Krutrim takes on Google, unveils new pricing & future roadmap for Ola Maps

Krutrim, an artificial intelligence (AI) venture co-founded by Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola, is taking on tech giant Google in the digital mapping space. The firm on Thursday evening announced new pricing and a strategic future roadmap for Ola Maps. This includes new Application Programming Interface (APIs) and Software Development Kits (SDKs). The initiative comes in the backdrop of the company’s mission to reshape India’s digital landscape and strengthen data and tech sovereignty for the nation.

With an intent to offer the best value to Indian startups, academia, and the developer community, Krutrim is currently offering free access for a year to Ola Maps APIs such as Autocomplete, Reverse Geocoding, Vector Tiles, and Directions for developers building on Krutrim Cloud. For each API, the company is adding a completely free tier for 5 million calls every month. This would cover more than 90 per cent of the Indian developers and startups.

For larger volumes, despite recent price adjustments by Google, Krutrim said it is offering prices which are 50 per cent of Google Maps’ reduced rates, ensuring value for the users. For users committing to Ola Maps for over 3 years, the company is offering 2 years of free access.

“It’s time we build world-class alternatives to big tech giants and empower Indian innovation,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, founder, Krutrim. “I’m very excited to announce a further reduced pricing structure and our future product roadmap for Ola Maps. While all main APIs are supported by Ola Maps today, we will be feature-complete for all kinds of APIs, SDKs, and niche use cases by December.”

Krutrim said it aims to empower developers and businesses to leverage its cost-effective advanced mapping infrastructure in their products. This would further contribute to the growth of India’s digital and tech ecosystem.

Ola also announced a partnership with government-backed ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce) to empower developers building on the network with the company’s mapping platform - Ola Maps. With a mission to reshape India’s digital landscape, the company has announced three years of free access to Ola Maps APIs for startups and small and medium businesses building on the ONDC platform.

“This move will significantly boost innovation among our network participants,” said T Koshy, MD and CEO, ONDC. “It's inspiring to see homegrown tech leaders supporting India's digital transformation. This partnership exemplifies the collaborative spirit driving our tech revolution forward.”

The development comes at a time when Google on July 17 unveiled the latest AI technologies for Indian developers. For developers using Google Maps Platform, India-specific pricing is being introduced with up to 70 per cent lower costs on most application programming interfaces (APIs). Google is also collaborating with the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), offering developers building for ONDC up to 90 per cent off on select Google Maps Platform APIs.

“Dear @Google, too little too late! Reducing prices for @googlemaps, “offering to price in rupee” after #ExitGoogleMaps. Don’t need your fake generosity!” said Bhavish Aggarwal in a tweet on X (formerly Twitter) on July 17.

Aggarwal recently encouraged developers to switch from Google Maps to Ola Maps. Ola was offering developers a year of free access to Ola Maps on the company’s Krutrim Cloud and over Rs 100 crore in free credits. This initiative came after Ola replaced Google Maps with its own Ola Maps, leading to annual savings of around Rs 100 crore. Aggarwal also recently migrated Ola’s workload from Microsoft Azure to Krutrim Cloud.