A free Google Maps scraper will get you a few hundred businesses a month, enough to test a niche or build one small call list. There are five kinds of free options: copying by hand, free browser extensions, open-source scripts, the free tier of a paid scraping service, and the free usage threshold on Google's own Places API. Each one is "free" in a different way. The things that decide whether it is really free are the per-search cap, whether emails are included, whether you need a card, and whether unused credit expires.
Most "free scraper" lists rank tools. This guide explains what each kind of free option includes and where it starts costing you money or time.
The five kinds of "free"
| Option | What you pay | Typical limit | Emails | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copying by hand | Your time | However long you can stand it | No | 20–50 businesses, once |
| Generic free scraping extension | Time spent cleaning raw output | ~120 per search | No | A one-off small export |
| Open-source script | Setup, maintenance, proxies | ~120 per search unless you build splitting | Only if you build a crawler | Developers who want full control |
| Freemium scraping service | Nothing until you pass the free allowance | A monthly record or credit allowance | Varies; often a separate charge | Testing a niche, small recurring lists |
| Google Places API | Nothing up to the free monthly threshold | Per-SKU monthly threshold | No (not a Places field) | Developers building an app |
The rest of this post goes through each one, then the hidden costs that apply to all of them.
1. Copying from Google Maps by hand
Open Maps, search "dentists in Austin", click each result and copy the name, phone and website into a sheet. It costs nothing, carries no tool risk, and you look at every listing yourself.
It also takes a minute or more per business. Past about 50 rows it stops being free, because your time costs more than any of the paid options below.
2. Free browser extensions
Generic "scrape any page" extensions can read the Maps results panel and dump it into a table. They are free and they work on many sites, not just Maps.
What you get is whatever is visible in the list: usually name, rating, category and part of the address, in columns that need cleaning. Phone numbers and websites often live in the details panel, which a generic extension doesn't open. And because it reads a single search, it stops where Google stops, at roughly 120 places. We explain why in Google Maps stops at 120 results.
Before installing any extension, check its permissions. Our Chrome extension checklist explains which Chrome warnings are normal for a Maps scraper and which ones need a reason.
3. Open-source scripts
There are open-source Google Maps scrapers on GitHub that drive a headless browser through Maps searches. The software is free. Running it is not:
- Setup. You need a working environment, a browser driver and some comfort with the command line.
- Maintenance. Google changes the Maps page regularly. When the page structure changes, the script breaks until someone updates it.
- Your IP. Automated browsing from one connection tends to trigger CAPTCHAs and slowdowns. The usual fix is paid proxies, which ends the "free" part.
- The 120 cap. Unless the script splits the area into smaller searches and removes duplicates, you get about 120 results per query.
If you are a developer and want to own the pipeline, this is a reasonable route. If you want a list by Friday, it usually isn't.
4. Free tiers of scraping services
This is what most people mean by a free Google Maps scraper: a hosted tool with a free monthly allowance. Free tiers differ in more ways than the headline number. Here is what three of them said on their own pricing pages when we checked on October 25, 2026:
| Service | Free allowance (as published) | After the free allowance | Emails |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outscraper | First 500 businesses free; tiers reset every 30 days | $3 per 1,000 records up to 100k, then $1 per 1,000 | Separate Emails & Contacts scraper: first 500 free, then $3 per 1,000 domains |
| Apify | $5 of prepaid usage per month, no credit card required | Paid plans; unused credits expire at the end of each billing cycle | Depends on the actor you run |
| MapScraper | 300 leads per month, no card required | Pro: $19/month for 10,000 leads | Included on every plan, including free |
Prices change, so check each vendor's page before you decide. For direct comparisons, see MapScraper vs Outscraper and MapScraper vs Apify.
The useful questions to ask any free tier are below in "The hidden costs".
5. The Google Places API free threshold
Google's official route is the Places API. On March 1, 2025 Google replaced the old $200 monthly credit with a free monthly usage threshold for each Core Services SKU: 10,000 billable events for Essentials SKUs, 5,000 for Pro and 1,000 for Enterprise. Beyond that you are billed per request.
