Understanding Azure Maps Transactions

2025-10-01

When you use Azure Maps Services, the API requests you make generate transactions. Your transaction usage is available for review in your Azure portal Metrics report. For more information, see View Azure Maps API usage metrics. These transactions can be either billable or nonbillable usage, depending on the service and the feature. It's important to understand which usage generates a billable transaction and how it's calculated so you can plan and budget for the costs associated with using Azure Maps. Billable transactions show up in your Cost Analysis report within the Azure portal.

Note

Azure Maps Gen1 pricing tier retirement

Gen1 pricing tier is now deprecated and will be retired on 9/15/26. Gen2 pricing tier replaces Gen1 (both S0 and S1) pricing tier. If your Azure Maps account has Gen1 pricing tier selected, you can switch to Gen2 pricing tier before it's retired, otherwise it will automatically be updated. For more information, see Manage the pricing tier of your Azure Maps account.

Azure Maps Transaction information by service

The following table summarizes the Azure Maps services that generate both billable and nonbillable transactions, along with key aspects to help understand how the number of transactions is calculated.

Note

For Azure Maps pricing information and free offering details, see Azure Maps Pricing.

Azure Maps Service	Billable	Transaction Calculation	Meter
Geolocation	Yes	One request = 1 transaction	Location Insights Geolocation (Gen2 pricing) Standard S1 Geolocation Transactions (Gen1 S1 pricing) Standard Geolocation Transactions (Gen1 S0 pricing)
Render	Yes, except Get Copyright API, Get Attribution API and Terra maps (`MapTile.GetTerraTile` and `layer=terra`) which are nonbillable.	15 tiles = 1 transaction One request for Get Copyright = 1 transaction One request for Get Map Attribution = 1 transaction One request for Get Static Map = 1 transaction One request for Get Map Tileset = 1 transaction	Maps Base Map Tiles (Gen2 pricing) Maps Imagery Tiles (Gen2 pricing) Maps Static Map Images (Gen2 pricing) Maps Weather Tiles (Gen2 pricing) Standard Hybrid Aerial Imagery Transactions (Gen1 S0 pricing) Standard Aerial Imagery Transactions (Gen1 S0 pricing) Standard S1 Aerial Imagery Transactions (Gen1 S1 pricing) Standard S1 Hybrid Aerial Imagery Transactions (Gen1 S1 pricing) Standard S1 Rendering Transactions (Gen1 S1 pricing) Standard S1 Tile Transactions (Gen1 S1 pricing) Standard S1 Weather Tile Transactions (Gen1 S1 pricing) Standard Tile Transactions (Gen1 S0 pricing) Standard Weather Tile Transactions (Gen1 S0 pricing) Maps Copyright (Gen2 pricing, Gen1 S0 pricing and Gen1 S1 pricing)
Route	Yes	One request = 1 transaction If using the Route Matrix, every four cells in the Route Matrix request generates a billable Route transaction, rounded up to the nearest whole number. If you provided 5 origins and 10 destinations, that would be counted as `Ceiling(0.25510) = 13` Routing transactions. If using Batch transactions, each query in the Batch request call generates a billable Route transaction. If using Snap to Roads. Snap to Roads is billed similarly to other Route APIs: 1 request equals 1 transaction, and each request can support up to 100 snap-to-roads points.	Location Insights Routing (Gen2 pricing) Standard S1 Routing Transactions (Gen1 S1 pricing) Standard Services API Transactions (Gen1 S0 pricing)
Search v1 Search v2	Yes	One request = 1 transaction. If using Batch Search, each location in the Batch request generates a billable Search transaction. Note, the billable Search transaction usage results generated by the batch request has -Batch appended to the API name of your Azure portal metrics report. When using Geocode Autocomplete, every 10 autocomplete requests count as one billable Search transaction.	Location Insights Search Standard S1 Search Transactions (Gen1 S1 pricing) Standard Services API Transactions (Gen1 S0 pricing)
Timezone	Yes	One request = 1 transaction	Location Insights Timezone (Gen2 pricing) Standard S1 Time Zones Transactions (Gen1 S1 pricing) Standard Time Zones Transactions (Gen1 S0 pricing)
Traffic	Yes	One request = 1 transaction (except tiles) 15 tiles = 1 transaction	Location Insights Traffic (Gen2 pricing) Standard S1 Traffic Transactions (Gen1 S1 pricing) Standard Traffic Transactions (Gen1 S0 pricing) Maps Traffic Tiles (Gen2 pricing) Standard S1 Tile Transactions (Gen1 S1 pricing) Standard Tile Transactions (Gen1 S0 pricing)
Weather	Yes	One request = 1 transaction	Location Insights Weather (Gen2 pricing) Standard S1 Weather Transactions (Gen1 S1 pricing) Standard Weather Transactions (Gen1 S0 pricing)

Note

There's no charge to use Azure Maps Power BI visual as long as you have a Power BI subscription.

Tip

Unlike Bing Maps, Azure Maps doesn't use session IDs. Instead, Azure Maps offers many free transactions each month as shown in Azure Maps pricing. For example, you get 5,000 free Base Map Tile transactions per month. Each transaction can include up to 15 tiles for a total of 75,000 tiles rendered for free each month.