It's imposed on every commercial user of their API which is why a lot of companies are also leaving Google Maps. I talked about this in another post, but Apple[1], Tesla[2], and Uber[3] are all getting off of Google Maps. It seems that Google raised prices to the point where it's actually cheaper to just go and build your own maps or find a lower cost alternative.

[1] - https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/29/apple-is-rebuilding-maps-f...

[2] - https://electrek.co/2017/07/03/tesla-map-navigation-open-sou...

[3] - https://www.uber.com/newsroom/mapping-ubers-future/

Users at that scale typically have an enterprise plan which is handled differently (you have an account manager rather than using Google's API console billing), and pricing is totally different.

It's been a while since I had a GMaps enterprise plan, though, so I'm not sure if they're bumping the pricing on that side. At the time, the pricing was closer to the new prices they're rolling out than they were to the old API console billing prices.

Large customers always pay lower negotiated per-unit prices due to volume.

I'm sure it is, but they can afford it...

IIRC Google Maps via the iOS/Android SDKs remain free, so theoretically the price increase does not apply to mobile-first X-sharing outfits like Uber/Lyft/Lime/Bird/etc.