Two details catch people out. First, a request is billed at the highest SKU any of its requested fields belongs to, so asking for one richer field can move the whole request to a more expensive tier. Second, Places has no email field, so you still need a separate website crawl for contact addresses.
The API is the right choice if you are building software that shows Maps data to users. For a one-off lead list it means writing code and managing a billing account. Our guide to scraping Google Maps compares the API with the no-code routes in more detail.
The hidden costs of a free Google Maps scraper
Whichever option you choose, these are the places where "free" usually breaks down.
The 120-result cap
Google Maps returns roughly 120 places for a single search, however many businesses actually match. A free tool that reads one search gives you the first 120 and says nothing about the rest. Getting past it requires splitting the map into smaller cells and de-duplicating by place_id. Some tools reserve that for paid plans. MapScraper does: deep scan, which removes the 120 limit, is on the Pro plan, not the free one.
Emails billed separately
Maps listings don't show email addresses. Any email in a scraper's export came from crawling the business's own website, and many tools price that crawl as a separate product. A "free" 500 records can turn into a bill as soon as you want to email them. See how to extract emails from Google Maps for what that crawl finds and misses.
A card on file
Some free tiers ask for a card and bill you automatically once you cross the allowance. That's fine if you expect it, but it means one big search can cost money you didn't plan to spend. If the tool doesn't tell you how many results a search will return before it runs, you find out the cost afterwards.
Credits that expire
Monthly allowances usually reset at the end of each cycle, and unused credit is gone. If you scrape in bursts, such as one big list a quarter, a tier that lets unused volume roll over is worth more than its headline number.
Duplicates and cleanup
Overlapping searches return the same business more than once. Without de-duplication you pay for, and then manually remove, repeated rows. Generic extensions also give you raw columns that need splitting and fixing before they're usable. Our Excel export guide covers the common clean-up problems.
Terms and data protection
Google's terms restrict extracting Maps content, and if you contact people in the EU, rules such as the GDPR apply to how you store and use their details. A free tool doesn't change any of that. This is general information, not legal advice.
How to get the most out of a free tier
- Pick a narrow search first. "Roofers in Tampa" uses far less allowance than "contractors in Florida" and tells you just as much about whether the niche works.
- Count before you spend. Use a tool that shows how many results a search contains before it charges anything.
- Check that emails are included before you build an email list on a free plan.
- Filter for the leads you'll actually contact. Rating, review count and whether a business has a website are better filters than raw volume. Businesses without a website are a common starting point for agencies.
- Export and check the file straight away. Look for duplicates, broken phone numbers and missing websites before you start outreach.
- Know your upgrade cost. Work out what the next 1,000 records would cost on that tool, including emails, before you depend on it.
What MapScraper's free plan includes
To be specific about our own tier, since this is our blog:
- 300 leads a month, no credit card.
- Emails included, crawled from each business's website.
- The Chrome and Edge extension, the cloud scraper and the API, on one account and one lead balance.
- All export fields on every plan; the field reference lists them.
- A free pre-count before every search. Nothing is deducted until you confirm, and a stopped job only costs the rows delivered.
- Unused leads roll into the next month instead of expiring.
What it doesn't include: deep scan, which is what gets past the 120-per-search cap; integrations such as Sheets and HubSpot; and white-label export. Those are on Pro, which has every feature for $19 a month and 10,000 leads.
Summary
- "Free" Google Maps scraping comes in five forms: manual copying, free extensions, open-source scripts, freemium service tiers and Google's Places API threshold.
- Free tools usually stop at about 120 results per search unless they split the area and de-duplicate.
- Emails are the most common hidden cost, because Maps doesn't list them and many tools bill the website crawl separately.
- Check for a card requirement, credit expiry and a pre-count before you run a big search.
- For a few hundred leads a month, a free tier is enough. For whole cities, budget for a paid plan.
If you want to test a niche, MapScraper's free plan gives you 300 leads a month with emails included, and the pre-count is free.