Install guide and config at curatedmcp.com

Google Maps MCP: Turn Natural Language into Spatial Intelligence for AI Agents

Tired of building location features from scratch? Google Maps MCP connects Claude, Cursor, and other AI agents directly to the Google Maps Platform—letting them search for places, calculate routes, geocode addresses, and reason about distance all through natural language.

Instead of parsing API responses yourself, you describe what you need ("Find Italian restaurants within 2 miles of this address") and the agent handles the API calls, interprets results, and feeds useful data back to your application. It's the difference between wiring up endpoints manually and giving your AI agent a geography sense.

What It Does

Google Maps MCP unlocks five core capabilities:

Geocoding & Reverse Geocoding — Convert addresses to coordinates and vice versa. Useful for normalizing user input or mapping database records to locations.

Place Search & Details — Find businesses, landmarks, or points of interest by name, type, or proximity. Retrieve hours of operation, ratings, phone numbers, and photos without touching the Places API directly.

Directions & Routing — Generate turn-by-turn navigation for driving, walking, transit, or cycling. The agent can reason about travel time and choose routes based on constraints (avoid tolls, prefer highways).

Distance Matrix — Calculate travel times and distances between multiple origins and destinations at once. Perfect for logistics, delivery optimization, or analyzing accessibility.

Elevation & Time Zone Data — Get elevation for coordinates and determine time zones for any location.

All of this works through your agent's natural language interface—no manual URL construction required.

How to Install

npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-google-maps

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-maps-mcp": {
      "command": "npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-google-maps",
      "env": {
        "GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Get an API key from Google Cloud Console. The free tier gives you $200/month in credits—roughly 40,000 map operations.

Real-World Use Cases

• Location-aware customer support — Agent retrieves store hours, directions, and contact info on demand. "What's the nearest service center?" triggers a real-time search and hands back address + hours without hardcoding anything.

• Travel planning automation — Build itinerary tools where the agent calculates drive times between destinations, suggests stops based on proximity, and avoids tolls. No manual coordinate work.

• Logistics & delivery optimization — Feed the agent a list of 10 delivery addresses and get back a distance matrix to optimize routes, estimate ETAs, and identify bottlenecks.

Full install guides for Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, and more at CuratedMCP.