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SenseCollectSenseCollect vs Google Places API
The Places API is the baseline everything else gets measured against. It is genuinely cheaper for raw listings and more reliable than any scraper — and its terms stop you keeping what you pull. Both facts are the whole comparison.
pricing checked 2026-10-11 · from their published pricing page
What each one is
The Places API is the source. It is Google's own endpoint for searching places and returning their details — name, address, phone, website, rating — and it is the most dependable way to get a listing, because you are asking Google directly rather than scraping it. For raw listings there is nothing cheaper and nothing more reliable, and we will not pretend otherwise.
SenseCollect does the part the Places API leaves to you, under terms that let you keep the result. A single call returns local business rows with phone and website resolved, and a checked deliverable contact when you ask for one — a lead you can store, re-use, and email. The Places API returns data to render; SenseCollect returns a row to work from.
How each one charges
Pay-as-you-go, billed per SKU with tiered volume discounts. Since 1 March 2025 the old $200 monthly credit was replaced by free monthly calls per SKU: 10,000 for Essentials, 5,000 for Pro, 1,000 for Enterprise. Text Search Pro — the SKU that returns phone and website fields — is $32.00 per 1,000 calls in the first tier (up to 100,000 monthly events), falling to $25.60, $19.20, $9.60 and finally $2.40 per 1,000 as volume grows. Place Details Pro is $17.00 per 1,000; Nearby Search Pro is $32.00 per 1,000. Text Search returns 20 results per page and a maximum of 60 results per query.
No subscription and no per-SKU accounting. Billing is per row returned, and the wholesale upstream cost sits inside the row: one call returns places with phone and website resolved, and a checked deliverable contact on request.
Figures for Google Places API checked on 2026-10-11. Source: developers.google.com/maps/billing-and-pricing/pricing (Google's global price list) and the Google Maps Platform Terms of Service. Prices change without notice — verify before deciding on cost alone.
1,000 local businesses with a usable email address
Google's Text Search returns real listings, cheaply. Take the job to its finish line — rows you can email and are allowed to keep — and the billing unit and the licensing terms both come into play.
| Step | Google Places API | SenseCollect |
|---|---|---|
| Getting 1,000 listings | ~50 Text Search Pro requests — about $1.60 at list, or $0 inside the 5,000-call free allowance | $17.33–$26.60 |
| Email addresses for those listings | Not returned — Google Maps listings carry a phone but no email | Resolved from the business's own site; verify=true keeps only rows whose contact is deliverable |
| Phone and website | Returned on the Pro SKU | Returned on every enriched row |
| Work left to do | Visit 1,000 sites yourself and parse the contacts | None |
| Keeping the results | Caching is limited to place_id under the Terms of Service; bulk-storing names, addresses and reviews is prohibited | Yours to store and reuse |
For raw listings Google is cheaper than us and always will be — it is the source, and at this volume the requests land inside the free monthly allowance, so it can be free where we charge. The gap is everything after the listing: Google does not return an email, and its terms do not let you keep the rows you pull. If you need live Places data inside an app, use the Places API and do not think twice. If you need a stored list you can mail, that is the job SenseCollect does.
Line by line
| Dimension | Google Places API | SenseCollect |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | Live place results from Google, to render in your app | Finished local business lead rows to work from |
| Billing unit | Per SKU — per request, priced by the field tier you ask for | Rows returned |
| Cost of raw listings | Lower than ours — it is the source, priced by volume | Higher, because contact enrichment is inside the row |
| Reliability of the underlying data | The source itself — nothing is more current | Managed upstream, with the wholesale cost inside the row |
| Email addresses | Not returned — Maps listings do not publish an email | Resolved from the business site, checked with verify=true |
| Storing the data | Restricted — place_id may be cached; bulk-storing Places content is not allowed | The rows are yours to store and reuse |
| Building a dataset or product from the data | Prohibited by the Terms of Service | The stored row is the product |
| Building a store locator or autocomplete | Purpose-built for exactly this | Not the use case — use the Places API |
Which one you should actually pick
Choose Google Places API if
- You need live Places data inside an application — a store locator, autocomplete, a map — which is what the API is for and what its terms permit.
- You want the lowest possible price on raw listings, and the free monthly allowance covers your volume.
- You are enriching or displaying data in real time rather than building a list you keep.
- You can work inside the terms and do not need a stored, mailable lead list.
Choose SenseCollect if
- You need contactable leads — a stored row with an email — not live listing data.
- You want to keep and reuse the list, which the Maps terms do not permit for Places content.
- You do not want to build the website-crawl enrichment and writing step yourself.
- You want to pay per finished row with no SKU accounting and no monthly floor.
Questions people ask before switching
Is the Google Places API cheaper than SenseCollect?+
Yes, for raw listings. Text Search Pro is $32 per 1,000 calls and 1,000 businesses is about 50 calls, so at that volume it fits inside the 5,000-call free monthly allowance. It does not return email addresses, and its terms restrict storing the results, so it is cheaper for the listing and not a substitute for a lead list.
Can I store Google Places API results?+
Only in a narrow way. The Terms of Service prohibit caching Places content except as the Service Specific Terms allow, and those allow indefinite caching of the place_id only. Copying business names, addresses and reviews to build your own store is the 'No Creating Content From Google Maps Content' restriction, and it is written to stop exactly that.
Can I use the Google Places API to build a lead database?+
The terms say no. 'No Creating Content From Google Maps Content' forbids creating content based on Google Maps Content, which is what a lead database is; 'No Scraping' forbids storing Places content outside the Services. SenseCollect returns rows you are free to store and reuse.
Should I use both?+
Often yes. Google for live place data in the product, SenseCollect for the outbound list you own. They overlap less than they look like they do.