We are excited to announce Grounding with Google Maps in Vertex AI is now Generally Available (GA). This feature helps developers build generative AI applications that are connected to real-world, up-to-date information from Google Maps.
Why this matters: A key challenge for developers when building with generative AI is making sure model outputs are factual and reliable, especially when people rely on that information for real-world decisions. "Grounding" is the process of enabling a large language model (LLM) to leverage verifiable sources of information from Google or a customer’s own data.
What this unlocks: Now, developers can build AI applications grounded in geospatial context from over 250 million businesses and places worldwide with Grounding with Google Maps, including its active community of contributors sharing local insights.
Let’s take a closer look.
Grounding with Google Maps helps developers build factual and reliable generative AI outputs in multiple ways:
*This capability is currently available for places in the United States and India.
Grounding with Google Maps can be used in many industries. Some places where we are seeing early adoption in particular include:
“Delivering authentic and high-quality service is all about the details. Marriott Bonvoy aims to provide consumers access to the best experiences when they travel and more connected visual mapping capabilities along with integrated local information. This deepens our engagement with guests by transforming how they discover, plan, and experience the world with us.”
Peggy Roe, Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer, Marriott International
“The future of real estate is an experience that includes GenAI to improve the buying and selling journey. We are partnering with Google to bring this to life using Grounding with Google Maps in Vertex AI and other innovative AI capabilities. This will enable us to offer more personalized location insights and empower Compass agents to provide the best in class buying and selling experience to their clients.”
Yotam Lemberger, Vice President of Engineering, Compass
Grounding with Google Maps in Vertex AI is now available everywhere with Gemini and comes with a tier for easy experimentation (10K prompts with Gemini Pro). To learn more and get started, visit our documentation, check out our interactive demo, and visit the Vertex AI Studio in the Google Cloud Console. Simply add the Google Maps tool to the Gemini API to ground on Google Maps:
from google import genai
from google.genai.types import GoogleMaps,Tool, GenerateContentConfig
client = genai.Client()
response = client.models.generate_content(
model="gemini-2.5-flash",
contents="Where can I get the best espresso near me?",
config=GenerateContentConfig(
tools=[Tool(google_maps=GoogleMaps())], # Use Google Maps Tool
tool_config=types.ToolConfig(
retrieval_config = types.RetrievalConfig(
lat_lng = types.LatLng(
latitude=40.7128,
longitude=-74.006
))),
),
)
print(response.text)
# Example response: 'Here are some of the top-rated places to get espresso near you: ...'
