vs
//Google Maps Platform alternative
TravelTime vs Google Maps APIs
Last reviewed: August 2026
Fixed price, unlimited usage
Make as many calls to the API as you need. Never feel trapped by transactional pricing again.
Larger travel time matrices
Built for scale, TravelTime calculates more journey times per request than Google.
Best-in-class accuracy
Get accurate calculations with TravelTime. We perform alongside best-in-class location APIs.
//TLDR
Our overview
Different APIs. Different Strengths.
Google bills per element and per SKU, so costs scale with usage and are hard to forecast under spiky load. However, it works at low volumes. TravelTime is a fixed annual price with unlimited calls — you size capacity once rather than metering every request.
Distance Matrix API and Directions API moved to Legacy status in March 2025 — still supported for existing projects, but unavailable to new ones and frozen for new features. TravelTime is continuously improving our endpoint and transit models.
Google and most alternatives restrict how long you can retain returned data. If you're pre-computing catchments, building search indexes, or grounding an AI ranking layer, that difference decides your architecture.
Google has multiple separate products and charges per element per SKU. This works well if you don’t need to use multiple APIs. TravelTime includes all of our powerful functionality in one infrastructure subscription — isochrones, H3, matrices, data layer, geocoding, and more.
Unlike many isochrone providers, including Google, TravelTime delivers public transit isochrones across the globe.
Google delivers live traffic insights for users while TravelTime returns results that reflect typical conditions on a given day at a given time of day.
//Google Maps vs TravelTime
What are the main differences between Google Maps and TravelTime?
TravelTime and Google both operate in the location technology space, yet they serve different purposes. The differences between them can have a major impact on your decision-making, depending on your use case.
| Category |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| Product status | All endpoints are generally available and actively developed, including Distance Matrix, Isochrones, H3, Geohash | Distance Matrix API in Legacy status since March 2025, Routes API is the current product, Isochrones in Preview |
| Max. matrix size | 10 × 100,000 matrix in a single request for any transit mode | 625 elements (origin-destination pairs); 100 elements (10 × 10 matrix size) when travel mode is transit |
| Matrix Performance | 100,000 elements in ~120ms, no rate limit | Legacy Distance Matrix: 60,000 elements per minute |
| Pricing model | Unlimited usage for one fixed priced, based on your capacity and service needs; free tier available | Per-element, per-SKU pay-as-you-go, or subscription plans |
| Caching & storage | Results can be cached, stored and re-used | Retention restricted under Maps Platform terms |
| Public transport | Full mode across every endpoint, with departure and arrival time modelling | Supported across some endpoints, capped at 100 elements per request |
| Isochrones | Generally available, all modes including public transport, <4-hour isochrones | Isochrones API in pre-GA Preview, no public transport, 1-hour driving and 2-hour walking/cycling ceilings |
| Coverage | 200+ countries and territories | Globally available but varies by product and region |
//Pricing model
Pay-per-element vs fixed cost
At low steady volumes, Google's per-element pricing and subscription plans may work out cheaper. TravelTime is best when requests are large, load is unpredictable, or you're pre-computing at scale.
Google Maps Platform charges per element, per SKU, which can lead to unpredictable and escalating costs, especially as your product scales.
- Per-element, per-SKU billing
- Per-SKU free caps replaced the $200 credit in March 2025
- Rate limiting and quotas apply
- Subscription plans available for predictable spend
With TravelTime, you pay a flat fee for unlimited API usage. No hidden fees, no charging by elements, no surprise bills. Costs are known in advance and don't move when traffic spikes, when a batch job reruns, or when you add a second use case.
- Fixed cost per year based on response capacity and service needs - not API usage
- Unlimited locations
- Free tier for non-production apps, research, and testing
What “Legacy status” means
for the Distance Matrix API
What changed in March 2025
Google has moved the Distance Matrix API and the Directions API to Legacy status.
Existing projects keep working and nothing will break tomorrow. But you're maintaining against a frozen product, and any new work sits on a different API with different limits and billing.
Google Distance Matrix migration guideNew projects can't enable it
If you're building something new, Distance Matrix isn't available to you.
Product is frozen
No new features, and volume discounts on legacy SKUs are capped where the newer services' are not.
Pricing model changed
$200/month credit was removed and replaced with per-SKU thresholds. Each SKU now meters separately.
//Public transport
Does Google Maps Platform support public transport everywhere?
Both platforms return public transport journey times. The difference is where they can do it, and how many modes they'll combine in a single journey. Google supports public transport, but not consistently across its stack, and not at scale.
Google Maps: public transport coverage gaps and scale
Google coverage is extensive but uneven. Journeys are also single-mode, meaning a walk, a train and a bus route wouldn’t be one calculated journey.
Routes API supports public transit but max. size is just 100 elements (10 × 10 matrix) when travel mode is transit.
Isochrones API and Route Optimization API do not support public transport.
For apps evaluating many locations — commute-time property search, shift matching across a candidate pool, accessibility scoring — you are limited by both coverage and scale, and pay for every element.
