Google Maps, Earth and Street View Screenshots: What Print, Web and Video Allow

Can You Use a Google Maps, Earth or Street View Screenshot in a Book, Website or Video?

Google's Geo Guidelines allow a Maps screenshot inside a book "up to 5k copies", in a magazine, in a company report, and as a small locator map on a flyer. They bar Street View from print entirely, bar Google Earth from anything promotional, and require Google's credit to stay beside the picture.

The three products do not share one rule set, and the same layout can pass for one and fail for another. A dentist's mailer with a small Maps locator is a named example of an allowed use. A full-page car advertisement built on a Maps screenshot is a named example of a banned one. Swap the Maps picture for Street View on the same mailer and the print section says no. Swap it for a Google Earth view on the company's website and the Earth web section's barred list, which names "company profiles", is where that use is likely to land.

Where these rules come from, and what they are not

The Google Maps Additional Terms of Service state the licence in one sentence: as long as you follow the Terms, they say, the Google Terms of Service give you a licence to "publicly display content with proper attribution online, in video, and in print." For specifics they send the reader to the Geo Guidelines page, "Using Google Maps, Google Earth, and Street View", and that page is the subject of this article. Its rules are Google's published guidelines on November 3, 2026, not a licence analysis, not a statement of what any country's copyright law requires, and not legal advice. Google says as much about fair use: "Google can't tell you if your use of this content would be fair use. You may wish to obtain your own legal advice." Fair use is a U.S. copyright concept, and the guidelines treat it as separate from the permissions they list.

Three framing sentences from the guidelines decide how to read everything else:

• "You generally don't need to submit a request to use our mapping products for the purposes covered in these guidelines." The list is a pre-approved list. Use inside it needs no email to Google.
• "If your use isn't allowed, we're not able to grant exceptions, so please don't submit a request." Use outside it is not a negotiation. Where the page does invite a request (some television, film and video uses, and Street View in video), the table below marks the cell "request".
• "For commercial uses where our mapping products are used for revenue-generating purposes, such as integrating Google Maps or Street View into a mobile or web app, use Google Maps Platform instead." Screenshots are one thing; an integrated product is billed and governed under a different set of terms that this article does not cover.

The Maps Additional Terms (Last Modified January 27, 2026) and the Earth Additional Terms (Last Modified June 4, 2025) share that licence sentence. The Maps terms also list conduct that is out of bounds, including "redistribute or sell any part of Google Maps or create a new product or service based on Google Maps" and "copy the content (unless you are otherwise permitted to do so by the Using Google Maps, Google Earth, and Street View permissions page or applicable intellectual property law, including 'fair use')". That second item explains why the Geo page matters: it is the document the Terms name as permitting copying. The Geo page itself has no visible edition date, and its feed lists a last build of July 2, 2025, so a job that ships months from now needs a fresh read of it.

The permission table: medium by product

Each cell paraphrases or quotes the subsection named in it. "Go" means the page lists the use as allowed without a request. "No" means the page lists it as not allowed. Where a cell says "request", the page tells you to submit the project for approval. The table is built from the Geo Guidelines unless a cell names another document.

The Earth and Street View columns are mostly "No" outside news, education and in-context video. A designer who treats all three products as one pool of free map pictures will land on a barred cell more often with those two than with Maps.

How the grid is assembled

The Geo page has no section called "advertising". The advertising row combines four separate passages: the print "primary or creative use" line, the print supplemental-navigation line, the Web section's digital advertisement paragraph, and the online video paragraph on promotional use. Maps has two video sections, "Television and film" and "Online video"; Earth and Street View each have one combined section, which is why the last three rows repeat the same Earth and Street View sentences.

Two cells need careful reading because the page contradicts itself on the surface. Neither is settled here; both are quoted so the choice stays with the reader.

The "non-commercial" lead-in. The Maps print section opens with "You may print Google Maps content for non-commercial or personal use (for example, a map with directions)." Its Go list then includes company reports, proposals, printed promotional materials and periodicals, which are plainly commercial settings. The Earth print section opens with a matching sentence: "You may print Google Earth content for non-commercial or personal use, with some restrictions as noted below." The page does not reconcile the two. One way to read it is that the lists are the specific permissions and the lead-in is the general default, but that is a reading, not a sentence Google wrote.

