Google allows developers to add a map feature to a website or mobile app by making use of Google Maps. In order to able to add Google Maps to your website or mobile app, you need to create an API key. A potential error you will experience when adding Google Maps to your website is you cannot add a place, such as your business location, for instance. Instead, all you will see every time you try to add a new place is a “For development purposes only” message as follows.

You might think is there a problem with your API key.

If you see an error message like the one above, nothing is wrong with your API key or the integration steps you have made. The error message above appears if you haven’t activated your billing. Since July 2018, Google applied new changes to its policy regarding the use of Google Maps. Every developer is now required to enable their billing to be able to use the Google Maps platform.

Does this mean you cannot use the Google Maps platform for free anymore?

Technically no. You can still use the Google Maps platform for free as long as the use of your API does not exceed $200 per month. Google gives you a $200 credit per month. You can use this amount of credit for three APIs: Maps, Routes, or Places (Google has 15 APIs for Google Maps). According to Google, millions of users can continue to use Google Maps Platform for free with $200.

What will happen after the use of your API exceeds $200 each month? You will be charged based on the use of your API. The new pay-as-you-go pricing plan applied by Google allows you to set daily quotas to protect against unexpected increases. Google also allows you to set billing alerts to receive email notifications when charges reach a preset threshold determined by you. You can read this page to learn more.

So how to fix the “For development purposes only” issue?

You can simply enable your billing. To do so, you can click the three-line icon on the left-corner of the Google API Console main dashboard and click Billing.

Click the Add billing account. In the next step, you will be asked to enter your credit card or debit card information.

Once your billing is enabled, you should not see an error message anymore when trying to add a place on Google Maps.