How is /v1/places different from /v1/maps?

/v1/places returns the local pack / Places tab (lighter, what local SEO tracks). /v1/maps returns the full Google Maps listing with coordinates, hours and more fields per place.

Is this cheaper than Google's Places API?

It's priced per page of results (1 credit, $0.60–$1.00 per 1,000 calls) instead of per request and field. It returns search results, not Google's full place-details database.

Can I look up a place's reviews?

Yes, pass the cid or place_id to the Google Reviews API.

Does it support any city?

Yes. Use location with a canonical name like "Manchester, England, United Kingdom", or a uule string.

POST /v1/places

Google Places API

The local results Google shows in the Places tab: name, address, rating, review count, category and CID for every business, localized to any city. Pay per page, not per field.

Get a free API key Try in playground

1 credit per page of results 2,500 free credits, no card Failed calls are free

Overview

What the Google Places API does

The Google Places API endpoint returns the Places (local) results for a search. It's lighter than /maps and matches the local pack you see on the main results page, which is what local SEO tools usually track.

It's a practical alternative to Google's Places API when you need search results rather than a places database: no billing account, no field masks and no per-SKU pricing.

What you get

places[] array: position, title, address, latitude, longitude, rating, rating_count, type, website, phone_number, cid, place_id.
request object: Echo of the normalized request (endpoint, engine, q, country, language, page…), handy for logging.
meta object: request_id, credits_used, cached, engine, latency_ms, resolved_urls and parse_quality. parse_quality=empty means the call was not billed.

Request

POST /v1/places

cURL

Python

TypeScript

fetch

PHP

curl https://api.serpkite.com/v1/places \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SERPKITE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"q":"dentist","location":"Austin, Texas, United States"}'

Response (illustrative, placeholder domains)

200 OK · application/json

{
  "request": {
    "endpoint": "places",
    "engine": "google",
    "q": "dentist",
    "location": "Austin, Texas, United States",
    "country": "us",
    "language": "en",
    "page": 1
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "position": 1,
      "title": "Example Family Dental",
      "address": "100 Example Ave, Austin, TX 78701",
      "latitude": 30.2711,
      "longitude": -97.7437,
      "rating": 4.9,
      "rating_count": 612,
      "type": "Dentist",
      "website": "https://dental.example.com",
      "phone_number": "(512) 555-0100",
      "cid": "4412233445566778899"
    },
    {
      "position": 2,
      "title": "Downtown Example Dentistry",
      "address": "250 Sample St, Austin, TX 78702",
      "rating": 4.6,
      "rating_count": 208,
      "type": "Cosmetic dentist",
      "cid": "1234567890123456789"
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "request_id": "req_01J8ZK4M6Q2V7",
    "credits_used": 1,
    "engine": "google",
    "cached": false,
    "latency_ms": 812,
    "resolved_urls": true,
    "parse_quality": "ok"
  }
}

Every response also carries X-Credits-Used, X-Credits-Remaining, X-Cache and X-Tokens-Estimate headers. Run this query in the playground

Reference

Parameters

The parameters /v1/places accepts, in the JSON body or the query string.

Google Places API parameters
Name	Type	Default	Description
`q` required	string	–	The search query. Required. Up to 2,048 characters.
`country`	string	us	Country to search from, as a two-letter ISO code (us, gb, de, in…).
`language`	string	en	Interface language, as a language code (en, de, fr, pt-BR…).
`location`	string	–	Canonical location for local results, e.g. "Austin, Texas, United States". Overrides country for geo.
`page`	integer	1	Results page, 1–10. Each page is billed separately.
`format`	string	json	Response format. markdown is LLM-ready prose; compact is JSON with only the fields agents need. Values: json, compact, markdown.
`fields`	string	–	Comma-separated projection, e.g. results.title,results.link,knowledge_graph. Cuts tokens.
`max_age`	integer	–	Accept a cached result up to this many seconds old. Cache hits cost 50% of the credits.

Full reference, error codes and headers are in the API docs. Send a JSON array of up to 100 request objects to run them in one call.

Use cases

What people build with the Google Places API

Local rank tracking

Track your position in the local pack per city and keyword.

Directory building

Assemble business directories by category and region.

Assistant lookups

Resolve "plumber in Leeds" to real, rated businesses.

Pricing