To use advanced Google Maps features on your website, you need a Google Cloud Platform account for your organisation, and you need to enter billing details to activate it — although for most websites, your use of Google Maps will fall well within the "free use" threshold that Google offers for its Maps services.
Here's what you need to do in order for us to correctly associated Google Maps functionality with your Google account.
Stage 1: Sign up for the Google Cloud Platform
You should already have a Google Account associated with your organisation (if not, click here for help setting up a Google Account).
Use this account to sign into the Google Cloud Platform website:
Sign In to Google Cloud Platform
If this is the first time you've used the Google Cloud Platform, you will need to agree to the terms and conditions popup.
Once you are signed in, you will see the page title "Google Cloud Platform" with a "Select a project >" listed beside it (you might see a project selected here instead if you have used this system before).
At this point, please email us to confirm this is done, and tell us the email address associated with your Google Account.
Stage 2: Accept Invite
After you have emailed us, we will grant you "Owner" access to the Google Maps project we have already created.
You will receive an email confirming that you want access to this project; please click the link in this email.
This will take you back to Google Cloud Platform and confirm your access to the project.
Stage 3: Add Billing Details
You will then need to setup a billing account for this project.
Do this by selecting "Billing" from the Menu (top-left, 3 horizontal lines). Then click "Manage Billing", and click the "Create account" button. Follow the steps to enter your credit card details.
Stage 4: Connect Billing account to Project
In the "Manage Billing" section, click the "My projects" tab, look for the project that we created, click the three-dot action icon, select "Change billing account", and choose the billing account that you just set up.
At this point, the Google Maps service is now associated with your billing account.
How Billing Works
Google Cloud Platform gives you a US$200 account credit every month for services relating to Google Maps. The "Dynamic Maps" product, which we are using for your Google Maps, costs US$2 per 1000 map views. Therefore, you should not need to pay any money to Google unless the map on your website is loaded more than 1 million times in a month.
