Place Icons

Select platform: Android iOS JavaScript Web Service

Place icons indicate the various types of places (for example coffee shops, libraries, and museums). You can request URLs for icons in PNG or SVG format, as well as the corresponding icon background color, with Find Place, Place Details, Nearby Search, and Text Search requests. Icons can be used inline.

Each icon is defined by two response fields:

The icon base URI contains the base URL for a non-colored icon, minus the file type extension. You must append .svg or .png to the URI to request the icon.
The icon background color contains the default HEX color code for the place's category.

Icon URLs may change, so be sure to always use icon base URI to look up the URL for an icon. The existing Places API supports the icon response field. Do not use icon field but instead use icon_background_color and icon_mask_base_uri with the existing Places API.

Example

The following examples show how to request an icon URI and background color for Places API (New) and Places API. Notice that the request and responses are different for the two versions of the API.

Places API (New)

The following example uses Text Search (New) to return the display name of a place as well as the iconMaskBaseUri and iconBackgroundColor response fields:

curl -X POST -d '{
  "textQuery" : "skog haus",
  "maxResultCount" : 1
}' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'X-Goog-Api-Key: API_KEY' \
-H 'X-Goog-FieldMask: places.displayName,places.iconMaskBaseUri,places.iconBackgroundColor' \
'https://places.googleapis.com/v1/places:searchText'

The response is in the form:

{
  "places": [
    {
      "iconMaskBaseUri": "https://maps.gstatic.com/mapfiles/place_api/icons/v2/cafe_pinlet",
      "iconBackgroundColor": "#FF9E67",
      "displayName": {
        "text": "SKÖG Haus Coffee & Tea",
        "languageCode": "en"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Places API

The following example shows a Find Place request which includes the icon_mask_base_uri and icon_background_color fields:

    https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/findplacefromtext/json?input=skog%20haus&inputtype=textquery&fields=name,icon_mask_base_uri,icon_background_color&key=API_KEY

The following example shows how the icon_mask_base_uri and icon_background_color fields appear in a response from a Find Place request.

JSON

    {
      "candidates" : [
          {
            "icon_background_color" : "#FF9E67",
            "icon_mask_base_uri" : "https://maps.gstatic.com/mapfiles/place_api/icons/v2/cafe_pinlet",
            "name" : "SKÖG Haus Coffee",
          }
      ],
      "status" : "OK"
    }

XML

    <FindPlaceFromTextResponse>
      <candidates>
        <name>SKÖG Haus Coffee</name>
        <icon_background_color>#FF9E67</icon_background_color>
        <icon_mask_base_uri>https://maps.gstatic.com/mapfiles/place_api/icons/v2/cafe_pinlet</icon_mask_base_uri>
      </candidates>
      <status>OK</status>
    </FindPlaceFromTextResponse>

To display an icon, append the desired file type extension (.png or .svg) to the returned icon URI, and combine the icon with the returned background color. For example, to display the .svg icon on a web page:

<style>
  .icons-food-drink {
    background-color: #FF9E67;
    width: 88px;
    height: 88px;
    padding: 5px;
  }
</style>

<img src="https://maps.gstatic.com/mapfiles/place_api/icons/v2/cafe_pinlet.svg" alt="Cafe" class="icons-food-drink"/>

Place icon and background color requests

The following tables show all of the available place icons by category. By default these display with a black glyph. The icon background color is dictated by the place's category.

Place category: Food and drink (icon background color #FF9E67)
Bar, Night club	Cafe	Restaurant, Bakery
Place category: Retail (icon background color #4B96F3)
Books, Clothing, Electronics, Jewelry, Shoes, Shopping center/Mall	Convenience store	Grocery, Supermarket	Pharmacy
Place category: Services (icon background color #909CE1)
ATM	Bank	Gas	Lodging
Post office
Place category: Entertainment (icon background color #13B5C7)
Aquarium, Tourist	Golf	Historic	Movie
Museum	Theater
Place category: Transportation (icon background color #10BDFF)
Airport	Bus, rideshare, taxi	Train/Rail
Place category: Municipal/generic/religious (icon background color #7B9EB0)
Cemetery	Civic building	Library	Monument
Parking	School (primary, secondary, university)	Worship (Christian)
Worship (Hindu)	Worship (Islam)	Worship (Jain)	Worship (Jewish)
Worship (Sikh)	Generic business
Place category: Outdoor (icon background color #4DB546)
Boating	Camping	Park	Stadium
Zoo
Place category: Emergency (icon background color #F88181)
Hospital	Police