A Google Places API alternative that keeps Google's data
Search a city, get the same places Google shows you.
What data do you get?
That call returned 10 places in about 1.4 seconds and was billed under the earlier credit plan for the whole search.
The priceLevel field carries the price band Google shows. On this coffee search every one of the 10 places had one, nine at $1–10 and one at $10–20. It is null only when Google shows no band for a place.
phoneNumber and website work the same way: on this pull 5 of the 10 places listed a phone number and 7 listed a website, and the rest came back null.
The fields you get back
Most "alternatives" hand you a different dataset
When people search for a Google Places API alternative, the usual answers are Mapbox, HERE, OpenStreetMap, or Foursquare. Those are real map providers, and for some jobs they fit well.
The catch is they are a different set of places, ratings, and review counts than the ones Google shows. If your app or your customers expect the numbers they see on Google, swapping the dataset changes the answer.
CrustAPI is the alternative that keeps Google's own live place data. You search a term and a city, and you get the same public results a person would see, in a lean flat shape.
No field-by-field pricing tiers, no restrictions on where you can show the data, and one charge per search no matter how many places come back.
Switching dataset vs keeping Google's
| Different-dataset alternatives | CrustAPI Places | |
|---|---|---|
| Whose data | Mapbox, HERE, OSM, or Foursquare | Google's own public places |
| Ratings and review counts | Match that provider, not Google | The Google numbers people see |
| Shape | Varies by provider | Lean flat JSON, one schema |
| Billing | Varies by provider | one charge per search, empty is free |
| Free tier | Varies by provider | Free to try, no card |
The data is public and logged out. We run the infrastructure so you don't stand up and babysit a scraper, and you read plain JSON back.
Who uses this?
Local directories
Lead-gen by city
Store locators and maps
How do you get started?
No code needed. From zero to a list of places in about two minutes:
- 1
Create a free account. Try it free, no card needed.
- 2
Type a search in the playground. Something like coffee in Austin, TX. The places land in a table.
- 3
Export the CSV, or copy your key and run the curl above. Same data as JSON.
How much does place data cost?
A search that returns ten places costs One successful request. A search that returns nothing costs nothing.
| Deposit | Google Search / 1,000 requests | Maps / 1,000 businesses | LinkedIn reads / 1,000 requests | People, Jobs, Refresh / 1,000 units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10+ | $1.00 | $1.96 | $6.00 | $1.96 |
| $149+ | $0.76 | $1.49 | $4.50 | $1.49 |
| $549+ | $0.56 | $1.10 | $3.30 | $1.10 |
| $1,999+ | $0.41 | $0.80 | $2.45 | $0.80 |
| $6,500+ | $0.33 | $0.65 | $1.95 | $0.65 |
| $27,500+ | $0.28 | $0.55 | $1.65 | $0.55 |
| $50,000+ | $0.26 | $0.50 | $1.50 | $0.50 |
| $100,000+ | $0.20 | $0.40 | $1.50 | $0.40 |
Every eligible account gets $6 of free usage monthly. Each deposit keeps its prices until spent; paid funds never expire. People and Jobs bill per successful search, Refresh per accessible profile. Full profiles in People use the read rate per full profile. See all billing details.
Larger deposits unlock lower endpoint prices. Each deposit keeps its prices until spent. See the full deposit table on the pricing page. Prices in USD, ex-tax.
All packs are self-serve and paid funds never expire. The free tier refills every month with no card.
When you want richer per-business fields: type=places is the lean flat-rate shape, built for the fields above at one charge per search. If you need more detail per business, that lives on the Google Maps endpoint. And if Mapbox, HERE, or Foursquare data is genuinely what your product needs, one of those providers is the right call, not this.
Common questions
Yes. You search a term and a city, and you get the same public places Google shows: name, address, rating, review count, category, coordinates, phone number, and website. It is the Google data, in a lean flat JSON shape.
Those are separate map providers with their own places, ratings, and review counts. They are good tools, but the numbers differ from Google's. CrustAPI keeps Google's own live data, so the results match what people see on Google.
One charge per successful Places search, regardless of how many places are returned. Standard price: $1.00 per 1,000 requests. Empty searches are free. Paid funds never expire, and the $6 free allowance resets monthly.
Not every place, but most do on food and drink searches. The priceLevel field carries the price band Google shows, like $1–10 or $10–20. All 10 places on the coffee search above had one. It is null when Google shows no band for that place.
Position, title, address, latitude, longitude, rating, ratingCount, priceLevel, category, phoneNumber, website, and cid. phoneNumber and website are null when Google does not list them. It is the lean flat shape built for name, rating, and coordinates work.
The places endpoint is the lean flat-rate shape at one charge per search. If you need more fields per business, use the Google Maps scraper API, which returns a richer record.
Yes. It is public, logged-out place data. We run the infrastructure so you do not have to stand up and maintain your own collection, and you read clean JSON back.
Written by Dawson Young, founder of CrustAPI. Receipt pulled live from the API on August 2, 2026. This is a spoke of the Google Search API; for richer per-business detail see the Google Maps scraper API.
Keep Google's data, drop the field pricing
The free plan covers a real run across a few cities. Point a place query at the API and read the JSON.
Try for free