After Google Maps Cuts Prices, Ola Maps Announces New Pricing Structure To Woo Developers

A day after Google reduced the subscription prices for its maps platform, Ola founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal announced a new pricing structure to woo developers to Ola Maps. 

In a blog post, Aggarwal announced the updated pricing for Ola Maps subscription, which will be free for all developers for the first year. The company said that the new pricing slab will come into effect from Thursday (July 18) itself. 

“In response to overwhelming demand for extended commitments and higher-tier services, Ola Maps is excited to announce a comprehensive update of our pricing structure today. For each API, we are adding a completely FREE tier for 5 Mn calls every month! This would cover more than 90% of the Indian developers and startups,” said Aggarwal. 

He claimed that Ola Maps’ new pricing slab for “larger volumes” is 50% cheaper compared to Google Maps’ reduced prices.

In addition, Ola Maps will also offer two years of free usage for developers signing up for more than three years of commitment. Startups as well as small and medium businesses (SMBs), building apps on ONDC will be able to avail three years of free subscription on the maps platform. 

Speaking about the traction gained by Ola Maps, Aggarwal said that it has so far seen more than 10,000 developers sign up for the platform. 

Training guns at Google, he said that big tech giants, for years, viewed “India primarily as a market to tap”. He added that tech majors were imposing high costs on developers, collecting data, and “often” overlooked India’s digital sovereignty. 

“It’s surprising that even now, some tech giants hesitate to fully localize their pricing in India. Offering payment in INR should be standard, not exceptional. This disconnect from local realities underscores why India needs homegrown tech leaders. India’s tech talent, our innovative spirit, and our deep understanding of emerging markets give us an edge that no Silicon Valley import can match…,” the post added.

The company also announced that it soon plans to launch a host of new APIs, SDKs and features on the Ola developer platform.

This comes a day after Google slashed the prices for its Google Maps platform for Indian developers and announced that it will start accepting payments for Google Maps subscription in Indian rupees. 

Right after the announcement, the Ola CEO termed Google’s move to slash prices “too little too late”. Last week, he had urged Indian developers to stop using Google Maps and announced one-year free access to all developers to Ola Maps on AI-driven Krutrim platform.

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