Earth's top line against Earth's print list. Earth's section opens: "Google Earth or Earth Studio can be used for purposes such as research, education, film and nonprofit use without needing permission." It continues: "Google Earth content may not be used for any commercial or promotional purposes." Two paragraphs later the print list allows "Business documents such as company reports, proposals, presentations, etc." for Earth content. A company report is a business document and may also serve a promotional purpose. The page does not say which sentence wins. Treat a promotional business document using Earth imagery as unresolved and keep Earth out of anything whose job is to sell.

Print, product by product

Google Maps in print

The Maps print section sorts uses into two lists. The Go list, quoted in full:

• "Inside of books, including textbooks (up to 5k copies)"
• "Periodicals (Newspapers, magazines, journals, etc.)"
• "Business documents such as company reports, proposals, presentations, etc."
• "Supplemental navigational use in printed promotional materials, such as business cards, pamphlets, handouts, flyers, etc. (up to 5k copies)", with the example "A local dentist's office using a small map at the bottom of a mail ad to show where it's located"
• "Print links to a Google Maps location, such as with short links or QR codes"

The "don't do this" list, also in full:

• "Inside of books (more than 5k copies), or as cover art for a book"
• "Used as the core part of printed navigational material (for example, tour books or guide books)."
• "Consumer & retail goods or packaging (t-shirts, beach towels, shower curtains, mugs, posters, stationery, etc.)"
• "Primary or creative use in printed promotional or advertising materials", with the example "A full-page magazine ad for a car company using a Google Maps screenshot to show how far the car can travel"

That is five permitted uses and four barred ones. The last Go item is the cheapest way to put a place on paper: a printed link or QR code to a Maps location shows no map picture at all, and the item carries no 5k cap in its wording. How large that code must print to scan is worked out in our QR code sizing guide. The two promotional lines are the pair to learn, because they describe one object from two sides. The dentist's map is supplemental: it sits at the bottom of a mail piece and answers "where is the office". The car advertisement is primary or creative: the map is the picture that makes the point. The two examples differ in both size and role: a small map at the foot of a mailer against a full-page advertisement built on the map. The page does not say which difference decides, so a large map that only shows a location, or a small map that carries the message of the piece, is a call the page does not rule on.

The 5k cap appears twice, once on books and once on supplemental navigational use. Both are written "5k copies", and only the book case has a stated consequence above the cap: more than 5k copies is listed as barred. The flyer line has no matching "more than 5k" entry in the barred list. Because Google also says it cannot grant exceptions, a flyer run above 5k copies has no written permission, whichever way the silence is read.

Attribution applies on top of every Go item. The print section tells readers to read the general guidelines "especially with regard to fair use and attribution", and the Required attribution section states: "We do not approve of any use of content without proper attribution, in any circumstances". The credit is covered in its own section below, because it is where print layouts most often go wrong.

Google Earth in print

The Earth print list has three Go items: books and textbooks up to 5k copies, periodicals, and business documents. It does not include the supplemental-navigation line or the QR and short-link line that Maps has. The barred list is the same four lines as Maps, including the car advertisement example, which refers to "a Google Maps screenshot" even though it sits in the Earth section. Google published it that way, and it is quoted that way here.

The Maps guidance for a flyer therefore does not carry across to Earth. A dentist's flyer with a small Earth aerial view of the building is not on the Earth Go list, and the Earth section's top line bars "any commercial or promotional purposes". The same flyer with a small Maps locator is the named example. The product swap is the whole difference.

Street View in print

The Street View print section has no Go list. It reads: "Street View imagery may not be used for any print purposes." The page then spells out four categories: books, guidebooks and textbooks; magazines, newspapers and journals; "Advertisements or promotional materials of any kind"; and "Consumer or retail goods (posters, t-shirts, mugs, etc.)". The four categories do not add exceptions; they repeat the ban in the places people look for exceptions. Company reports and presentations are not named, but the lead sentence is "any print purposes", and the page offers no Street View print permission for anything.

