---
id: google-maps-routing
version: "0.11.0"
license: Apache-2.0
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# google-maps-routing — Google Maps Routing API client library

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 77.8K/mo

## What it is and what it does

This is the official Python client for Google's Routes API, a managed service on Google Cloud Platform that computes routes, directions, and optimized paths. It wraps the underlying gRPC and REST endpoints with a Pythonic interface, handling authentication, serialization, and error handling transparently. The library depends on google-auth for credential management, google-api-core for common client patterns, and protobuf-based message types via proto-plus.

You use it when you need to integrate routing or directions logic into a Python application running on or connected to Google Cloud. Setup requires a GCP project, billing, API enablement, and valid credentials; once configured, you instantiate a client and call methods to compute routes. The library is actively maintained, supports modern Python versions (3.10+), and carries no known vulnerabilities.

Use it for:

- Build a delivery or logistics platform that computes optimal routes between multiple stops.
- Add turn-by-turn directions to a travel or mapping application.
- Integrate route planning into a backend service for ride-sharing or fleet management.
- Compute distance matrices or travel times between locations for analytics.
- Automate route optimization in a batch processing pipeline on Google Cloud.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Python client library for the Google Maps Routes API, enabling programmatic access to routing, directions, and route optimization services on Google Cloud Platform.

Yes, if you are building on Google Cloud Platform and need routing or directions functionality. The library is actively maintained, has low install friction, carries no known vulnerabilities, and is the official client for the Routes API. Prerequisite: you must have a GCP project with the Routes API enabled and billing configured; the library itself is not useful without that infrastructure.

## Install

pip install google-maps-routing
uv add google-maps-routing
poetry add google-maps-routing

## Installing google-maps-routing

Before you install: Low install friction; pure Python wheel distribution. Active maintenance with recent releases and a well-resourced upstream repository. Requires Python 3.10 or later.

License in practice: Apache-2.0 permissive license allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; suitable for most projects.

Quickstart:

pip install google-maps-routing

from google.maps import routing_v2
from google.auth import default

credentials, _ = default()
client = routing_v2.RoutesClient(credentials=credentials)

Requires Google Cloud Platform project with Routes API enabled, billing configured, and valid authentication credentials set up.

Verify before relying:

- Specific routing capabilities (e.g., matrix routes, waypoint optimization, toll/traffic modeling) not detailed in excerpt.
- Performance characteristics and rate limits for production workloads.
- Whether the library supports all Routes API features or a subset.

## Package facts

- License: Apache-2.0 (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 77.8K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

google maps routing api client, python routes api, directions and routing library, google cloud routing, route optimization python, google-cloud, maps-api, routing

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/google-maps-routing) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/google-maps-routing/)