Following months of rumors, Apple has officially confirmed that ads are coming to Apple Maps. The announcement comes as part of the rollout of Apple Business, a new platform aimed at business owners that combines device, email, and calendar management along with the ability to find new customers through Maps listings.
The Maps ad program is slated to launch this summer in the U.S. and Canada, and will be one of the most significant changes to Apple Maps since the app debuted in 2012.
Businesses will first need to claim their location in Maps through Apple Business before they can place ads there. Existing Apple Ads customers and agencies will also be able to book through the Apple Ads platform, which will offer more campaign customization options, including targeting by keyword and specific brand names.
Where the ads will appear in Maps
There are two places where you’ll start seeing ads in Maps:
Search results. As shown on the right of the example above, when you search a term like “coffee shop” or “hardware store,” a sponsored result can appear at the top of the list, ranked by relevance. Apple says the ads will be clearly labeled, similar to how sponsored results are marked in App Store search. According to TechCrunch, Apple says it will show only one ad in Maps search results at a time.
Suggested Places. Shown above on the left, this is a new feature coming to Maps alongside the ad rollout. Suggested Places will surface recommendations based on what’s trending nearby, your recent searches, and other contextual signals. Ads can appear at the top of this section as well.
How is privacy impacted?
Given that Maps is an app literally focused on your location, Apple introducing ads into this app will likely disappoint many Apple Maps users out there who use the platform as a more private alternative to Google Maps, which Google is known to use as part of its larger ad targeting and tracking efforts.
But Apple says they will not use Maps as a way to create a location trail tied to your identity. According to Apple’s announcement, a user’s location and the ads they see and interact with in Maps are not associated with their Apple Account. Personal data stays on the device, is not collected or stored by Apple, and is not shared with third-party advertisers.
Why now?
The short answer is Apple’s ever growing need for services revenue.
Apple’s services division crossed $100 billion in revenue in 2025. Ads is a growing slice of that, with eMarketer projecting Apple to pull in roughly $8.5 billion in ad revenue for 2026. Maps ads represent a significant new inventory source for Apple.
