The Places API Legacy Pricing provides the following:
Essentials: Basic Data: Unlimited
Essentials: Find Place - ID only: Unlimited
Pro: Find Place, 5K Free cap, $17.0 within 100K usage, $13.6 after 100K usage
With this knowledge, when the usage count of a request exceeds the 5K range, the user will start earning costs.
Example:
If a user uses the Places API (Legacy) - Find Place call, `fields` can be included/indicated in the API call.
This is free. Any number of calls. This would be free
curl -L -X GET 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/findplacefromtext/json?input=Museum%20of%20Contemporary%20Art%20Australia&inputtype=textquery&fields=place_id&key=YOUR_API_KEY'
This is free for the first 5K calls. Afterwards, it would incur cost.
curl -L -X GET 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/findplacefromtext/json?input=Museum%20of%20Contemporary%20Art%20Australia&inputtype=textquery&fields=formatted_address%2Cname%2Crating%2Copening_hours%2Cgeometry&key=YOUR_API_KEY'
Why would the 2nd API call incur cost? Because of what is included in `fields`: formatted_address, name, rating, opening_hours, geometry. Although these fields are part of "Basic" category according to fields, there's a trap under the API.
If the Find Place API call is used, any request other than the ID field would be billable and incur costs. The Find Place SKU documentation provides:
Billable event: `Successful request for more than just the ID field`
So for example:
Using the API call, under `fields`, you've used other than `place_id`, cost would start incurring after 5, 000 events. See computation below
Usage count: 9, 500 events
Free: 5, 000
Billable = 9500 - 5000 = 4500 events
Cost = 4500 * $17 / 1000 = $76.5