Google Maps Photos Scraper

Google Maps Photos Scraper exports public Google Maps place photos from URLs, share links, Place IDs, and search queries to JSON, CSV, Excel, or an API.

What does Google Maps Photos Scraper do?

Google Maps Photos Scraper exports public Google-hosted photo URLs and visible place metadata from Google Maps place pages and search results. It captures both visible gallery images and the photo metadata delivered to the browser, while keeping the visible-page path as a fallback. Runs deduplicate photos, save progress, and report target-level warnings instead of discarding valid results when one place fails.

Who is it for? Common use cases

• Local SEO agencies auditing business profile photo coverage
• Hospitality, restaurant, and retail teams monitoring public place media
• Lead generation teams enriching place lists with visual signals
• Reputation/media auditors comparing competitor photos by location
• Analysts building datasets of public Maps photo links for review

What data can it export?

• Public Google-hosted photo URLs and thumbnail URLs
• Stable photo IDs for deduplication across places and retries
• Place name and resolved Google Maps URL
• Query or URL that produced each record
• Photo order/rank, visible dimensions, captions, and contributor labels when shown
• Google Maps identifiers when present in the public URL

Input example and recipes

Single landmark or business

{
  "queries": ["Statue of Liberty National Monument"],
  "maxPhotosPerPlace": 10,
  "includeSearchDiscovery": true,
  "maxConcurrency": 1,
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false }
}

Category and location monitoring

{
  "queries": ["pizza near Times Square New York"],
  "maxPhotosPerPlace": 25,
  "includeSearchDiscovery": true,
  "maxConcurrency": 1
}

Existing Google Maps URLs

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.google.com/maps/search/Eiffel+Tower" }
  ],
  "maxPhotosPerPlace": 10
}

Place ID with original-resolution URLs

{
  "placeIds": ["ChIJLU7jZClu5kcR4PcOOO6p3I0"],
  "imageSize": "original",
  "language": "en",
  "country": "FR",
  "maxPhotosPerPlace": 20
}

Example output

{
  "placeName": "Statue of Liberty",
  "placeUrl": "https://www.google.com/maps/place/...",
  "placeId": "0x89c25090129c363d:0x40c6a5770d25022b",
  "cid": null,
  "query": "Statue of Liberty National Monument",
  "rank": 1,
  "photoId": "79d631fd633b36afc9bf1218",
  "photoUrl": "https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/...=w2048-h2048-k-no",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/...=w320-h320-k-no",
  "imageWidth": 408,
  "imageHeight": 544,
  "category": null,
  "caption": "Photo of Statue of Liberty",
  "contributorName": null,
  "extractionSource": "photometa",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-10T10:00:00.000Z"
}

Input settings

Tips for best results

• Use specific place names with city/location, such as Hotel Chelsea New York.
• For category monitoring, use queries such as coffee shops near Shibuya Tokyo and keep includeSearchDiscovery enabled.
• Keep maxPhotosPerPlace low for first tests, then scale after confirming output quality.
• Use placeIds when you need deterministic place resolution across scheduled runs.
• Leave allowEmptyResults disabled unless an empty gallery is a valid business result.
• If Google blocks requests in your region, enable Apify Proxy in the input.

Limits and legality

This Actor extracts public photo URLs and visible public metadata. It does not log in, bypass paywalls, download private content, or collect hidden account data. Run it only for workloads you are authorized to process, and follow applicable platform terms, privacy requirements, and local law. Google Maps can change its public interface or limit traffic; all-empty runs therefore fail by default instead of silently appearing successful.

API usage

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('fetch_cat/google-maps-photos-scraper').call({
  queries: ['Statue of Liberty National Monument'],
  maxPhotosPerPlace: 10
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN')
run = client.actor('fetch_cat/google-maps-photos-scraper').call(run_input={
    'queries': ['Statue of Liberty National Monument'],
    'maxPhotosPerPlace': 10,
})
items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(items)

cURL

curl -X POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/fetch_cat~google-maps-photos-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"queries":["Statue of Liberty National Monument"],"maxPhotosPerPlace":10}'

MCP and agent usage

Use this actor from agents through Apify MCP:

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=fetch_cat/google-maps-photos-scraper

Claude CLI example:

claude mcp add apify https://mcp.apify.com?tools=fetch_cat/google-maps-photos-scraper

JSON configuration example:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=fetch_cat/google-maps-photos-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts:

• "Collect public Google Maps photos for these five hotel URLs."
• "Find visible photo thumbnails for pizza places near Times Square."
• "Export Maps photo URLs for this landmark query as JSON."

Support

If you need help, open an issue on the Apify actor page and include:

• Input JSON you used
• Expected output
• Actual output or dataset sample
• Reproducible public URL (for example, a public Google Maps URL) or query
• Run ID and error message, if any