Street View has a second print-adjacent rule in its Additional restrictions block. Four things are prohibited: "Creating data from Street View images, such as digitizing or tracing information from the imagery"; "Using applications to analyze and extract information from the Street View imagery"; "Downloading Street View images to use separately from Google services (such as an offline copy)"; and "Merging or stitching together multiple Street View images into a larger image". The page adds: "These restrictions apply to all academic, nonprofit, and commercial projects." The page does not discuss a hand-drawn illustration based on a Street View frame, and print use is barred anyway, so redrawing a frame for a book or poster does not open a route. Whether tracing any photograph is copying is a separate copyright question, covered in our tracing guide.

Counting copies: the cap in worked arithmetic

The guidelines use "copies" without defining it. They do not say whether the 5k is per edition, per title, per year, or cumulative across reprints, and they do not mention e-books or print-on-demand. The arithmetic below is an illustration of why the question matters, not a Google rule.

If the cap counts each print run alone, every row passes. If it counts the life of the title or the campaign, the second reprint and the autumn mailer cross it. The page gives no answer, so a book that might be reprinted, a mailer that repeats, or a print-on-demand title with no end date cannot honestly be called "up to 5k". Plan to the cumulative reading or use a different map source.

Web and apps

The Maps Web and apps paragraph is short: "If you simply need to embed a Google map on your website, you don't need our permission. You're also welcome to link to Google Maps with text or a button on your website, such as 'View on Google Maps' or 'Open with Google Maps.'" Embeds and links are the supported route. A screenshot pasted into a web page is not addressed in that section at all, which is not the same as being permitted. The Personalizing section does mention capturing "a screenshot from Google Maps, to add custom labels or graphics using third-party software", and the Attribution section covers "screenshots of our imagery outside of direct embeds". So screenshots are acknowledged, but the web section gives them neither an explicit yes nor an explicit no.

For a designer the embed has practical advantages beyond permission. An embed shows current data, carries its own credit line, and respects Google's wishes if it changes the imagery. Street View makes that point itself: "You may not screenshot Street View imagery or remove it from embedded sources for any purpose. This ensures that if Google edits or removes imagery in response to user requests, these changes will be reflected in your project too." That sentence is the entire reasoning for the Street View web rule, and it works as a design brief: a Street View image must come from Google's embed or API so it can be pulled at the source.

Earth is stricter. "Google Earth may not be embedded online or in apps. However, you're welcome to export and use a handful of static images, with proper attribution, for non-commercial purposes such as news, blogs, educational, recreational, or instructional use." Then the barred list, which opens "You may not use Google Earth imagery on the web for any commercial or promotional purposes, such as, but not limited to:" and names four items: "Real estate listings or company profiles", "Construction site locations", "Website header or social media banner images" and "Digital advertisements". Two items on that list catch designers specifically. "Website header or social media banner images" are named outright as examples of commercial or promotional use, so an Earth view used as a header or banner for a business sits on the barred list. The page does not say whether a header on a plainly non-commercial page counts; treat that as unresolved. A "where we are" image on an About page is arguably a company profile image. The qualifier "such as, but not limited to" means the four are examples, not the full list.

Digital advertisements get one paragraph in the Maps Web section: "Any use of Google Maps in digital advertisements must not significantly alter how the products and imagery would look online." The Street View web section allows it in digital ads only "where you're using the Google Maps APIs or the imagery is embedded or linked to on your website using HTML and URL provided on Google Maps." Earth in digital ads is barred in the Earth web list, in the video list, and again in Google's separate product-visuals guidance: "Don't use images from Google Earth for advertising or promotional purposes. For example, images from Google Earth can't be used by real estate professionals to show where properties are located."

Video, television and film

Video is where the three products diverge most, and where the page sends you elsewhere.

Google Maps. The Maps section has two parts. For film and television, "including streaming services", the example given is "an actor uses Google Maps on a phone, or an interview subject demonstrates how they used Google Maps in their research", and the instruction is to "submit your project for approval according to the guidelines on the Entertainment and Media page". For online video, the split is by purpose: "primarily for educational, instructional, recreational, or entertainment purposes, you don't need to request permission", provided you follow the general guidelines and attribute. But "in an online video advertisement or for promotional purposes (e.g. a real estate company showing where rental properties are available)", you submit for approval, and "Only standard Google Maps imagery may be used for this purpose, since Satellite View imagery falls under the same commercial restrictions as Google Earth."

