Stadia Maps FAQs
What are basemaps?
Basemaps are the layer of "normal" things you’d expect to see on a map like water, country borders, cities, points of interest, etc. They are called basemaps because they are the "base" that provides context for the markers and overlays you add on top.
What’s a static map?
A static map is a full map image that you can customize and embed easily without any JavaScript or map rendering library. You can even add features like markers and lines, and our servers handle the drawing for you! Just add a few parameters to the URL.
These are great for quickly embedding a non-interactive map in a website or app (ex: via an HTML img tag).
What map tile formats do you offer?
We offer both vector (protobuf-encoded Mapbox Vector Tiles) and raster (PNG) tiles. Static maps are available in PNG (the default) or JPEG format. Our raster tiles and static maps are available in both 1x and 2x scale.
On the web, you can use our tiles with well-known JavaScript libraries such as Leaflet for interactive raster maps or MapLibre GL JS for vector. If you’re building for mobile, desktop, or multi-platform, our docs provide an overview of the available options.
Do you support custom map styles?
Yes! Vector tiles are rendered client-side, and you can restyle them freely with any Stadia Maps plan. We have a complete guide on custom styles in our docs.
If you’d like a custom style for raster tiles or static maps, contact us for a quote.
What platforms do you support?
Yes, on the web with Leaflet, MapLibre GL JS, or OpenLayers, and natively for iOS (Swift/SwiftUI), Android (Kotlin/Jetpack Compose), and Flutter. We also ship SDKs for JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Kotlin, Swift, and PHP, with framework support for React and Vue. Our docs have quickstarts for the most common stacks.
Feel free to contact us if you don't see your platform listed.
What limitations apply to trial accounts?
Trial accounts have access to the same APIs as our Professional plan, so you can easily evaluate all our services with no obligation. For the duration of the trial, your account will have the same credit limit as a free account.
How can I remove the hard credit limit?
When you’re ready to go live, go to the plan upgrade screen. If you haven’t added a payment method yet, follow the prompts to add your contact details and payment method. After entering your information and confirming the plan you want to upgrade to, click the green upgrade button on the dashboard.
What happens when I add a payment method during a trial?
When you add a payment method during a free trial, you will be able to select a plan to subscribe to after the trial. We will automatically bill you for the selected plan as soon as your trial ends. You can change your plan selection at any time before your trial ends.
How can I cancel a free trial?
If you have not given us a payment method such as a credit card, no action is needed to cancel. Your account will automatically revert to the free tier after your trial ends.
If you already added a payment method but changed your mind, go to your dashboard and change your plan to the free tier. This will cancel the subscription and your account will revert to the free tier after your trial ends.
Is there a free plan?
Yes. Our free tier gives you access to all core APIs with a monthly credit limit and no payment method required. See pricing for limits.
What’s a credit?
We use a credits system for enforcing limits and metering usage. Every request you make has a cost stated in the credit schedule on our pricing page. These are counted against your plan’s monthly credit allowance and, if you have opted in to additional usage, billed at the rate specified in your plan once you exhaust your credit pool.
Can I use my subscription for multiple websites/apps?
In general, yes, as long as the subscription is not shared across multiple entities (with exceptions for certain forms of reuse in white-labeled products). An entity is typically a natural person or a corporation (for-profit or non-profit). See our terms for more details or Contact us if you have questions about your use case.
I have multiple domains. Do I need more than one subscription?
Generally, no. But be sure to read our FAQ about sharing a subscription between multiple websites/apps first! Creating a new property for each domain makes the most sense if you have logically separate products/sites, because it lets you track usage and manage API keys separately. We also support adding multiple domains to a single property on request. Contact us for details.
Are mid-cycle upgrades and downgrades prorated?
Yes, mid-cycle changes are prorated by the time spent on each plan during the billing cycle.
Example: upgrade from a $10 plan to a $20 plan exactly halfway through the cycle, and your next invoice is $5 higher: a $5 credit for the unused half of the old plan, plus $10 for the new plan's second half.
Downgrades work the same way in reverse, leaving a credit balance that's automatically applied against future charges — not an immediate refund to your payment method. Adjustments are aggregated onto your next invoice, and a net credit balance after a downgrade isn't refunded to your original payment method automatically (see our refund policy below).
Note: If you have accrued any additional usage, this is transferred over to your new plan, and the new plan’s rate will apply to all usage for the billing cycle.
What happens when I cancel my account?
Because your subscription is prepaid, your account will remain on your currently selected plan until the end of your billing cycle. After which, your account will be downgraded to the free tier. If additional usage is enabled, you will receive a final invoice for any additional usage accrued through the end of your billing cycle.
