01 / overview

Address Validation confirms an address is real before you act on it

By the time a shipment bounces, a welcome kit comes back "undeliverable," or a KYC address check silently passes garbage, the cost has already been spent. The Address Validation API stops that at the point of entry — checkout, intake form, CRM import — by confirming an address is real, standardizing how it's formatted, and geocoding it, all in one call, before you commit to shipping or billing against it.

See what's included Coverage & pricing

in one line

It is: component-by-component address confirmation, standardization, and geocoding — with a confidence signal on every piece, and CASS-certified USPS data for the US and Puerto Rico.
It is not: identity/KYC verification or a delivery guarantee — it confirms the address exists and is well-formed, not who lives there or whether a specific carrier will actually get a package to the door.

Address Validation API overview docs

validateAddress() resultv1

verdictVerdict

addressAddress

geocodeGeocode

metadataMetadata

uspsDataUS & PR

···· responseId, englishLatinAddress

0countries & regions covered

0free validations every month

0USD / 1,000 requests to start

0confirms, standardizes & geocodes

02 / what's included

Five objects, one response, no second call needed

Send an address as free text or structured components. What comes back isn't a single pass/fail — it's a verdict summarizing overall confidence, a corrected/standardized address with per-component confirmation, a geocode (no separate Geocoding API call required), metadata flags like business or PO box, and for the US and Puerto Rico, CASS-certified USPS reference data.

Included

Component-level confirmation (confirmed / plausible / suspicious)
Standardized, formatted address output
Bundled geocode — latitude/longitude in the same call
Business, residential, and PO box detection
CASS-certified USPS data for US & Puerto Rico

Not included

Identity / KYC verification of who lives there
Guaranteed carrier deliverability
Real-time NCOA move-updating
Full postal metadata outside the ~40 supported countries

validateAddress request/response reference

confirmation levels (per component)

CONFIRMEDUNCONFIRMED_BUT_PLAUSIBLE UNCONFIRMED_AND_SUSPICIOUS

request shape

address.regionCodeaddress.addressLines previousResponseIdenableUspsCass

03 / why google + usps

Two authoritative sources, not one licensed extract

Most address-cleansing tools lean on a single licensed postal database that goes stale between refreshes. This one combines Google's own continuously-updated map data — the same map behind Search and Maps — with USPS-licensed, CASS-certified reference data for the US and Puerto Rico. That's why the geocode and the postal validation agree with each other in the same response, instead of coming from two systems that were never reconciled.

key facts

CASS™ certified (Coding Accuracy Support System) for US & Puerto Rico addresses
geocode is bundled from Google's live map — not a stale, separately-licensed dataset
coverage across 40+ countries and regions, growing as new markets move out of preview

Country coverage reference

Google's living mapcontinuously reconciled, the same data behind Maps

USPS CASS reference dataUS & Puerto Rico, licensed & certified

Address Validation APIone verdict, both sources reconciled

04 / the verdict object

Not pass/fail — a confidence signal you can branch on

The verdict is the top-line read on the whole address: is it complete, does any part need a human to confirm it, was anything inferred, spell-corrected, or replaced outright? Your integration decides what to do with each flag — auto-accept a clean verdict, prompt the customer on an unconfirmed unit number, or hard-reject a suspicious one — instead of getting a single opaque score.

verdict flags

addressComplete — nothing missing, nothing unconfirmed
hasUnconfirmedComponents / hasInferredComponents — what changed and why
hasReplacedComponents / hasSpellCorrectedComponents — what Google fixed for you

Verdict & Address object reference

verdict booleans

addressCompletehasUnconfirmedComponents hasInferredComponentshasReplacedComponents hasSpellCorrectedComponents

granularity signals

inputGranularityvalidationGranularity geocodeGranularitypossibleNextAction

05 / business, po box & usps

Knowing what kind of address it is, not just where it is

The metadata object flags whether an address is a business, a PO box, or residential — useful for routing logic like commercial delivery surcharges or rejecting a PO box on a shipment that requires a street address. For US and Puerto Rico addresses, uspsData layers on CASS-certified fields: the standardized postal form, ZIP+4, carrier route, and delivery-point confirmation.

metadata booleans

business — flags a commercial address
poBox — flags a PO box, not a street address
residential — flags a home address

USPS CASS data reference

uspsData fields (US & Puerto Rico)

standardizedAddressdeliveryPointCode carrierRoutedpvConfirmation cassProcessed

06 / extend with maps platform

A clean address feeds everything downstream

Validation is usually a gate, not the destination. Once an address is confirmed and geocoded, hand the place ID and location straight to the next Maps Platform API — no separate vendor, no separate address model to reconcile between systems.

Every one of these runs on the same Google Cloud billing account and API key management as the Address Validation API itself — one platform relationship to negotiate and support, not several.

Geocoding APIAddress Validation already bundles a geocode — reach for standalone Geocoding when you only need coordinates and no postal validation.

Places API & Place DetailsPull live hours, photos, and reviews for the place ID a validated address resolves to.