Google Earth. Earth and Earth Studio content may be used for "news broadcasts, television shows, films, documentaries, music videos, and any educational purposes" without a request, provided you follow the guidelines, "especially with regard to on-screen attribution". Google adds a request, not a condition: "We also ask that you register your usage". The barred list covers "promotional films, advertisements or commercials", defined as "anything used specifically to sell or promote a product, business, or organization", with three examples: a real estate company showing its properties in a company video; "A documentary-style film being used to promote a business or organization"; and "A sports team using Google Earth images of their stadium in a TV commercial". The third example shows the line is purpose, not format. Google also states: "If you're using Google Earth content in an online video (e.g. YouTube) primarily for educational, instructional, recreational, or entertainment purposes, you don't need to request permission, even if your work is monetized." That monetization sentence sits in the online-video paragraph only. The page does not repeat it for the web "blogs" line, so a monetized blog post with an Earth still is not covered by it.

The Earth licence also carries a territorial carve-out: it "applies to all types of film regardless of platform (and technology) distributed on, but doesn't extend to content distributed from or to these territories." The linked Google Maps Platform Prohibited Territories page lists China, Crimea, Cuba, Donetsk People's Republic, Iran, Luhansk People's Republic, North Korea, Syria and Vietnam on the check date. A film with a worldwide release plan should check that list at delivery time.

Street View. One paragraph covers all three video types: "Street View may only be used in television, film, or online video projects if it's filmed directly in the context of an actor or subject using the product as-is in a device such as a laptop or phone. Street View images may not be taken out of context or removed from the software to be used for other purposes. You must submit a request if you'd like to use Street View in your project." A full-frame Street View shot cut into a documentary does not fit that wording. A screen recording of someone using Street View on a laptop is the only shape the page describes.

The Entertainment page. Google's Entertainment guidance states the default: "In general, you're required to get approval whenever you're using the Google brand in entertainment." The Earth section above says "You don't need to submit a request". The two documents are not in conflict if the Earth section is read as a specific licence for Earth and Earth Studio content and the Entertainment page as the general rule for the rest, but the page does not say that, and both sentences are quoted so a producer can ask Google when it matters. The Entertainment page also contains a Maps-specific allowance: "It's okay to show Google Maps and Google Earth product visuals (like screenshots) out of the context of a digital device for documentaries, news, or travel shows, where it's useful for showing locations. (Otherwise, don't do it.)" That is the only place in the Google documents cited below where a Maps screenshot on screen without a laptop or phone around it is called acceptable, and it is limited to showing locations in documentaries, news and travel shows. The same page forbids showing product visuals outside the context of a device with no other exception, and the Geo page's online-video allowance for Maps does not mention that rule, so a full-frame Maps view in a YouTube geography explainer is a further case the two pages do not reconcile. The same page forbids showing Maps "giving wrong directions or leading someone to a dangerous area" and "Bank robbers using Google Maps to find the location of their next target", so the story around the screenshot is also under rules.

The credit line: wording, placement and what a layout may not do

"All uses of Google Maps, Google Earth, and Street View content must provide attribution to Google and, if applicable, to our data providers." Google adds that "We do not approve of any use of content without proper attribution, in any circumstances, and we require attribution while the content is shown. Requests for exceptions will not be answered or granted." The Required attribution section has six headed rules and a sentence on restyling the credit text, which the table below sets beside the layout decision each one forces.

Wording

Google's examples are "Map data ©2019 Google" and "Map data: Google, Maxar Technologies". The first is an example of the format and carries a 2019 year, so it is not text to copy. The page says that "the exact text of the attribution changes based on geography and content type", so there is no single string to set. The text to reproduce is the one on the picture you are using, or the one Google's export or embed produces for it. A job that uses three screenshots from three places may need three credit lines, and imagery that comes from other providers may name them; the page's own example is "Maxar Technologies".

Placement in a book, a poster and a video

The rule against moving the credit "to the end of your book" is the one that changes print workflow. A book with twelve map screenshots does not get one acknowledgement page; it gets twelve small credits, each in "close proximity" to its picture. In a 4,000-copy history book that means a caption line under each figure. In a magazine feature it means the credit runs with the picture, not in the masthead. Our bleed, trim and safe area guide matters here for a plain reason: a credit set at the very edge of an image can be cut off at the trim, and a cropped credit is a credit that was removed.