How is additional usage billed?
When you opt in, additional usage is billed on the next invoice after the usage occurs. While our base monthly fees are pre-pay, these charges are then added to your invoice at the end of each billing cycle. For example, suppose you are subscribed to the Standard plan with a billing cycle starting the 1st of each month, and in January, you accrue $20 in additional usage. Your February invoice would be $100: $80 for the Standard plan for February, and $20 for the additional usage in January.
Note: If you cancel your subscription, any accrued additional usage fees will be invoiced at the end of the billing cycle.
Does having multiple properties affect my billing?
No. We offer simple billing where usage is aggregated across all properties in your account. Your account subscription is for all usage, whether you have one property or ten.
What is your refund policy?
If you cancel a subscription early or downgrade to a lower plan, your Stripe account may receive a prorated refund in the form of an account credit (see the FAQ above). However, we will not normally issue refunds back to your original payment method. Any credit balance will remain on your account for future use.
How much does Stadia Maps cost?
Plans start at free. Paid plans begin at $20/month and include higher credit limits and additional usage options. See full pricing.
How do you define commercial use?
Use of Stadia Maps’ services commercially requires a paid subscription or (in some cases) a custom license. We consider usage to be commercial in any of the following situations:
- Use in a product or service that is sold or generates revenue (including via advertising or content monetization)
- Use by an organization that is for-profit (regardless of whether the usage generates revenue or not)
Even if your usage falls under the above definition, the following usage is acceptable on the Free plan:
- Development and testing purposes
- Demonstration purposes (products and pages which are exclusively for demonstration purposes)
Can I use Stadia Maps as a for-profit entity or in a product which is sold or generates revenue?
Yes, however, in both cases, you meet our criteria of Commercial Use and are required to have an active paid subscription
As a non-profit, can I use the Free plan for a project that generates revenue?
By default, no, since this meets our Commercial Use criteria of generating revenue. We can, however, make exceptions depending on your individual project’s details. Please reach out to us at support@stadiamaps.com and start a conversation.
Our paid subscriptions are quite affordable, and we will do our best to work with you.
As an academic researcher, can I use the Free plan for my non-commercial research projects and papers?
Yes, as long as you meet the definition of Non-Commercial Academic Use, which we define as any usage by students, faculty, and staff that benefits non-commercial academic activities (e.g. studies, presentations, papers, projects, etc.) at educational institutions or programs.
All usage must include appropriate attribution. You can learn more about what attribution is required from our attribution guide.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of some examples to help guide you on what is allowed and not allowed. When in doubt about your Academic Use, please reach out to us at support@stadiamaps.com.
Acceptable use of the free plan
- In a slide presentation or video for a class
- On an interactive website for your department
- Included in an article or paper submission to a journal
Requires a paid plan or license
- In an application, website, or other electronic product that generates revenue
- On a poster that you designed for revenue (contact us to discuss licensing)
- In a textbook that is sold for profit (contact us to discuss licensing)
Can I use Stadia Maps in print, TV, film, or another form of media?
Yes, though you may need a paid subscription or a custom license depending on your use case.
Acceptable use of the free plan
- Non-commercial use by an individual or non-profit organization
- Non-commercial academic use (see above for details)
Acceptable use of a paid plan
- Printing up to 5000 copies of a static map, when the request is made using the designated cacheable endpoint. You must have a paid subscription at the time you generate the cacheable images. The addendum to our Terms of Service covers which rights that are explicitly granted.
- For all other uses, contact us with info about your use case so we can discuss the options available (up to a perpetual, royalty-free license with worldwide distribution).
Our attribution guide contains details on how the credits should appear.
Is Stadia Maps a good alternative to Mapbox?
Yes, Stadia Maps uses the same MapLibre GL JS vector tile stack Mapbox users already work with, so most teams switch basemaps in two lines of code. Customers typically save up to 90% on comparable usage, plus you get real human support and a stronger privacy commitment. See our Mapbox comparison and migration guide for pricing specifics and a step-by-step walkthrough.
Is Stadia Maps a good alternative to Google Maps?
Yes, Stadia Maps is built on open standards (MapLibre, Leaflet), so unlike Google, you're never locked into displaying our geocoding or routing results only on our maps. Teams typically save up to 90% switching from Google Maps Platform, while gaining permanent geocode caching and no user tracking. See our Google Maps comparison and migration guide for full pricing and feature details.
Is Stadia Maps a good alternative to MapTiler?
