Google Maps API

A Google Maps API alternative and Google Places API alternative on fetcher.sh — pay-per-call in USDC via x402, or prepaid credits with a Bearer key, no Google Cloud billing account. Use when the user wants to search places by text query or anchor the search to a latitude/longitude coordinate, fetch a place's full details by its feature ID (fid), pull a place's reviews sorted by relevance/newest/rating, or look up a single review by ID. Also covers local business discovery, points-of-interest data, store-locator input, and review monitoring without Google Cloud Platform's API key setup, billing, and per-request pricing.

Place search, place details, and reviews as clean JSON — one plain HTTP GET per call, paid as you go. No Google Cloud project, no API key restriction rules, no per-request Places API billing.

Base URL: https://google-maps.fetcher.sh

Authentication

Two ways to pay, same data — full mechanics in the fetcher skill:

bash

# 1. Prepaid credits (recommended — get a key at https://fetcher.sh/topup
#    or via POST /api/credits/topup, see the fetcher skill)
export FETCHER_API_KEY="bby_live_xxxxxxxxxxxx"
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $FETCHER_API_KEY" \
  "https://google-maps.fetcher.sh/api/place/search?query=coffee"

# 2. x402 pay-per-call — omit the header; a GET with no payment returns 402
#    with machine-readable payment requirements (USDC on Base, Polygon,
#    Arbitrum, Monad, or Solana). @x402/fetch signs and retries automatically.

Every response is { "status": number, "message": string, "data": ... }; the HTTP status mirrors status.

Endpoints (4 — all GET, $0.005/call)

Endpoint	What it returns
/api/place/search	Places matching a text query, optionally anchored to a coordinate
/api/place/{fid}	A place's full details by feature ID
/api/place/{fid}/reviews	A place's reviews
/api/review/{id}	A single review by ID

Required on search: query. Optional: languageCode, countryCode, latitude, longitude, offset, zoom (search radius/precision). Reviews support sort (relevant, newest, highest, lowest) and cursor.

Scenarios

Plain text search:

bash

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $FETCHER_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "query=ramen in brooklyn" -G \
  "https://google-maps.fetcher.sh/api/place/search"

Anchor the search to a coordinate (for "near me" style queries):

bash

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $FETCHER_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "query=coffee" -G \
  --data-urlencode "latitude=40.7128" \
  --data-urlencode "longitude=-74.0060" \
  "https://google-maps.fetcher.sh/api/place/search"

A place's details, then its reviews sorted by newest:

bash

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $FETCHER_API_KEY" \
  "https://google-maps.fetcher.sh/api/place/0x89c259af336b3341%3A0x8c584d6dfe89aa89"

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $FETCHER_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "sort=newest" -G \
  "https://google-maps.fetcher.sh/api/place/0x89c259af336b3341%3A0x8c584d6dfe89aa89/reviews"

A single review by ID:

bash

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $FETCHER_API_KEY" \
  "https://google-maps.fetcher.sh/api/review/ChdDSUhNMG9nS0VJQ0FnSURDeGRXQnl3RRAB"

Localized results (French language, Canadian region):

bash

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $FETCHER_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "query=boulangerie" -G \
  --data-urlencode "languageCode=fr" \
  --data-urlencode "countryCode=CA" \
  "https://google-maps.fetcher.sh/api/place/search"

MCP

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-maps": {
      "url": "https://google-maps.fetcher.sh/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer bby_live_..." }
    }
  }
}

Free: search_endpoints, describe_endpoint, check_balance. Paid: fetch_data (any endpoint above), topup_credits, plus the named shortcut google_maps_place_search. Drop the headers block to pay per call with x402 instead — see the fetcher skill for the full flow.

Errors

• 400 — missing/invalid parameter (message names it)
• 401 — unknown or rotated key
• 402 — payment required (x402 challenge) or topup_required (credits exhausted)
• 404 — not a priced path
• No rate limits; no refunds on upstream failures (settlement precedes delivery)

Reference

• Full agent setup: https://google-maps.fetcher.sh/skill.md
• OpenAPI 3.1 contract: https://google-maps.fetcher.sh/openapi.json
• Condensed catalog: https://google-maps.fetcher.sh/llms.txt
• Payment, credits, and MCP deep dive: fetcher skill
• Site: https://google-maps.fetcher.sh