The credit also has to be legible. At 300 pixels per inch, 6 point type is 25 pixels from top to bottom of the em square, and the credit line at the foot of a screenshot is only useful if the image is big enough to keep it readable at print size. The resolution guide explains the pixel arithmetic: a map slot 85 mm wide needs 1,004 pixels across at 300 ppi, so a screenshot taken from a small browser window is a risk for the credit as well as for sharpness. Whether "legible to the average viewer or reader" is satisfied at a particular size is a judgment the page leaves to the designer.

For video, the equivalent of "the end of your book" is the end roll. Earth's section repeats the point with "especially with regard to on-screen attribution" and "Google Earth content can never be used without attribution". The credit goes on screen while the footage is shown. Google's attribution section says it requires attribution "while the content is shown".

Two different credits

The map-data credit above covers the map. A second credit sits in the Books and media guidance and covers Google's trademarks. It says to "Include a legal attribution line when using any of Google's trademarks", such as names, icons or product visuals, and points to Google's "Legal line generator" to create it. A book that names Google Maps in its title text, reproduces a Maps screenshot, and shows the Maps interface is using names and product visuals. The same page adds a disclaimer example: "Google and Google Docs are trademarks of Google LLC, and this book is not endorsed by or affiliated with Google in any way." Both belong in a book that leans on Google's products. They are separate obligations for separate reasons, and one does not replace the other.

Changing the picture: annotation, restyling and trademarks

The Personalizing section lets you add to a map and restricts how far you change it. "You may annotate our maps with additional information" such as points, lines or labels. Google's own tools for this are My Maps, a Styling Wizard and a cloud-based styling tool that "allow you to edit the colors of individual map components (for example, changing water to purple), as well as toggle visibility for each component (for example, making roads invisible)." If those do not fit, you may "export an image from Google Earth or Earth Studio, or capture a screenshot from Google Maps, to add custom labels or graphics using third-party software."

Then the limit: "While we encourage annotations, you must not significantly alter how Google Maps, Google Earth, Earth Studio, or Street View would look online. For example, you're not allowed to make any changes to the colors of the product interface or remove attribution." For Earth and Earth Studio content, "you're not allowed to significantly alter our imagery without providing clear context that it's a simulation, projection, or fictional content."

Read side by side, those sentences describe two routes to a recoloured map. Google offers its styling tools for changing the colours of map components. They are Google Maps Platform products, and the Geo page says that for the Maps Platform APIs "certain restrictions may apply"; those terms are not covered here, so whether the tools suit a printed job is a question for the Maps Platform terms. Recolouring a captured screenshot in an image editor to match a brand palette is not among the things the page offers, and "changes to the colors of the product interface" is named as not allowed. A print designer who wants a brand-coloured map should read the Maps Platform terms for the styling route, or switch to a map source with different terms. Adding arrows, pins and labels in your own colours on top of an unaltered base is the activity the page encourages: "While we encourage annotations".

The trademark paragraph limits the pieces you may add. The listed marks include the "Google Maps red pin element", the "Street View icon", the "Pegman word mark" and the "Pegman logo". A custom marker on a map must not imitate the Google red pin. Google's brand guidance on colors and fonts goes further: "Never use Google's brand colors or brand fonts in your work" and "no Google brand elements at all, including logos and product icons, should appear on your company's merchandise." On a poster or mug, that is a second reason the consumer-goods ban matters even if you redraw the map: if you keep Google's pin or Pegman, those elements are trademarks too, and Google's brand colours are off limits on merchandise.

The Books and media page, for authors and publishers

A book that carries Maps screenshots falls under two Google documents, the Geo table and the Books and media page. The Books and media general guidelines include two lines that settle the cover question twice over: "Don't include Google's logos or product icons on the cover of your book" and "Don't include Google product screenshots or visuals on the cover of your book." The Geo page already lists "cover art for a book" among the barred Maps and Earth uses; the Books and media page adds the trademark-based reason and extends the ban to any Google product visual.