Yes. Both are OpenStreetMap-based vector tile providers, but MapTiler has no routing API at any tier (not even on its $295/month Unlimited plan) while Stadia Maps includes a full routing and navigation suite (turn-by-turn, matrix routing, isochrones, map matching, and the open-source Ferrostar navigation SDK). At 100K map sessions/month, Stadia Maps' Standard plan runs about 73% cheaper than MapTiler Unlimited, and we also allow permanent geocode caching, which MapTiler doesn't. Real human support is included at every paid tier.
Do you have documentation?
Yes! You can find our extensive documentation and tutorials at docs.stadiamaps.com.
What if I have a question that isn’t answered in the FAQ?
If you can’t find what you need on our website or documentation, email us at support@stadiamaps.com. We’d be delighted to answer any of your questions.
Do you have SDKs available?
Yes! We have everything from API clients to drop-in components in many popular languages:
- JavaScript/TypeScript
- Python
- Kotlin
- Swift
- PHP
You can learn more about each one in our documentation.
Don’t see your development language? Let us know. Or generate your own with our OpenAPI specification file and tools like openapi-generator.
What is MapLibre?
MapLibre is a collective that organizes the development of fully-open and free map rendering tools. Stadia Maps is a founding member, and co-founder Luke Seelenbinder currently serves on the governing board. Together, we form a large and growing network of developers and corporations all working together to advance the state of the art.
How do I get an API key?
Get started for free, create a property in your dashboard, and your API key will be generated automatically.
Does Stadia Maps work offline?
Not our hosted APIs. Those need an internet connection. If you need offline maps, use our on-premises and embedded solutions instead, which run fully self-hosted.
What are the API rate limits?
There's no fixed requests-per-second limit for registered API keys — your real constraint is the monthly credit allowance. Once it's exhausted, you'll get 429 responses until your next billing cycle (or you can enable pay-as-you-go). We do throttle abusive or unregistered local-dev traffic to prevent abuse. Expecting high, sustained volume? Email us and we'll make sure your use case is covered.
Is Stadia Maps GDPR and CCPA compliant?
Yes. Stadia Maps doesn't track end users, collect telemetry, or sell behavioral data. See our privacy commitment for specifics. If you need requests to stay entirely within the EU, we offer dedicated EU endpoints hosted in Frankfurt and Paris. Contact us if you need something more tailored, like we did for HolidayCheck.
Stadia Maps FAQs
What are basemaps?
Basemaps are the layer of "normal" things you’d expect to see on a map like water, country borders, cities, points of interest, etc. They are called basemaps because they are the "base" that provides context for the markers and overlays you add on top.
What’s a static map?
A static map is a full map image that you can customize and embed easily without any JavaScript or map rendering library. You can even add features like markers and lines, and our servers handle the drawing for you! Just add a few parameters to the URL.
These are great for quickly embedding a non-interactive map in a website or app (ex: via an HTML img tag).
What map tile formats do you offer?
We offer both vector (protobuf-encoded Mapbox Vector Tiles) and raster (PNG) tiles. Static maps are available in PNG (the default) or JPEG format. Our raster tiles and static maps are available in both 1x and 2x scale.
On the web, you can use our tiles with well-known JavaScript libraries such as Leaflet for interactive raster maps or MapLibre GL JS for vector. If you’re building for mobile, desktop, or multi-platform, our docs provide an overview of the available options.
Do you support custom map styles?
Yes! Vector tiles are rendered client-side, and you can restyle them freely with any Stadia Maps plan. We have a complete guide on custom styles in our docs.
If you’d like a custom style for raster tiles or static maps, contact us for a quote.
What platforms do you support?
Yes, on the web with Leaflet, MapLibre GL JS, or OpenLayers, and natively for iOS (Swift/SwiftUI), Android (Kotlin/Jetpack Compose), and Flutter. We also ship SDKs for JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Kotlin, Swift, and PHP, with framework support for React and Vue. Our docs have quickstarts for the most common stacks.
Feel free to contact us if you don't see your platform listed.
What limitations apply to trial accounts?
Trial accounts have access to the same APIs as our Professional plan, so you can easily evaluate all our services with no obligation. For the duration of the trial, your account will have the same credit limit as a free account.
How can I remove the hard credit limit?
When you’re ready to go live, go to the plan upgrade screen. If you haven’t added a payment method yet, follow the prompts to add your contact details and payment method. After entering your information and confirming the plan you want to upgrade to, click the green upgrade button on the dashboard.
What happens when I add a payment method during a trial?
When you add a payment method during a free trial, you will be able to select a plan to subscribe to after the trial. We will automatically bill you for the selected plan as soon as your trial ends. You can change your plan selection at any time before your trial ends.
