I just received an email from Google outlining changes to their free usage limits/tiers. Previously, they offered a general $200 credit, which if used somewhat responsibly, could cover a few sensors updating every 5-10 minutes (effectively 20,000 requests per month).
The incoming changes however, set specific request limits for three new “tiers” of services (essentials, pro & enterprise). It looks like the Google travel sensor is using the Distance Matrix Advanced API which will be slotted into the “pro” tier & offers 5,000 free requests. This winds up being 1/4 of what was offered via the current $200 bill credit system. There are other APIs which could possibly replace the current distance matrix that offer 10,000 requests, but that still is half the amount that was previously available (and you’d give up traffic info).
Does anyone have any ideas for dealing with these changes?
I currently make about 15,000 requests per month for two sensors with a bit of variable length polling (i.e. manual polling only, set up to only poll while we’re out of the house). I was thinking that multiple google accounts could be set up, with each sensor using its own API key. With my specific usage, I’d likely either need to cut back on the polling frequency further or get creative by having two accounts per “user” with alternating polling intervals combining into a template sensor (ugh).