Google Maps is really expensive compared to the other GIS providers. Amazon's just reselling those same services. Google seems to coast somewhat on the strength of their map (including the unique and very hard to replicate StreetView).

Google increased their pricing, I think last year or 2. My website used to be within the free tier, but after the increase, I started paying $100 a month.

I ended up spinning up a self-hosted tile server, which I used for new projects unrelated to my website or its data.

We went from basically free to 10k per month. Just switched over to Apple Maps, but that hit its limit last night, so we had to switch back.

Don't think of Gmaps as a cloud service in the sense of GCP. It's a SAAS api that offers a unique service and the charge is for that service. It is pretty much the only option for what it does and can charge accordingly. This will cause Google to either lower prices or give more access for the same price (essentially lowering prices).