How can I cancel a free trial?
If you have not given us a payment method such as a credit card, no action is needed to cancel. Your account will automatically revert to the free tier after your trial ends.
If you already added a payment method but changed your mind, go to your dashboard and change your plan to the free tier. This will cancel the subscription and your account will revert to the free tier after your trial ends.
Is there a free plan?
Yes. Our free tier gives you access to all core APIs with a monthly credit limit and no payment method required. See pricing for limits.
What’s a credit?
We use a credits system for enforcing limits and metering usage. Every request you make has a cost stated in the credit schedule on our pricing page. These are counted against your plan’s monthly credit allowance and, if you have opted in to additional usage, billed at the rate specified in your plan once you exhaust your credit pool.
Can I use my subscription for multiple websites/apps?
In general, yes, as long as the subscription is not shared across multiple entities (with exceptions for certain forms of reuse in white-labeled products). An entity is typically a natural person or a corporation (for-profit or non-profit). See our terms for more details or Contact us if you have questions about your use case.
I have multiple domains. Do I need more than one subscription?
Generally, no. But be sure to read our FAQ about sharing a subscription between multiple websites/apps first! Creating a new property for each domain makes the most sense if you have logically separate products/sites, because it lets you track usage and manage API keys separately. We also support adding multiple domains to a single property on request. Contact us for details.
Are mid-cycle upgrades and downgrades prorated?
Yes, mid-cycle changes are prorated by the time spent on each plan during the billing cycle.
Example: upgrade from a $10 plan to a $20 plan exactly halfway through the cycle, and your next invoice is $5 higher: a $5 credit for the unused half of the old plan, plus $10 for the new plan's second half.
Downgrades work the same way in reverse, leaving a credit balance that's automatically applied against future charges — not an immediate refund to your payment method. Adjustments are aggregated onto your next invoice, and a net credit balance after a downgrade isn't refunded to your original payment method automatically (see our refund policy below).
Note: If you have accrued any additional usage, this is transferred over to your new plan, and the new plan’s rate will apply to all usage for the billing cycle.
What happens when I cancel my account?
Because your subscription is prepaid, your account will remain on your currently selected plan until the end of your billing cycle. After which, your account will be downgraded to the free tier. If additional usage is enabled, you will receive a final invoice for any additional usage accrued through the end of your billing cycle.
How is additional usage billed?
When you opt in, additional usage is billed on the next invoice after the usage occurs. While our base monthly fees are pre-pay, these charges are then added to your invoice at the end of each billing cycle. For example, suppose you are subscribed to the Standard plan with a billing cycle starting the 1st of each month, and in January, you accrue $20 in additional usage. Your February invoice would be $100: $80 for the Standard plan for February, and $20 for the additional usage in January.
Note: If you cancel your subscription, any accrued additional usage fees will be invoiced at the end of the billing cycle.
Does having multiple properties affect my billing?
No. We offer simple billing where usage is aggregated across all properties in your account. Your account subscription is for all usage, whether you have one property or ten.
What is your refund policy?
If you cancel a subscription early or downgrade to a lower plan, your Stripe account may receive a prorated refund in the form of an account credit (see the FAQ above). However, we will not normally issue refunds back to your original payment method. Any credit balance will remain on your account for future use.
How much does Stadia Maps cost?
Plans start at free. Paid plans begin at $20/month and include higher credit limits and additional usage options. See full pricing.
How do you define commercial use?
Use of Stadia Maps’ services commercially requires a paid subscription or (in some cases) a custom license. We consider usage to be commercial in any of the following situations:
- Use in a product or service that is sold or generates revenue (including via advertising or content monetization)
- Use by an organization that is for-profit (regardless of whether the usage generates revenue or not)
Even if your usage falls under the above definition, the following usage is acceptable on the Free plan:
- Development and testing purposes
- Demonstration purposes (products and pages which are exclusively for demonstration purposes)
Can I use Stadia Maps as a for-profit entity or in a product which is sold or generates revenue?
Yes, however, in both cases, you meet our criteria of Commercial Use and are required to have an active paid subscription
As a non-profit, can I use the Free plan for a project that generates revenue?
By default, no, since this meets our Commercial Use criteria of generating revenue. We can, however, make exceptions depending on your individual project’s details. Please reach out to us at support@stadiamaps.com and start a conversation.
Our paid subscriptions are quite affordable, and we will do our best to work with you.
As an academic researcher, can I use the Free plan for my non-commercial research projects and papers?
