When using the Google Maps Reviews API with sort=newest and a cutoff timestamp, am I billed for a place/query if the response returns zero new reviews (because nothing has changed since the cutoff)?

Questions
1

  1. What I want to know is;

    1. Is billing based on the number of reviews *returned*, or is there a minimum charge per place/query regardless of how many reviews come back?

2. If I query 1,000 place IDs daily with a cutoff filter and only 30 return new reviews (970 return empty), am I charged for all 1,000 queries, or only for the 30 that returned data?

3. Is there a separate 'request' or 'query' fee independent of the per-1,000-reviews record pricing, even when the result set is empty?

    Will appreciate yoru answer.

2

Billing for Google Maps Reviews is per review returned, not per place queried.

To answer your questions:

1. Per-review billing
You’re charged per review record returned. There is no minimum charge per place. If a place returns 50 reviews, you pay for 50 reviews. Pricing is tiered based on your total usage within a 30-day period: https://outscraper.com/pricing/

2. Places with zero new reviews
If a query returns no results (e.g. no new reviews since your cutoff), you are not charged for that query.

3. Separate request fee
There is a minimal per-request cost, but if no results come back, you won’t be charged.

So for your scenario of 1,000 place IDs daily with a cutoff where only 30 return new reviews, you’d pay for the reviews returned from those 30 places, not for all 1,000 queries. The 970 that return empty are not billed.

For your monitoring setup, sort=newest with cutoff is the recommended approach: https://outscraper.com/google-maps-reviews-scraper/