Frequently Asked Questions:
- Why did NUKEMAP stop using Google Maps? A combination of Google API stagnation, deprecation of critical features, opaque and punitive pricing changes in 2018 (which raised bills to roughly $1,800/month), and poor support for small academic developers forced the migration.
- What made Google’s pricing change so harmful? Google introduced charges like 'dynamic map loads' that scaled steeply with traffic; NUKEMAP’s moderate but consistent usage produced bills far beyond what an individual academic could afford, making popularity financially risky.
- Why not get Google Maps credits or grants? Google’s grant processes and education pathways are aimed at institutions and large implementations. Individual researchers and small academic projects are often excluded, and navigating the system required representing institutional adoption — an impractical and unreliable route for this project.
- What are the benefits of moving to Mapbox + Leaflet? Mapbox offers more developer-friendly pricing and responsive human support, while Leaflet is an open-source, lightweight mapping library. Together they restored NUKEMAP functionality, kept costs manageable, and allowed custom extensions like a great-circle plugin.
- What new features were added after the switch? The author added an improved fallout 'Probe location' tool that estimates fallout arrival time, calculates dose at arrival, projects total exposure over chosen durations, and applies building protection factors to show shelter effectiveness.
Summary
NUKEMAP’s move off Google Maps is a cautionary tale about platform dependency and shifting commercial priorities. What began in 2012 as a free, feature-rich API playground evolved into an unreliable, increasingly expensive service whose pricing changes and deprecations made running a moderately popular educational web tool untenable. After Google altered its pricing model dramatically in 2018 — turning manageable bills into thousands per month — the site’s maintainer searched for alternatives that respected small developers and academic use. He found Mapbox for tiles and hosting and Leaflet as a lightweight open-source mapping library, augmented by a custom plugin to restore functions like great-circle drawing. Mapbox’s cooperative support and reasonable credits contrasted sharply with Google’s opaque, bureaucratic process, long delays, and aggressive billing. The switch allowed the project not only to survive financially but also to add practical features, such as a fallout probe that estimates arrival time, dose and shelter protection effects, reinforcing the site’s educational mission and technical resilience.
Highlights:
- Google Maps API pricing changes in 2018 raised NUKEMAP costs from ~$200 to ~$1,800 per month.
- Google’s API stagnation and deprecation of features (e.g., Earth Plugin) hindered advanced functionality like NUKEMAP3D.
- Google’s support and grant pathways are opaque and often exclude individual academic projects.
- Migration to Mapbox + Leaflet preserved functionality; a custom Leaflet plugin restored great-circle drawing.
- New NUKEMAP features include a fallout probe calculating arrival time, dose over 24 hours, and building protection factors.
NUKEMAP began in 2012 relying on the Google Maps API because it was generous, feature-rich and easy for developers to use. Over the years Google changed course: many API features were deprecated, new features were added to the consumer Google Maps site but not the API, and support for developer-facing tools like the Google Earth Plugin disappeared. These product decisions undermined projects that relied on stable, long-term API behavior. For a moderately popular educational mapping tool like NUKEMAP, that erosion of functional support was an early technical concern that would be compounded by a later, much more consequential change: Google’s pricing overhaul.
In 2016 the site began paying modest fees for API usage, roughly $200/month. By 2018 Google’s new pricing model introduced the concept of dynamic map loads and other charges that dramatically increased costs: NUKEMAP’s bill jumped to about $1,800/month, an unsustainable sum for an individual academic site. Attempts to clarify costs or secure relief ran into bureaucracy: Google directed academic users toward complex "Google for Education" flows, excluded many small academic projects from grants, routed help through corporate partners, and made human contact slow and unreliable. Facing opaque billing, the prospect of yearly reapplications for credits, and the risk that Google would deprecate supportive services, the site’s maintainer decided platform risk outweighed any loyalty.
He migrated NUKEMAP to Mapbox for map tiles and hosting and Leaflet — an open-source JavaScript mapping library — for the interactive layer. Leaflet required custom work (a plugin to draw great circles), but Mapbox’s pricing was closer to Google’s old terms and the company provided credits and responsive personal support. The move preserved NUKEMAP’s features and enabled new ones: notably a refined fallout "Probe location" tool that computes fallout arrival time based on wind and distance, calculates dose rate at arrival, projects total exposure over chosen durations, and applies building protection factors. The author concludes that he will teach Leaflet rather than the Google Maps API, urging students and small developers to avoid dependency on platforms that can pivot to exploit popularity.