How to Get a Google Maps API Key

Sign into the Google Cloud Platform with your Google account. If you don’t have a Google account, create one.

Sign into the Google Cloud Platform

The next step is to create a new project.

Projects are used to organize and manage your API keys, usage, and billing, so it’s a good idea to create a dedicated project for each application or website you’re working on.

Click Select a Project in the Google Cloud Console:

Click 'Select a Project'

In the pop-up window, choose New Project:

Choose 'New Project'

Give your project a meaningful name—something that helps you easily identify it later. For example, you might name it after your app, website, or client.

Select a billing account if prompted. Every project must have an associated billing account, but don’t worry—Google offers $200 in monthly free usage, which is enough for most small projects.

Once you’ve entered the details, click Create:

Once you've entered the details, click 'Create'

Next, navigate to Keys & Credentials from the sidebar in the Google Cloud Console:

Click 'Keys & Credentials' in the sidebar

Here, you may be prompted to provide some personal information and billing details. While Google requires billing information for account verification, don’t worry—you won’t be charged unless you manually upgrade to a paid account. Google also offers $200 in monthly free usage, which is sufficient for most small projects.

Once you’ve filled out the required details, you’ll receive your API key!

Wahoo — we've received our API key!

It’s important to restrict your API key to prevent unauthorized use. Without restrictions, anyone who gets hold of your key could use it and potentially rack up unwanted charges.

Under the API key settings, choose Restrict Key:

Under the API key settings, choose 'Restrict Key'

I’d suggest selecting HTTP referrers as your restriction type:

You can restrict in several ways — I often use 'HTTP referrers'

Add the domain names where you’ll be using the API key. For example, if your website is example.com, you can specify it as *.example.com to cover all subdomains as well.

I've restricted my API key so it can only be used on lovethehumanities.com

Save your changes.

With these restrictions in place, your API key will only work for the specified domains, adding an extra layer of security.

And that’s it! Your Google Maps API key is ready to use. Thanks for reading, and happy mapping!

It’s worth noting that you might not even need a Google API key.

Instead, you can use Atlist, a no-code tool designed for creating custom Google Maps effortlessly. Atlist is incredibly user-friendly and eliminates the need for a Google API key altogether.

With Atlist, you can create beautiful maps that can be easily shared or embedded on any website.

Here’s a quick explainer video to get you started:

But if that doesn’t work for you, hopefully this article has been helpful!