Pricing glossary

This glossary defines common terminology used in Google Maps Platform billing and pricing.

Billable event
The event in a product that triggers a SKU for billing. For example, SKUs can be triggered by map loads, a request, use of a specific method, or a shipment. See also: Trigger and SKU.
Call
See Request.
Category
SKU categories based on features that cater to different business needs and usage patterns. See Essentials, Pro, and Enterprise categories.
Cost
The money charged for the use of an API based on what SKU an application or website triggers and the pricing tier for the volume of use of the API. See also Pricing tier or trigger.
Endpoint
See API Endpoint Service in the AIP Glossary. See also SKU.
Field mask
A list of the fields you want the service to return, which streamlines cost and latency for a request.
Mask
See Field mask.
Pricing tier
Pricing based on your monthly usage volume. See Pricing.
Product
See API product in the AIP glossary. See also SKU.
Query
See Request.
Request
An operation in which your application issues a method to our servers, sometimes with field masks or other parameters, and our system receives that message and returns a data response. The size of the response can vary depending on the nature of your request.
SKU
A discrete operation with an API that corresponds to a billable event. A SKU typically bills for the use of one or more operations using typically one endpoint. See also: Billable event and Trigger.
Trigger
An API method, class, field mask, request, or other code that creates a billable event that initiates charges to a product SKU.
Usage
How many billable events you incur for a given SKU. See also Billable event and SKU.
Usage level
The volume of use, measured by how many times a billable event is triggered in a month. See also billable event and trigger. The cost for each level is shown in columns in the pricing sheets: Main pricing and India pricing.