TravelTime: multimodal transit as standard
TravelTime treats public transport as a first-class mode.
We return public transport journey times across rail, metro, regional bus, tram and national carrier networks, and combine walking, cycling and driving legs into a single multimodal journey.
Our infrastructure handles public transport at the same matrix scale as driving, with departure and arrival time modelling built in. And it’s included in every licence.
TravelTime Isochrone API also includes public transit isochrones — Google’s does not.
//Data caching and retention
Can you cache and store Google Maps API results?
Your data rights determine whether you can build a search index, train a model, or run analysis on results you've already paid for. At TravelTime, we believe in licensing models that allow you to analyse, build, and grow without compromise.
Google Maps: caching and storage restrictions
Google prohibits caching Google Maps Content except where terms expressly permit it.
Those permissions are narrow: place IDs can be stored indefinitely and coordinates for up to 30 days. Journey times and distances returned by the Distance Matrix, Isochrone and Routes APIs are not among the permissions — they're meant to be requested live, not stored.
TravelTime: results are yours
TravelTime results can be cached, stored and re-used.
And when you store travel times, you can pre-compute catchments, build them into a search index, and serve queries from your own database at whatever latency you want.
When your data rights are restricted, every user query is a live API call and your spend tracks your traffic.
Isochrones: TravelTime vs Google
Google now has an Isochrones API — road-network-aware polygons for driving, walking and cycling, with traffic-aware routing. If you need a driving catchment under an hour in a supported region, it does the job.
But there are several constraints if you're building on it.
No public transport
Google Isochrone API has driving, walking and cycling only. For commute search, urban accessibility, or anything where users travel by bus, train or metro, it can't return results.
TravelTime has global public transport models, with departure and arrival time modelling.
One-hour ceiling on driving
Google caps travel time at 3,600 seconds (1 hour) for driving and 7,200 seconds for walking and cycling. Regional service-area analysis, logistics catchments and rural coverage modelling need longer.
TravelTime delivers isochrones up to 4 hours across all modes.
It’s pre-GA
Google classifies the Isochrones API as Preview: limited support, and changes that may not be backwards-compatible. Production commitments carry that risk until it reaches GA.
TravelTime has already calculated billions of isochrones for our customers, and we are continuously improving the product.
There is so much more to TravelTime
TravelTime returns unions and intersections across multiple origins in a single call, permits caching and storage of results, and is available across 200+ countries and territories.
See the full isochrone comparisonSwitching from Google
to TravelTime
Join the organisations choosing TravelTime over Google. See what our customers say.
“We started to look at companies that could calculate the travel time. But Google’s travel time API is not useful at all. It’s not quick and it costs a lot for what it is.”
Grisha Ghukasyan
VP of Engineering
How secure is my data with Google Maps API and TravelTime?
Request you make may contain information about your business — where your customers are, where your sites are, which locations you're evaluating. Where that data goes and how it is used is important.
Google Maps: data inside a wider commercial ecosystem
Google Maps Platform sits inside a company whose primary business is advertising, and the Maps products compete in several of the same markets as its customers.
Data handling is governed by Google Cloud's terms and privacy commitments. And your queries flow into an organisation with its own commercial interest in the same location data.
TravelTime: your queries aren’t our product
We don't run an advertising business, we don't build consumer products from customer queries, and we have no competing product line that benefits from seeing where you're looking.
Our security programme is built on ISO 27001, with encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access control, and logged, auditable administrative access to customer data.
//Support
Real support from day one
Get personalised onboarding, developer documentation tailored to your use case, and access to the real people who built the TravelTime infrastructure — not just forums and FAQs.
When staying on Google makes sense
Google's subscription plans can give predictable monthly costs at low volumes.
If you can stay inside those allowances, need live traffic on every request, or your matrices or isochrones are small, Google's economics are fine.
The case for moving gets strong when matrix volume is large, you need public transit isochrones, API usage is unpredictable, you need to use multiple SKUs, or need to cache results.
TravelTime & Google Maps API FAQs
Yes! TravelTime offers a developer-friendly, privacy-first alternative to Google Maps Platform, particularly for travel time analysis and location-based applications. TravelTime is perfect for organisations that are scaling location API usage rapidly and face large, unpredictable bills with Google.
Not immediately. It moved to Legacy status on 1 March 2025, which means it's unavailable in new projects and frozen for new features, but existing projects continue to work. Google commits to at least 12 months' notice before decommissioning. The current replacement is Routes API computeRouteMatrix.
Google withdrew the flat $200 credit on 1 March 2025 and replaced it with per-SKU usage thresholds. Each SKU meters separately, so applications calling several APIs no longer draw on a single pooled allowance.
Yes, as of July 2026. The Google Isochrones API is in pre-GA Preview and supports driving, walking and cycling, with a maximum travel time of one hour for driving and two hours for walking and cycling. It doesn't support public transport. TravelTime's isochrone API is generally available and includes public transport.
Absolutely. TravelTime’s Distance Matrix API works across all transport modes and is designed for high-volume usage at a fixed cost. Get started with a free TravelTime account and discover our docs.
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