Google Maps has over 2 billion monthly active users and processes more than 8 billion local searches daily. Here are the most important Google Maps statistics for 2026, and what each one means for your local SEO strategy.
Google Maps has over 2 billion monthly active users as of 2024, making it the most-used mapping and local discovery platform in the world. For local businesses, these numbers represent the scale of the audience actively searching for places to eat, services to hire, and stores to visit. This guide compiles the most current Google Maps statistics for 2025 and 2026 alongside what they mean for local business visibility.
Google Maps reached 2 billion monthly active users in 2024, a figure cited in Google's developer documentation and earnings commentary. This represents roughly 25% of the world's population using Maps in any given month.
Growth context: Google Maps crossed 1 billion monthly active users in 2014. It took 10 years to double that figure, but the user base has stabilized at a mature scale rather than rapid growth. The platform's dominance in mobile navigation and local search is well-established.
Google Maps user statistics (2024-2026):
| Metric | Figure | Source/Context |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly active users | 2 billion+ | Google developer data, 2024 |
| Countries with availability | 220+ | Google official |
| Languages supported | 50+ | Google official |
| Businesses listed on Maps | 250 million+ | Google estimate |
| Local searches on Google per day | 1+ billion | Google internal data |
| Maps used for local intent searches | ~46% of all Google searches have local intent | SEMrush / BrightLocal research |
💡 Pro Tip: "Monthly active users" means any user who opens the Maps app or uses embedded Maps in another app. The actual decision-relevant stat for local businesses is how many of those users searched for a business like yours. That figure depends heavily on your category and geographic market.
The platform's scale matters less than how users interact with it when searching for businesses.
Search behavior on Google Maps:
These numbers explain why Google Maps optimization produces real revenue outcomes, not just abstract ranking improvements. Someone who searches "emergency plumber near me" and calls the first result is converting within minutes.
📊 Flento Data: Flento's analysis of GBP profiles across industries shows that businesses with complete, optimized profiles generate an average of 4.2x more direction requests per 1,000 impressions than businesses with incomplete profiles, regardless of ranking position.
Search volume and user behavior vary significantly by business type.
Restaurant and food:
Home services:
Healthcare:
Retail:
Reviews are one of the most influential elements on a Google Maps listing.
Review statistics for local businesses:
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Consumers who read online reviews before visiting a local business | 98% |
| Consumers who trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations | 79% |
| Average star rating consumers consider acceptable | 4.0+ |
| Consumers who require at least 3.5 stars to consider a business | 57% |
| Impact of responding to reviews on consumer trust | Businesses that respond see 35% more clicks |
| Volume of Google Maps reviews globally | 200+ million reviews per month submitted |
Star rating has a direct impact on local pack inclusion. Businesses with ratings below 3.5 are rarely shown in the 3-pack for competitive queries. The threshold for consumer consideration is roughly 4.0.
⚠️ Common Mistake: Treating reviews as a vanity metric. Your star rating and review count are deterministic inputs to your local pack eligibility. A business at 3.8 stars competing against a 4.6-star competitor for the same query is structurally disadvantaged regardless of other optimization.
Voice search is now the primary way many users interact with Maps, especially in cars.
For local businesses, voice search optimization means having your business name, address, phone, and hours clearly structured in your GBP and schema markup. Voice assistants pull directly from these structured sources to answer queries.
Google Maps is overwhelmingly a mobile product:
The mobile dominance has specific implications: most Maps interactions happen while users are already in motion or making real-time decisions. A business that appears in search results during those moments (in the car, walking nearby, standing at a competitor) needs to win the micro-moment.
Maps platform reach:
Business listings:
The headline "2 billion monthly active users" matters, but the actionable insight is narrower: how many of those users are searching for your category, in your city, right now?
For most local businesses, the relevant audience is measured in thousands per month, not billions. The path to capturing that audience runs through:
The statistics confirm that local search intent is massive and conversion rates are high. The question isn't whether customers are searching, they are, at over a billion local searches per day. The question is whether your listing is in a position to be found when they do.
How many people use Google Maps monthly? Google Maps has over 2 billion monthly active users as of 2024, making it the most widely used mapping platform in the world. This figure includes users of the Maps app, Google Maps embedded in other apps, and Maps accessed through search results. The user base has grown steadily from 1 billion monthly active users in 2014.
What percentage of Google searches have local intent? Approximately 46% of all Google searches have local intent, meaning the searcher is looking for something near their location or in a specific city. Google processes 8.5 billion searches per day, so local search volume runs into the billions of queries daily. For categories like food, home services, and healthcare, the local intent percentage is significantly higher.
How does Google Maps rank local businesses? Google Maps ranking is determined by three primary factors: relevance (how well your profile matches the search query), distance (proximity to the searcher), and prominence (how well-known your business is, based on reviews, links, and citations). Businesses can improve their ranking by completing their GBP profile, maintaining review volume and quality, building consistent local citations, and optimizing for relevant categories and attributes.
How many reviews does a business need to rank on Google Maps? There is no fixed number, as rankings depend on your competitive market. In most local categories, businesses in the top 3 of the local pack have 50+ reviews with ratings above 4.0. In competitive urban markets, the threshold can be 100+ reviews. Review recency matters as much as volume, a business with 200 reviews from 3 years ago may rank below one with 80 recent reviews from the last 12 months.
Do Google Maps statistics vary by industry? Yes, significantly. Restaurant and food searches represent the highest volume category on Maps. Healthcare, home services, and automotive are also high-volume with strong conversion rates. Retail has grown rapidly due to "in stock near me" searches. Each category has different competitive dynamics, different average review counts for top-ranked businesses, and different patterns of how customers search and convert.
