Maps Grounding Lite

Overview

Google Maps Grounding Lite is a Google-hosted, streamable HTTP MCP server for grounding AI applications with trusted geospatial data from Google Maps.

Installation

Use the remote MCP endpoint:

• https://mapstools.googleapis.com/mcp

Configuration

To use Maps Grounding Lite, you need:

• A Google Cloud project
• Billing enabled on that project
• The Maps Grounding Lite API enabled in the Google Cloud Console
• Valid credentials, either an API key or OAuth client ID and secret

Authentication

API key access uses the X-Goog-Api-Key HTTP header.

OAuth access uses a client ID and secret with the https://www.googleapis.com/auth/maps-platform.mapstools scope.

Capabilities

Maps Grounding Lite provides MCP tools for:

• Search places
• Lookup weather
• Compute routes
• Resolve names
• Resolve Maps URLs

Limitations

• The service does not provide step-by-step routing, directions, real-time traffic, or navigation information.
• The resolution APIs are experimental.
• Maps Grounding Lite is subject to Google Maps Platform terms and source attribution requirements.
• Google Maps content must not be cached, stored, or used to improve or train unsupported models.

Example MCP configuration

Example Gemini CLI configuration:

gemini mcp add -s user -t http -H 'X-Goog-Api-Key: API_KEY' maps-grounding-lite-mcp https://mapstools.googleapis.com/mcp