Routes APIFeed a validated, geocoded address straight into routing and ETA calculations for delivery.

Places InsightsJoin a validated location against 300M+ places in BigQuery for category, rating, and brand context.

Geocoding API docs Routes API docs

pairs well with

Geocoding API Places API Routes API Places Insights Maps JavaScript API BigQuery

07 / example requests

A clean address vs. one that needs a second look

Same endpoint, two outcomes — a fully confirmed address, and one with a missing unit number that comes back flagged instead of silently guessed. Click run on either card; these are mocked responses, not a live connection.

clean address

fully confirmed, standardized, and geocoded

POST https://addressvalidation.googleapis.com/v1:validateAddress
    ?key=YOUR_API_KEY

    { "address": { "regionCode": "US",
        "addressLines": ["1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy",
                          "Mountain View, CA 94043"] } }

200 OK · 0.3s elapsed

field	value
verdict.addressComplete	true
address.formattedAddress	1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043
metadata.business	true
uspsData.dpvConfirmation	Y

ambiguous address

missing a unit number — flagged, not guessed

POST https://addressvalidation.googleapis.com/v1:validateAddress
    ?key=YOUR_API_KEY

    { "address": { "regionCode": "US",
        "addressLines": ["100 Main St", "Springfield, IL"] } }

200 OK · 0.3s elapsed

field	value
verdict.addressComplete	false
verdict.hasUnconfirmedComponents	true
address.missingComponentTypes	subpremise
possibleNextAction	CONFIRM

Get started with Address Validation API

08 / use cases and industries

Where a bad address becomes an expensive problem

Any workflow that ships something, bills something, or opens an account against an address benefits from catching a bad one before it's committed, not after.

Ecommerce checkoutCatch a mistyped or incomplete shipping address before the order is placed, not after it bounces.

Logistics & 3PL label printingStandardize and CASS-certify addresses in bulk before a shipping label is ever printed.

Insurance & underwritingConfirm business vs. residential status before pricing a policy against the wrong rate class.

CRM & data hygieneBatch-clean an existing customer file into standardized, geocoded addresses for reliable joins.

Utility & subscription onboardingReject a PO box or unconfirmed unit number at signup instead of during install dispatch.

Field service dispatchConfirm a service address resolves to a real, geocoded location before a crew is scheduled.

industries

Ecommerce & retail Logistics & delivery Insurance Utilities & telecom Financial services Real estate Field services Government & public sector

09 / reliability

Runs on the same infrastructure as the rest of Maps Platform

If a checkout flow or an onboarding form is going to call this synchronously, uptime is part of the pitch. Address Validation runs on Google Cloud's Maps Platform infrastructure, with the same public, auditable status history as every other API on the platform.

the commitment

Maps Platform's standard uptime commitment for GA APIs
confirm current SLA terms for this specific API before quoting a customer

the proof

public status dashboard, incident history over time
CASS certification means the USPS side is independently audited, not self-reported

Maps Platform SLA terms Public status dashboard

Your request Maps Platform infrasame infra, same status page Verdict + geocode

USPS reference file CASS certifiedindependently audited You can verify it yourself

10 / coverage and pricing

Two tiers, both cheaper than one bad shipment

Full validation with business/residential/PO box metadata is live in 37 countries and regions (including CASS-certified US & Puerto Rico); Colombia, Italy, and Singapore get core validation without the metadata layer. Pricing runs on two SKUs — Pro for standard validation, Enterprise for teams that need the higher tier's additional signal set — both with a free monthly quota to prototype against.

free tier

Pro: 5,000 validations free every month
Enterprise: 1,000 validations free every month

Validating a million-record customer file at the Pro 1M–5M tier lands around $5,100 — a rounding error next to the return-shipping and re-contact cost of even a few thousand bad addresses in that same file.

Maps Platform pricing reference

monthly volume	Pro / 1,000	Enterprise / 1,000
0 – 100,000	$17.00	$25.00
100,001 – 500,000	$13.60	$20.00
500,001 – 1,000,000	$10.20	$15.00
1,000,001 – 5,000,000	$5.10	$7.50
5,000,000+	$1.28	$2.28

Rates shown are Google's list pricing for Address Validation Pro (SKU A2E0-53FF-0BE3) and Enterprise (SKU 10F3-119A-C6EC) as of this writing, billed against your Google Cloud billing account — confirm current SKUs, rates, and country coverage before quoting.

11 / get started

Point it at your worst address data first

The free monthly quota is enough to run a real test against the messiest slice of your own customer file — the addresses that actually cause returns and failed deliveries — before anyone signs anything.

Read the quickstart Review pricing again

Google Maps Platform: get started hub

1

Enable the API and generate a keya few clicks in Google Cloud Console; restrict the key to the Address Validation API before it leaves your desk

2

Run it against your dirtiest address datathe free monthly quota is enough for a genuine proof of concept, not a toy demo

3

Pick Pro or Enterprise and scalesame verdict shape either way, volume pricing steps down automatically