The page also covers the text around the picture. "You can refer to Google and our products by name in plain text, without needing to get our explicit permission." Titles must "accurately display Google's role", and the book must not "imply that content has been authored by or represents the views of Google." For an author, that means a title that uses a product name must not suggest Google made or endorses the book. The page asks you to "Obtain your own legal advice" on fair use for the same reason the Geo page does.

Worked cases

Each row applies the quoted rules to a specific job. The result column reports what the published text says on the check date. A "not addressed" result means the quoted sections neither list nor bar the use.

Three of these rows hide choices worth spelling out.

The mailer at two quantities. Nothing about the layout changes between 3,000 and 6,000 copies, and the permission disappears. This is the case for deciding the print quantity before choosing the map source, not after. A client who "might do a second mailing" needs a map that survives both.

The Earth company report. A designer making an annual report for a client usually knows whether the document is for investors, customers or a regulator. If the report is a pitch, the Earth top line points toward "no". If it is a neutral record of the year, the print Go list points toward "yes". The page does not choose. A Maps screenshot of the same office removes the question, because Maps business documents are on the Go list without the Earth top-line sentence.

The explainer, the tutorial and the listing video. A geography explainer is educational; the listing video uses the product to sell something, which the page calls promotional. The same Maps footage moves from "no request" to "submit a request" based on what the video is for, and on the promotional side Satellite View is off the table. The tutorial row is different: Google's product-visuals guidance says there are cases where you need permission through Partner Marketing Hub, among them "Showing compatibility with Google products" with the example "using screenshots of a Google product to create a tutorial video", and "Entertainment (TV, film, video)". The Geo page, which covers map content rather than interface visuals, says online video that is primarily "educational, instructional, recreational, or entertainment" needs no request. A video that teaches people to operate Maps shows the interface, so both documents may apply, and neither says which governs. Treat a how-to-use-Maps tutorial as unresolved and ask Google through the route the product-visuals page names.

Deciding when to switch to OpenStreetMap or another source

The table shows where Google's text ends, and the print rows show that the end is close. Switching is not a failure of the Google route; it is the sensible response to a use that the guidelines bar and say they will not make exceptions for. Our OpenStreetMap print guide covers the other side in full: what the Open Database Licence asks, the credit wording, and where it goes. That guide is the destination for any use that fails the Google test. The checks below decide whether you get there.

This is a rule of thumb built from the lists above, not Google's own test. Work down it in order and stop at the first yes.

1. Is the product Street View and the medium print? There is no Google route. Replace it with your own photography or a photograph whose licence covers your use; the asset licensing checklist lists what to keep on file for that.
2. Is the product Earth, and is the purpose promotional? There is no Google route in print, web or video. For Maps Satellite View, the page states the restriction only for promotional online video; treat other promotional uses of satellite imagery as unconfirmed and use another source. OpenStreetMap gives you map data you draw yourself; if you need aerial or street-level photography, you need a licensed photographic source with its own terms.
3. Is the map the product, the cover, or the picture that sells? Tour books, guide books, cover art, posters, mugs, tote bags and "primary or creative" advertising are all barred. Rebuild the map from OpenStreetMap or another source whose licence allows sale.
4. Could the copy count pass 5k? Count the first printing, every reprint and any repeat mailing. If the total can cross 5k, or you cannot say it will not, switch. The page gives no cumulative rule and no exceptions.
5. Can the credit stay beside every map, uncropped, at readable size? If the layout needs the credits on a back page, a cropped frame or a video end roll, the Google credit rules are not met. Redesign the layout or switch.
6. Does the map have to be recoloured to match a brand? A recoloured screenshot is not among the things the page offers. The styling tools belong to Google Maps Platform and its own terms, which are outside this article; otherwise switch.
7. Is it a web or app feature that earns money? Use the Maps Platform route Google names, under its own terms, or choose another map source.

If none of those stop you, check the use against the Go cells in the permission table. A dentist's mailer, a local history book, a company report with a locator map, a magazine feature and a geography explainer video are the shapes the table clears. These are cases where the Google route is quicker than building a map: no file to restyle, nothing to host, and one credit line to place.

