Google Maps JavaScript API Heatmap Layer- Limit of data points that can be displayed on the map?

Question

I'm new to the Google Maps JavaScript API and I'm applying a heatmap layer on google maps, similarly to the example in the maps heatmap documentation:

https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/examples/layer-heatmap

I'm loading a lot of datapoints for the heatmap but only a limited amount are displaying.

I don't see any issues with the data; when I cut the dataset into smaller chunks the heatmap appears in different places each time I load the map.

But I can see in the usage documentation (https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/usage) that there's a limit of 2,500 requests per day, and I don't know what the definition of one request is in this scenario.

Is it that when the map loads with initMap(), the entire HeatmapLayer being applied is considered one single request?

Or is it that, when I'm creating a heatmap with 4,000 datapoints, each call to new google.maps.LatLng() for each datapoint is considered 4,000 separate requests?

Answer 1

Following the example in the docs, I created an example that creates 10,000 points to plot on a heatmap, with no issue. So it can't be any kind of rate limit. There must be something else at play. This example does not even have an API key, so on the free plan.

Ten thousand heatmap point demo

<div id="map"></div>
<script>

        var map, heatmap;

  function initMap() {
    map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById('map'), {
      zoom: 2,
      center: {lat: 37.775, lng: -122.434},
    });

    heatmap = new google.maps.visualization.HeatmapLayer({
      data: getPoints(),
      map: map
    });
  }

  function getPoints() {

    var lotsOfMarkers = [];

    for( var i = 1; i <= 10000; i++) {

       var random = new google.maps.LatLng( (Math.random()*(85*2)-85), (Math.random()*(180*2)-180) );

        lotsOfMarkers.push(random);
    }

    return lotsOfMarkers;
  }
</script>
<script async defer src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?&libraries=visualization&callback=initMap">
</script>

Answer 2

Well, the Google Maps JavaScript API has these following quotas if you check your developer console.

It means that you can load your map 25,000 times per day and the user can only make 1 request per second. While the unlimited here means that the maps can load simultaneosly.

So every time you call your API key like this, it count as a 1 load per day.

Note: The Daily quotas reset at midnight Pacific Time (PT)