A Google Places API alternative you can actually keep the data from
Storefinch is 14.9M US businesses (name, category, address, phone, website, email, socials) behind one MCP server for AI agents, at a flat $19/month. The data is openly licensed, so you can store it, export it to CSV, and load it into your CRM. Google's terms forbid all three.
Get a free API key · 200 calls a month, no card
Side by side
| Google Places API (New) | Storefinch | |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage | Worldwide | US only: 14.9M places across 2,127 categories |
| Phone, website | Yes. Requesting them bills the call at the Enterprise tier | Included: phone on 88%, website on 79% of places |
| Email, social profiles | No | Where the sources have them |
| Hours, ratings, reviews, photos | Yes | No |
| Price | $35 per 1,000 searches with phone or website (1,000 free a month); $40 with reviews | Free: 200 calls/month. Pro: $19/month for 10,000 calls |
| Results per request | Up to 20 (Text Search pages to 60 total) | Up to 100 per search; CSV exports up to 5,000 rows |
| Store results | Not allowed, except place IDs and lat/lng for 30 days | Allowed, under each record's license |
| Export to CSV / CRM | Not allowed ("export, extract, or otherwise scrape") | Built in (export_leads) |
| Show on a non-Google map | Not allowed | Any map, or none |
| Website still live? | No | verify_websites checks each one |
| For AI agents | A REST API you wrap yourself | A remote MCP server: one line in Claude Code, Cursor or Claude Desktop |
| Freshness | Live | Rebuilt monthly from Overture Maps |
What it costs at agent volume
An agent that runs 10,000 searches a month and asks for phone numbers and websites pays Google about $315 (Text Search Enterprise at $35 per 1,000, after 1,000 free calls). Storefinch Pro covers the same 10,000 calls for $19/month, at up to 100 results a call instead of 20.
At low volume Google's free monthly caps go a long way. If you only need a few hundred lookups and display them next to a Google map, the Places API may cost you nothing. The bigger difference is what you may do with the results.
Why the license matters for lead lists
Google's Maps Platform terms (section 3.2.3) say you will not "pre-fetch, index, store, reshare, or rehost Google Maps Content", "bulk download" places information, or "copy and save business names, addresses, or user reviews". They also rule out using Google Maps Content to improve AI models. Only place IDs may be stored indefinitely. A spreadsheet of businesses built from Places results, kept in a CRM, is exactly what those terms prohibit.
Storefinch is built from Overture Maps open data, published under CDLA-Permissive-2.0, Apache-2.0 and CC0. Each record keeps its license, and every export lists it per row (see data licenses). No Google data and no scraping.
When Google is the better choice
- You need opening hours, ratings, reviews or photos.
- You need places outside the US.
- You need today's data: a business that opened last week may not be in a monthly open-data release.
- You are showing a handful of results on a Google map, inside Google's free caps.
Overture's own docs note that open places data has duplicates and uneven completeness. Storefinch removes duplicates and mis-geocoded records, filters by confidence, and can check whether each website is live. Even so, check the records before a big campaign.
Can't I just download Overture myself?
Yes. It's free, and if you have a data team that is a fine route. Storefinch is for when you'd rather not handle the monthly 88M-place global release yourself: filtering it to the US, normalizing phones and websites, removing duplicates, hosting a search index, checking websites, and wiring it all into your agent. You get one MCP endpoint and a CSV button.
Try it
Google figures are from Google's public pricing page and terms, checked November 2026; prices are the 0–100k monthly tier, and Google may change them. Storefinch is not affiliated with Google.