What the switch costs is design time. An OpenStreetMap job asks you to draw or style the map yourself and to carry the ODbL credit set out in the linked guide. What it buys is a licence that says plainly that sale is fine. For a poster, merchandise or a guidebook, that is the better trade because the work is the product.

What the published text does not answer

Several points come up in real jobs that the documents leave open. They are listed so nobody mistakes silence for permission.

• Cumulative copies. Whether "up to 5k copies" counts a single print run, a title, a year or a campaign; and whether e-book downloads or print-on-demand copies count.
• Screenshots on the web. The Web section covers embeds and links for Maps. It does not say whether a static Maps screenshot on a web page is permitted or barred, though the Personalizing and Attribution sections assume screenshots exist.
• Satellite View in print. The online video paragraph and the Earth video list tie Satellite View to Earth's commercial restrictions. The Maps print section does not mention Satellite View, so any print application of that link is a reading, not a sentence.
• Business documents with promotional intent for Earth content, as covered above.
• How large a "small map" can be before a locator becomes "primary or creative use".
• Non-U.S. law. The guidelines mention fair use "or other similar concepts in other countries" without saying which countries' rules apply to a given job.

A client contract that asks you to warrant clearance of every asset is a reason to write the map source into the job record. Keep the date you checked the guidelines, the product and medium, the copy count you planned to, and a copy of the credit as placed. Rules like these change quietly, and the record is what shows what was true on the day you shipped.

Google Maps, Earth and Street View permission questions

Can I put a Google Maps screenshot in a book I sell?

Inside a book, yes, up to "5k copies", with the credit beside the map. As cover art, or as the core of a tour book or guidebook, no. More than 5k copies is listed as a barred use, and Google says it cannot grant exceptions.

Can I use Street View in a magazine, book or poster?

No. The Street View print section says "Street View imagery may not be used for any print purposes" and names books, magazines, advertisements and consumer goods. The web section also says not to screenshot Street View for any purpose; use an embed or API instead.

Can I put Google Earth on my company website?

Not for commercial or promotional purposes. The barred list names real estate listings, company profiles, construction site locations, website header or social media banner images, and digital advertisements. A handful of static exports for non-commercial news, blog, educational, recreational or instructional use are allowed, with attribution; embedding Earth is not.

Where must the Google credit go?

Within close proximity of the content, in text legible to the average viewer or reader. It cannot be moved to the end of a book, a film's credits or a website footer. Where the source names third-party data providers, your text must name Google and those providers.

Can I make a YouTube video with Google Maps or Earth footage?

For video primarily educational, instructional, recreational or entertainment in purpose, the Geo page says Maps and Earth need no request, with attribution; Earth adds "even if your work is monetized". A tutorial that screen-records the Maps interface is a separate question, because Google's product-visuals guidance lists tutorial-video screenshots among the cases needing Partner Marketing Hub permission and the two documents do not reconcile. Promotional video using Maps needs a request, limited to standard imagery. Promotional video using Earth or Satellite View is barred. Street View in video needs a request and is limited to filming someone using the product.

Does this replace legal advice?

No. These are Google's published guidelines on the check date. They are not a licence analysis, they do not say what copyright law requires in your country, and Google says it cannot tell you whether a use is fair use.

Google guideline pages and terms behind the table

• Google, Using Google Maps, Google Earth, and Street View (Geo Guidelines), all sections including Google Maps, Google Earth, Street View and Required attribution; no visible edition date, feed last built July 2, 2025; checked November 3, 2026.
• Google, Google Maps End User Additional Terms of Service, Last Modified January 27, 2026; checked November 3, 2026.
• Google, Google Earth End User Additional Terms of Service, Last Modified June 4, 2025; checked November 3, 2026.
• Google Partner Marketing Hub, Books and media, general guidelines, written references, legal and disclaimers; checked November 3, 2026.
• Google Partner Marketing Hub, Entertainment, general guidelines and product visuals; checked November 3, 2026.
• Google Partner Marketing Hub, How to show Google's brand, colors and fonts and product visuals; checked November 3, 2026.
• Google Cloud, Google Maps Platform Prohibited Territories, territory list linked from the Earth film section; checked November 3, 2026.
• Google Earth Help, Save your favorite map image, Earth Pro image export steps; checked November 3, 2026.

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