How to scrape Google Places with Python
This guide shows how to scrape Google Places with Python: call one endpoint, get each place as clean JSON with name, address, category, and rating, then save it to a CSV file. No browser automation.
One request, real response
The hard part of scraping Google Places yourself is driving a browser, dodging blocks, and parsing a page that keeps changing. Instead you send one HTTP request to a search endpoint and get clean JSON back. First a quick test with curl:
Then the same call in Python with the requests library. Install it with pip install requests, drop in a key, and run:
Here are the first two places that came back, shown as CSV so they drop straight into Sheets or a CRM:
Change q to any search you would type into the Google box, like plumbers in Miami or dentists near 90210. Add page=2, page=3 to walk further down the list; an empty places array means you have reached the end.
The full record, ready to use
Every place comes back with its position, name, address, coordinates, category, star rating, review count, price level, and a Google cid you can keep as a stable ID. The same record as CSV, ready for Sheets or a database:
Or the same record as JSON, exactly as the API returns it:
Need phone numbers, websites, and opening hours too? Use type=maps for the richer record. The places type is the lean, fast listing.
vs writing your own scraper
You can build a Places scraper with a headless browser and a parser, and plenty of tutorials show how. The trade is maintenance. Here is the difference in practice.
| Writing it yourself | CrustAPI | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Install a headless browser, handle blocks and page changes | One GET request, no browser |
| Output | Parse the HTML yourself; fields break when the layout changes | Clean JSON from the API, or the same rows as CSV |
| Maintenance | Fix the scraper each time the page changes | We keep it working |
| Free tier | Free, but you pay in time and blocked requests | 3,000 credits / month, no card |
| Cost model | Server, proxy, and developer time | One credit per search, however many places come back; empty searches free |
| Storing the data | Yours to manage | No storage limits. Export to CSV or a database |
One credit per search
Prepaid packs, and credits never expire: 25k for $49 · 100k for $149 · 500k for $549 · 2.5M for $1,999 · up to 250M, all self-serve, ex-tax. A search that returns 20 places costs one credit; a search that returns none costs nothing.
Page through results and save to CSV
Because the response is plain JSON, a short loop pages through the results and Python's built-in csv module writes them to a file. No extra libraries. This reads pages one through three, stops early when a page comes back empty, and writes one row each:
Open places.csv in Sheets or Excel and you have a finished list. Swap the query, run it again, and append to build a bigger dataset.
Related: Google Places Scraper · Places API pricing · Google Maps Scraper API · Scrape Google Maps with Python · API docs
When a different tool fits better: live driving directions, real-time traffic, or a contract with a formal SLA are Google Cloud products, not scraping. This endpoint returns the public place listing anyone sees in Google search, which is what most lead-gen and research work needs, but it is not the official Google Places API.
Common questions
Clay
Try it on a city you know
3,000 free credits covers a real search. Run one query and look at the JSON that comes back.
Get 3,000 free credits