title: Where has Google listed the pricing structure and terms of use changes for Commercial users of the Google Maps API?
body: <p>Google announced via their <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/maps/faq.html#tos_commercial" rel="nofollow">Geo Developers Blog on April 08, 2011</a> that as of October 2011 "Commercial" websites will be subject to usage limitations with payments required for usage beyond their limits:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>We are also introducing transaction limits on the number of maps that
    may be generated per day by commercial Maps API web sites or
    applications. These limits are documented in the Maps API FAQ and will
    take effect on October 1st 2011. Commercial sites that exceed these
    limits may be required to purchase additional transactions or a Maps
    API Premier license. Additional transactions will be offered online at
    an affordable rate which will be published on or before May 2nd 2011.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>The <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/maps/faq.html#usagelimits" rel="nofollow">Google Maps API</a> also includes details of these new limits:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>From October 1st 2011 commercial web sites and applications using the
    Maps API may at no cost generate:</p>
    
    <ul>
    <li>up to 2,500 maps per day that have
    been modified using the Styled Maps feature</li>
    <li>up to 25,000 maps per day
    in total</li>
    </ul>
    
    <p>If your application qualifies for and exceeds these
    transaction limits after October 1st 2011 you will need to respond in
    one of the following ways in order to continue using the Maps API in
    your application:</p>
    
    <ul>
    <li>Modify your Maps API application such that the
    number of transactions generated per day is reduced to below the usage
    limit;</li>
    <li>Enrol for automated billing of excess transactions (pay as you
    go); or</li>
    <li>Purchase a Maps API Premier license</li>
    </ul>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>This raises several unanswered questions:</p>
  
  <p>1) I have been unable to find the pricing details which the first blog post said would be available by May 2nd, 2011 -- where is this documented, and what are the prices for sites which will exceed the new usage limits?</p>
  
  <p>2) This new pricing structure sounds different from Google Maps Premier, is that correct?</p>
  
  <p>3) I had a terribly confusing discussion with a Google salesman, who seemed to be of the opinion that Google Maps premier was more intended for bulk server operations from a single IP than for use on consumer-facing applications.  Our application will draw a store-locator in end-user's browsers; users will access it without paying (however we are "commercial" in that the site is ad-supported, for-profit).  Is Google Maps Premier suitable for our usage?</p>
  
  <p>4) The "basic" Google Maps Premier license affords only 1,000,000 maps per year for $10,000/yr.  Whereas free-keys allow 9,125,000 unstyled maps or 912,500 styled maps per year.  This seems terribly expensive for basically buying nothing other than an SLA and Technical Support--for our traffic we will likely need a much more expensive package which will almost certainly make Google Maps cost-prohibitive.</p>