In June of 2016, Google updated their terms of service and removed keyless access to their Maps API (which Webflow relies on to power our map component). This change required all users of their API to provide an API key with every site that uses their service.
While we worked on a solution to let you add your own API key via our app, we temporarily provided our own API key for all Webflow sites to make sure maps continued to load at the time. On July 1st, we’ll be removing that temporary API key, so if you use maps on your site(s), you’ll need to register for your own key with Google.
What do I need to do right now?
If you’re using a map component in Webflow, you’ll need to create a Google Maps JavaScript API key and republish (or re-export) your site for maps to continue loading properly. If you don’t do this by July 1st, the map(s) on your website(s) will load a gray error message instead of an actual map.
- Follow these steps to register for a new Google Maps JavaScript API key, and enter it on the Integrations tab on each Webflow project that uses a map
- Republish your site to enable the new API key
- Visit your published (or exported) site and make sure that the map loads correctly
What if I don’t use the map component on my website(s)?
You don’t need to do anything! One thing to remember though: some Webflow templates come with a Map component (e.g. on a Contact page), so if you based your website off of a template, you might want to double check that it doesn’t contain a map.
Do I have to pay Google now?
Probably not. Access to the Maps API is free for up to 25,000 map loads per day (or about 750,000 per month), with overage pricing kicking in after that. Odds are that you’re not seeing that much traffic, and you’ll be able to keep using Google Maps for free.
What will happen on July 1st?
On July 1st, we’ll be revoking our own API key, which means any sites that you haven’t added your own API key to will see a gray box load instead of a proper Google Map.
What about sites that I’ve exported?
If you’ve exported sites that use the map component, those sites are using Webflow’s API key, and the maps will no longer work after July 1st when the Webflow API key is revoked. To avoid broken maps on exported sites, add your own API key, then re-export the site.
You can also manually enter your new API key in your exported code. Just search your code for one of the following keys:
AIzaSyBks0W0NawnPju70JQS5XXPOTTrguDQjWEAIzaSyBQ4EYEg4aRz9-yiCnerTV7bk8GCWgZOhk
When you find one of these, replace it with your own API key and make sure that the loading of the map still works.
Why the change?
Since we provided our temporary API key for all published sites last year, Webflow has seen significant growth in published and exported sites, which has brought the shared key very close to Google’s limit of 200,000 map loads per day. Once this daily limit is reached, Google will cut off map loads for all sites that use that key, which means that all maps across all Webflow sites will fail to load for the rest of that day. This forces us to break out Google Maps usage to individual API keys instead of one master shared one.
Thankfully, 99.9% of you will be under that daily limit of 25,000 map loads, so you’ll be able to continue using Google Maps for free. Given all these considerations, we decided that a direct integration where you can provide your own API key was the best path forward.
We appreciate your understanding on the change, and are here to answer any questions you might have during the transition 
