Places autocomplete API - unreasonably low query limit

[Bryce McKinlay]

I'm investigating using the Places API and Places Autocomplete API in a mobile application.

The query limit for the Places API is 100,000/day - and my understanding is that this is applied per app (key), not per IP address.

That might be a reasonable limit for the Places API itself, where a typical user session might only result in one or a few requests. However, it appears that using the autocomplete API also counts towards this limit. Since using autocomplete results in a request being generated with every user keystroke, a typical user session would result in tens or even hundreds of requests! 

It doesn't seem realistic to launch an app using the autocomplete API with such a low limit. I generated over 1400 requests just testing my app for a couple of hours this afternoon, so its not hard to imagine that this query limit would be easily reached with just a few thousand daily users, a level that (I hope!) could be reached on the first few days after release.

I would suggest that the limit for the autocomplete API needs to be separate from the Places API limit, and set at least 10-50x higher.

I do see that there's an option to request a higher limit, but how much higher limit do Google allow without being a maps premier customer? Will they consider a limit increase for an app that hasn't launched yet? Anyone have experience with this?

Alternatively, I could launch without the autocomplete functionality, but it really does improve the user experience to have suggestions available - especially on mobile - so I'd like to be able to use it if possible.