Google Maps Business Photo Annotator — AI Vision

The Google Maps Business Photo Annotator is an Apify Actor that turns Google Maps business photos into structured, machine-readable annotations. Provide a place ID, search query, or Maps URL — the Actor fetches photos and analyzes each image with Gemini vision AI. Every photo becomes a dataset row with scene type, caption, tags, OCR text, dishes, amenities, ambiance, dominant colors, quality score, and safety flags.

Run it on the Apify platform for API access, scheduling, monitoring, and integrations — no browser or proxy setup required.

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Key Features

• Google Maps photo fetching — retrieves business photos from place IDs, search queries, or Maps URLs.
• AI vision annotations — Gemini analyzes each photo for scene, caption, tags, OCR, dishes, and amenities.
• Flexible queries — place IDs, search text, google_id, CID, or full Maps URLs.
• Photo filters — fetch all photos, latest, menu-tagged, or owner-uploaded images.
• Custom prompts and schemas — tune the AI vision prompt or supply your own JSON Schema for output.
• Graceful failure handling — skips broken image URLs and continues.
• Pay-per-event pricing — billed per successfully annotated photo.

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Why Annotate Google Maps Business Photos?

Google Maps is the largest local-business photo pool on the web, but raw photo URLs tell you little about what is actually in the image. Restaurants, hotels, retail, and service businesses upload photos of food, interiors, menus, and signage — valuable signals for:

• Hospitality and retail research — cuisine style, decor, seating, cleanliness cues.
• Local SEO and listings QA — audit photo quality and relevance before publishing.
• Competitive intelligence — compare visual positioning across nearby businesses.
• Menu and signage OCR — extract readable text from menu boards and price lists.
• Dataset enrichment — add vision metadata to existing Google Maps place datasets.

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How to Use Google Maps Business Photo Annotator

1. Create a free Apify account at apify.com.
2. Open the Actor in Apify Console and go to the Input tab.
3. Add one or more queries — a Google place ID, search string (e.g. pizza brooklyn), or Maps URL.
4. Set photos per place — start with 3–10 for testing to control cost.
5. Run the Actor and download results from the Output tab as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

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Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
queries	string[]	—	Required. Place ID, search text, google_id, CID, or Maps URL.
photosLimit	integer	10	Max photos to fetch and annotate per place.
placesPerQuery	integer	1	Max places returned per query.
tag	enum	all	Photo filter: all, latest, menu, or by_owner.
prompt	string	(see default)	System prompt for Gemini vision annotation.
annotationSchema	object	—	Optional custom JSON Schema for AI output.

Example input:

{
  "queries": ["ChIJZ2rw6ac5qBQRKgoWMAqIY3E"],
  "photosLimit": 5,
  "placesPerQuery": 1,
  "tag": "all"
}

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Output

Each dataset row represents one annotated photo:

{
  "name": "Example Restaurant",
  "placeId": "ChIJZ2rw6ac5qBQRKgoWMAqIY3E",
  "googleId": "0x865b39a69a2c3667",
  "fullAddress": "123 Main St, Austin, TX",
  "locationLink": "https://www.google.com/maps/place/?q=place_id:ChIJ...",
  "photoId": "CIHM0ogK...",
  "photoUrl": "https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/...",
  "latitude": 30.2672,
  "longitude": -97.7431,
  "tag": "all",
  "query": "ChIJZ2rw6ac5qBQRKgoWMAqIY3E",
  "sceneType": "food",
  "caption": "Plated pasta on a wooden table",
  "tags": ["pasta", "italian", "fine_dining"],
  "detectedText": "Spaghetti Carbonara — €14",
  "dishes": ["spaghetti carbonara"],
  "amenities": ["outdoor_seating"],
  "ambiance": "cozy, dim lighting",
  "dominantColors": ["#3b2f2f", "#d9c2a3"],
  "qualityScore": 0.82,
  "hasPeople": false,
  "safetyFlag": "none",
  "annotatedAt": "2026-06-13T12:00:00.000Z"
}

You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel.

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Data Fields

Field	Description
name	Business name from Google Maps
placeId	Google place ID
photoUrl	High-resolution photo URL
sceneType	Scene category: interior, exterior, food, menu, etc.
caption	One-sentence description of the photo
tags	Searchable keyword tags
detectedText	OCR text read from the image
dishes	Food or drink items visible
amenities	Visible amenities (seating, bar, parking, etc.)
ambiance	Decor and lighting description
dominantColors	Hex color codes
qualityScore	Photo quality score from 0 to 1
hasPeople	Whether people are visible
safetyFlag	Content safety flag
annotatedAt	ISO timestamp of annotation

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Pricing

The Actor uses pay-per-event pricing — one image-annotated event per successfully annotated photo. Start with a low photosLimit (3–5) to estimate costs before scaling. Keep query count and placesPerQuery modest for faster runs.

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Tips

• Use place IDs for the most precise results; text searches may return multiple businesses when placesPerQuery > 1.
• Set tag to menu for restaurants when you only want menu board photos.
• Keep photosLimit low during testing to control annotation volume.
• For custom workflows, supply annotationSchema to define your own JSON output shape, or edit prompt to steer the AI.

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FAQ and Support

Do I need a Google Maps API key? No. The Actor handles photo retrieval internally.

Do I need a Gemini API key? No. AI annotation uses the platform secret configured for this Actor.

What if a photo URL fails to download? The Actor logs a warning and continues with the next photo.

Is scraping Google Maps legal? This Actor analyzes publicly available business photos. Ensure your use complies with applicable laws and terms of service.

For issues or feature requests, use the Issues tab on Apify Store. Need a custom annotation schema or batch pipeline? Contact us through Apify support.

Image Credit

Image credit: Google Maps