Spaw vs Google Address Validation API
Google's Address Validation API, part of Google Maps Platform, validates, standardises and geocodes an address, reports a confirmation level per component with inferred and replaced parts, and can run US and Puerto Rico addresses through USPS CASS on request.
The table uses Google Address Validation API's public pricing and documentation pages as checked on 2026-09-16, and Spaw's own pricing page. A row those pages carry no value for is marked "not on the pages read" rather than guessed at, and that is a statement about the reading and not about what Google Address Validation API publishes.
| spaw | google address validation api | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Pay-as-you-go credit packs whose credits never expire, or optional plans, billed monthly or yearly, that deposit the same credits every month for less and roll unused plan credits over up to three months' allowance; both through Stripe Checkout | "Pay-as-you-go", "charging per request according to the pricing table", under two SKUs named on the billing page, Address Validation Pro and Address Validation Enterprise; the per-request rates render inside the pricing table and are not stated in the page text as fetched, so no figure is quoted here. |
| Free tier | 100 free credits every month, no card required | not on the pages read |
| Price per 1,000 at about 10k | $7.80 (Growth pack: 5,000 credits for $39), or $5.80 on the Growth monthly plan (5,000 credits for $29 a month) | not on the pages read |
| Price per 1,000 at about 100k | $4.49 (Volume pack: 100,000 credits for $449), or $3.49 on the Volume monthly plan (100,000 credits for $349 a month) | not on the pages read |
| Addresses no register covered billed | An address that stands as written costs 1 credit whether or not a register carried the building; where no register covers the country, exists answers null rather than a verdict | not on the pages read |
| Addresses that cannot stand billed | No: an address that cannot stand as written is free whatever the reason, and so are repeats within 7 days and rows repeating an address already in the same job | not on the pages read |
| Registers held | Open address registers for 23 countries and territories, each named in the answer with its declared coverage, complete or partial. Complete, building by building: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland. Partial, building by building: Brazil, Denmark, France (with French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion, St. Barthélemy, St. Martin and St. Pierre & Miquelon), Germany and United States. Partial, streets only: Great Britain. House-number ranges as well: United States. Absence from a partial register is never read as evidence that an address does not exist. | Google's own data plus, for the "US" and "PR" regions when enableUspsCass is set, the USPS Coding Accuracy Support System; the overview says USPS "evaluates requests for artificially created addresses" and that Google must "stop validation and report relevant information to USPS in such cases". |
| Country coverage | Postal formats for 207 countries and territories: the line layout for 199 of them, and the required fields and postcode pattern wherever the table records them; 52 postal operators' rules for naming a delivery point that is not a street; open address registers for 23 countries and territories; postcode directories for Great Britain from the ONS Postcode Directory, with Northern Ireland excluded because reusing BT postcodes needs a separate licence, and for 108 more countries and territories from GeoNames' postal codes. | 38 countries and regions in the coverage table on the page checked, with India "in preview"; the residential and commercial address metadata is marked as populated for 37 of them. |
| Claims post is delivered | No, and every answer says so: is_deliverable, is_cmra, is_vacant and is_residential answer null because that check is licensed and not enabled here. exists is a match in an open address register, never a statement that post arrives. | Partly. The API returns a validation status per address component ("Corrects", "Completes", "Formats"), a geocode and, with CASS enabled for the United States and Puerto Rico, USPS delivery-point data; residential and commercial metadata is limited to the countries the coverage table marks. |
| Bulk limit | 100,000 addresses per bulk job, with an HMAC-signed completion webhook | not on the pages read |
| Batch API | 100 addresses per synchronous request | not on the pages read |
| Rate limit | 50 requests per second per key on the address endpoints | "6,000 queries per minute for validation and feedback methods", per the billing page's usage limits. |
| Official SDKs | Python, Node.js, PHP | not on the pages read |
| Data retention | No history row and no log line carrying the address. What a lookup leaves is the 7-day marker that makes a repeat free and the count behind seen_by_you, both kept under a digest, never the address. The address itself is kept only on the account's own suppression list and in its monitors. Bulk input lists and result files are deleted with the job after 30 days. | not on the pages read |
checked 2026-09-16 · sources: Address Validation API usage and billing, Address Validation API overview, Address Validation API country and region coverage
When Google Address Validation API fits better
Checkout and delivery forms that want Google's component-level correction and geocoding in the countries its coverage table lists, inside a Google Maps Platform account.
- A confirmation level per address component, with components the API inferred or replaced marked as such
- CASS for the United States and Puerto Rico on request, with the USPS artificial-address reporting clause spelled out
- A geocode with every validated address
- Coverage stated country by country, with metadata availability marked per country
When Spaw fits better
Developers who want a written address parsed against its own country's rules and checked against open registers, where a field nobody could evaluate answers null instead of a guess.
- Both answer per part: Google marks each component confirmed, inferred or replaced, and Spaw's confirmation map names the open dataset that stood behind each part, or says nothing could check it
- Google can run US addresses through USPS CASS; Spaw's US answers come from the public-domain National Address Database and the Census Bureau's address ranges, and the licensed delivery-point fields answer null until a partner is enabled
- Google publishes coverage for 38 countries; Spaw reads an address against its own country's postal format, with postcode directories for more than a hundred countries and territories and an open address register wherever one is installed
- Google prices per request under Maps Platform terms; a Spaw pack credit never expires and an address that cannot stand as written costs nothing
Questions
Does Spaw charge for addresses no register covers?
An address that stands as written costs 1 credit, whether or not a register carried the building. An address that cannot stand costs nothing, whatever the reason, and a repeat within seven days is free. Where no register covers the country, or where the register that answered is one whose coverage is partial and does not carry the address, exists answers null — not evaluated — rather than a verdict, and the not_in_register weight cannot fire. Google Address Validation API does not publish how it bills them.
Can I move an address list from Google Address Validation API to Spaw?
Yes. Upload the CSV in the dashboard or POST it to the bulk endpoint, up to 100,000 addresses a job; Spaw keeps your columns and adds 64 result columns after them (the address as submitted, the answer, the datasets behind it, what the row cost and whether your suppression list answered it), and a country column gives each row its own country. Rows repeating an address already in the list are answered once, cost nothing, and are counted as duplicates.
Is there a free tier?
Every Spaw account receives 100 free credits at the start of each month with no card on file, and unused free credits accumulate. Google Address Validation API does not publish a free tier on the pages checked.
Try Spaw on your own list
Free credits every month, no card. Upload a list, keep your columns, and download only the rows you want. See the pricing page for every rule, or the Google Address Validation API alternatives.
Google Address Validation API is a trademark of its owner. Spaw is not affiliated with it. Markdown version: /compare/google-address-validation.md