Yes, as long as you meet the definition of Non-Commercial Academic Use, which we define as any usage by students, faculty, and staff that benefits non-commercial academic activities (e.g. studies, presentations, papers, projects, etc.) at educational institutions or programs.
All usage must include appropriate attribution. You can learn more about what attribution is required from our attribution guide.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of some examples to help guide you on what is allowed and not allowed. When in doubt about your Academic Use, please reach out to us at support@stadiamaps.com.
Acceptable use of the free plan
- In a slide presentation or video for a class
- On an interactive website for your department
- Included in an article or paper submission to a journal
Requires a paid plan or license
- In an application, website, or other electronic product that generates revenue
- On a poster that you designed for revenue (contact us to discuss licensing)
- In a textbook that is sold for profit (contact us to discuss licensing)
Can I use Stadia Maps in print, TV, film, or another form of media?
Yes, though you may need a paid subscription or a custom license depending on your use case.
Acceptable use of the free plan
- Non-commercial use by an individual or non-profit organization
- Non-commercial academic use (see above for details)
Acceptable use of a paid plan
- Printing up to 5000 copies of a static map, when the request is made using the designated cacheable endpoint. You must have a paid subscription at the time you generate the cacheable images. The addendum to our Terms of Service covers which rights that are explicitly granted.
- For all other uses, contact us with info about your use case so we can discuss the options available (up to a perpetual, royalty-free license with worldwide distribution).
Our attribution guide contains details on how the credits should appear.
Is Stadia Maps a good alternative to Mapbox?
Yes, Stadia Maps uses the same MapLibre GL JS vector tile stack Mapbox users already work with, so most teams switch basemaps in two lines of code. Customers typically save up to 90% on comparable usage, plus you get real human support and a stronger privacy commitment. See our Mapbox comparison and migration guide for pricing specifics and a step-by-step walkthrough.
Is Stadia Maps a good alternative to Google Maps?
Yes, Stadia Maps is built on open standards (MapLibre, Leaflet), so unlike Google, you're never locked into displaying our geocoding or routing results only on our maps. Teams typically save up to 90% switching from Google Maps Platform, while gaining permanent geocode caching and no user tracking. See our Google Maps comparison and migration guide for full pricing and feature details.
Is Stadia Maps a good alternative to MapTiler?
Yes. Both are OpenStreetMap-based vector tile providers, but MapTiler has no routing API at any tier (not even on its $295/month Unlimited plan) while Stadia Maps includes a full routing and navigation suite (turn-by-turn, matrix routing, isochrones, map matching, and the open-source Ferrostar navigation SDK). At 100K map sessions/month, Stadia Maps' Standard plan runs about 73% cheaper than MapTiler Unlimited, and we also allow permanent geocode caching, which MapTiler doesn't. Real human support is included at every paid tier.
Do you have documentation?
Yes! You can find our extensive documentation and tutorials at docs.stadiamaps.com.
What if I have a question that isn’t answered in the FAQ?
If you can’t find what you need on our website or documentation, email us at support@stadiamaps.com. We’d be delighted to answer any of your questions.
Do you have SDKs available?
Yes! We have everything from API clients to drop-in components in many popular languages:
- JavaScript/TypeScript
- Python
- Kotlin
- Swift
- PHP
You can learn more about each one in our documentation.
Don’t see your development language? Let us know. Or generate your own with our OpenAPI specification file and tools like openapi-generator.
What is MapLibre?
MapLibre is a collective that organizes the development of fully-open and free map rendering tools. Stadia Maps is a founding member, and co-founder Luke Seelenbinder currently serves on the governing board. Together, we form a large and growing network of developers and corporations all working together to advance the state of the art.
How do I get an API key?
Get started for free, create a property in your dashboard, and your API key will be generated automatically.
Does Stadia Maps work offline?
Not our hosted APIs. Those need an internet connection. If you need offline maps, use our on-premises and embedded solutions instead, which run fully self-hosted.
What are the API rate limits?
There's no fixed requests-per-second limit for registered API keys — your real constraint is the monthly credit allowance. Once it's exhausted, you'll get 429 responses until your next billing cycle (or you can enable pay-as-you-go). We do throttle abusive or unregistered local-dev traffic to prevent abuse. Expecting high, sustained volume? Email us and we'll make sure your use case is covered.
Is Stadia Maps GDPR and CCPA compliant?
Yes. Stadia Maps doesn't track end users, collect telemetry, or sell behavioral data. See our privacy commitment for specifics. If you need requests to stay entirely within the EU, we offer dedicated EU endpoints hosted in Frankfurt and Paris. Contact us if you need something more tailored, like we did for HolidayCheck.