Google Maps Competitor Density Mapper

Grid-search any city, neighborhood, or trade area on Google Maps for a business category and get a competitor count for every cell — a point-in-time density snapshot you can pivot into a heatmap. See exactly where a category clusters, where it's thin, and who the top-rated players are in each pocket of the map.

What you get

• One row per grid cell (not one row per place) — cellRow, cellCol, cellLat, cellLng so you can plot or pivot straight into a heatmap
• placeCount — number of matching businesses found in that cell (a density signal, sampled up to 40 per cell — not an exhaustive per-cell scrape)
• avgRating and avgReviewCount — how mature/competitive that pocket of the market is
• topPlaces — the top 5 businesses in the cell by review count (name, rating, reviewCount, address), so you can see who dominates each area
• category and searchedAt on every row for easy filtering across runs

Use cases

• Site selection — find the gaps between existing locations before committing to a new address
• Franchise expansion research — rank candidate territories by how saturated or underserved they already are
• Competitive market research — map where a competitor category clusters across a city instead of guessing from a handful of manual searches
• Sales-territory planning — size and prioritize territories by competitor count and market maturity (ratings, review volume)

This is a point-in-time snapshot, not an ongoing monitoring tool — each run reflects the area as Google Maps shows it at that moment. Run it again later if you want a fresh read; the actor does not track changes between runs.

How to use

1. Enter a Business category — e.g. coffee shops, dentists, car washes.
2. Set the search area either by typing a Location (e.g. Chicago, IL) or by entering Center latitude/Center longitude directly.
3. Set Radius (km) — how far the grid extends from the center in each direction (default 5).
4. Set Grid size — the grid is Grid size × Grid size cells (default 3 = 9 cells; max 7 = 49 cells).
5. Run — one row per grid cell streams into the Dataset tab. Export as CSV/Sheets and pivot placeCount by cellRow/cellCol to build a heatmap.

Output format

Each dataset record is one grid cell:

{
  "cellRow": 0,
  "cellCol": 1,
  "cellLat": 41.8533,
  "cellLng": -87.6324,
  "category": "coffee shops",
  "placeCount": 40,
  "avgRating": 4.39,
  "avgReviewCount": 195,
  "topPlaces": [
    {
      "name": "Cafe Jumping Bean",
      "rating": 4.7,
      "reviewCount": 1390,
      "address": "Cafe Jumping Bean, 1439 W 18th St, Chicago, IL 60608"
    }
  ],
  "searchedAt": "2026-08-18T02:56:32.612Z"
}

Pricing

Pay per grid cell analyzed and saved to the dataset — a 3×3 run costs 9 events, a 5×5 run costs 25 events, and so on. No charge for cells that error out or get skipped.

FAQ

Is this a rank tracker or ongoing monitoring tool? No. Each run is an independent snapshot of the area at run time. Run it again whenever you want a fresh read.

What does placeCount mean exactly? It's the number of matching businesses Google Maps returns for that cell, sampled up to 40 results (two pages) per cell. It's a density signal for comparing cells against each other, not a guaranteed exhaustive count of every business in that cell.

Can I cover a whole metro area? Yes — increase Radius (km) and Grid size together. Grid size is capped at 7×7 (49 cells) per run to keep run time and cost predictable; for a very large area, increase the radius per cell instead of only the grid size.

Do I need a Google API key? No.