Reply To: New Google maps pricing policy and MB geolocation

Dear Anh thank you for your answer.
I got the eamil too. Google documentation unfortunately is not clear on pricying. They contradict themselves. You can can check the whole thing here https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/user-guide/pricing-changes/ but I will highlight the key passages in uppercase

Question: Can I still use Google Maps Platform for free?
Answer: Yes. Starting June 11, 2018, WHEN YOU ENABLE BILLING, you get $200 free usage every month for Maps, Routes, or Places. Based on the millions of users using our APIs today, most of them can continue to use Google Maps Platform for free with this credit.

Question: Can I try Google Maps Platform before deciding to purchase?
Answer: Yes. We want you to experience the speed, accuracy, and comprehensive coverage of Maps, Routes, and Places. YOU NEED A BILLING ACCOUNT TO START, but your first $200 of monthly usage is free, and you can set usage caps to ensure you don’t go over this amount.

THE LAST QUESTION /ANSWER IS THE MOST IMPORTANT/CONTROVERT, SO I WONT UPPERCASE THE WHOLE OF IT.

Question: Is a credit card or billing account required?
Answer:Even though your first $200 of monthly usage is free, all Google Cloud Platform services require a credit card and billing account, to cover any amount you spend over this free credit. If you are billed, we'll credit your account for the first $200 of monthly usage. If you choose not to add a billing account, there is a risk that if your usage exceeds $200 in a given month, your Maps API implementation will be degraded or other API requests will return an error. If your estimated usage will be above $200 a month and you don't have a credit or debit card to set up a billing account, a local Google Maps Partner may be able to help.

The first sentence says a credit card is compulsory. The second sentence says you have a choice.

According to my understanding Google says it's up to his grace to let your keys function and who, when and for how long continue to support any single key.
The main reason for this is that stopping all the free services for all at the single time will mahe google loose potential customer. Probably they will "kill" keys that generate a fair amount of traffic saying "Hey, I told you I would have done this", leaving all the low traffic keys, maybe adding a bandwidth limit to slow them down.

Can we afford this uncertanty ? These days some services I use that are based on google maps started working awkward. It might be a coincidence, but I read this of a wanted threat of the times to come.

The key point here is that, given the type of clients I have, I cannot ask for their credit card details. 11th of June is round the cornder so, at least to me, adding openstreetmap (or other) support with geocoding should be a priority

Sorry for the long post. Thank you for the time spent to read it. I think a lot of developers are in my position right now.
As always, thank you for your work and the excellent support you provide for your extensions.

Sincerely
Michele

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