflow, from directory search to matching the same business across sites, see local business scraping. For Google results pages, see Google search API alternatives. Run the search call above on your own city with a free key.

FAQ

What are the alternatives to the Google Places API that return more data per business?

Outscraper, Apify's Google Maps Scraper and String's Google Maps integration return full review lists, where the Places API stops at 5. Foursquare's Places API returns emails and social links. Yelp's Places API returns Yelp ratings and up to 7 review excerpts on its Premium plan. SerpApi returns Google Maps search results as JSON.

How many reviews does the Google Places API return?

At most 5 per place. Google's Place reference says "A maximum of 5 reviews can be returned." Photos are capped at 10 per place.

Does the Google Places API return email addresses?

No. The Place object has a website field and a phone number but no email field. To get an email, fetch the business's website, or use a source that adds contacts, such as Foursquare's Pro fields or Outscraper's contacts add-on.

Can I store data from the Google Places API in my own database?

Only in part. The Maps Platform Terms forbid caching Google Maps content except where allowed. You may store place IDs indefinitely and cache latitude and longitude for up to 30 consecutive days. Names, addresses and reviews from the API cannot become your own database.

How much does the Google Places API cost?

As of November 2026, Place Details costs $5 per 1,000 requests at the Essentials tier, $17 at Pro, $20 at Enterprise and $25 at Enterprise + Atmosphere, each after a monthly free cap. Text Search costs $32 to $40 per 1,000. Prices fall at higher volumes (Google pricing).

How many results does a Google Places text search return?

Text Search (New) returns at most 20 places a page and 60 across all pages, and Google says the limit may change. String's Google Maps search action returns up to 100 places per query.

Is Foursquare a good Google Places alternative?

For contact fields, yes. Foursquare's Pro fields include email, website and social links, and Premium adds hours, photos, tips and popularity. Its coverage of a given area differs from Google's, so compare a sample of your own city before you switch.

Can I get Google Maps reviews for a list of businesses?

Yes. Search for each business by name and address to get its place, then request its reviews. With String, the search action takes a name with its address, and the reviews action returns up to 500 reviews per place in one call.

Sources

• Google, Maps Platform pricing (updated November 9, 2026): developers.google.com
• Google, Places API Place reference: developers.google.com; Text Search (New): developers.google.com; Places policies: developers.google.com
• Google Maps Platform Terms: cloud.google.com; Service Specific Terms: cloud.google.com
• Outscraper pricing: outscraper.com; Google Maps scraper: outscraper.com
• Apify, Google Maps Scraper pricing: apify.com
• SerpApi pricing: serpapi.com; Google Maps API: serpapi.com
• Foursquare pricing: foursquare.com; response fields: docs.foursquare.com
• Yelp, Places API pricing: business.yelp.com
• All vendor pages above checked November 10, 2026
• Web Data Frontier Benchmark, October 30, 2026 run: usestring.ai/benchmark and the raw results
• String docs: Google Maps, Yelp, site integrations; String pricing