Google Maps multiple stops limit: how many stops you can add and what to do about it

Google Maps is on almost every driver's phone, and for getting from A to B it's excellent. Sooner or later, though, anyone running a delivery round tries to put a whole day's drops into it and hits a wall. This guide explains the limit, why it exists in practice, and the workarounds that small delivery businesses use.

What is the Google Maps stop limit?

Google's own help page says: "You can add up to nine stops, which includes the final destination." (Google Maps Help: get directions and show routes). Add your starting point and that's ten places in one set of directions.

The same page says multiple destinations work for all modes of transport except public transport and flights, so driving, walking and cycling are fine. It also explains how to reorder stops by dragging them in the list.

Google changes its apps from time to time, so if you're reading this a while after October 2026, check the help page for the current limit.

Why the limit matters for delivery rounds

Nine stops is plenty for a trip to the shops. A small delivery round might have 15, 30 or 50 drops. The limit causes three problems:

• You have to split the day into chunks. A 27-drop run is at least three separate sets of directions.
• Google Maps doesn't choose the order for you. It follows the order you enter, so you have to work out the best order yourself, across the whole day, before you split it up.
• Re-entering stops takes time. Typing 30 addresses into a phone each morning is slow and easy to get wrong.

The order is the part that costs the most. If the stops are in a poor order, splitting them into neat groups of nine just gives you three poor routes.

Workaround 1: Plan the order first, then use Google Maps leg by leg

This is the approach most small operators settle on, and it plays to Google Maps' strengths:

1. Put all the day's addresses into a route planner that orders them by road time.
2. Check the order makes sense to you and move anything that doesn't (a café that must be first, a goods-in door that opens late).
3. Navigate one stop at a time from the planned list, opening Google Maps for each leg.

Our free multi-drop route planner works this way. It takes up to 60 stops, orders them using real road travel times, lets you rearrange by hand, and gives every stop a "Take me there" button that opens Google Maps directions to that address. There's no account and no limit of nine.

Workaround 2: Split the run into chunks of nine

If you want turn-by-turn directions through several stops at once, split the ordered list:

• Leg 1: start plus stops 1–9.
• Leg 2: stop 9 as the new start, then stops 10–18.
• And so on, until the final leg ends back at base.

Make the split at natural breaks (the end of a town, before a long rural stretch) rather than strictly every nine stops. It's also worth noting the split on your run sheet so the driver knows when to load the next set.

Workaround 3: Saved lists and My Maps

Some drivers save their regular customers as a list or plot them on a custom map so they can see everyone at a glance. That helps with grouping drops into areas, which is a big part of good planning. It doesn't solve the ordering problem by itself, and you still navigate one or a few stops at a time.

Workaround 4: Use software built for multi-drop routes

If the stop list changes every day and you're spending a long time each morning on it, you're past the point where Google Maps alone is the right tool. Options range from free planners to driver apps and fleet routing software. We compare the types in best route planner apps for delivery drivers.

For businesses with regular customers, the bigger saving is often not typing the list at all. RoundSorted works out who's due each day from standing orders and one-off changes, orders the drops by road time, and gives the driver a phone view with a "Take me there" button for each stop.

Getting the order right before you split

Whichever workaround you use, a few habits make the route better:

• Group by area first. Decide the order of towns, estates and villages before the order of individual stops.
• Do the furthest area first or last. Never in the middle, or you drive out and back across your own route.
• Put real time windows in early. A café that opens at 7:30 goes before the business park that opens at 9.
• Include the drive home. Two routes can look equal until you add the last leg back to base.

Our guide to planning a multi-drop route goes through this step by step.

Example: a 24-drop morning

This is an illustrative example, not data from a real business. A wholesale baker has 24 drops across a town centre, an industrial estate and four villages. Typing them straight into Google Maps in customer-list order means three chunks of eight, crossing the town twice. Ordering them first by road time, with the two early cafés forced to the front, gives a run that does the town, then the estate, then the villages in a loop back to the bakery. The driver then follows the list, tapping "Take me there" for each drop. The time saved will depend on the area; the only way to know for your round is to time a real day both ways.

Safety: set it up before you drive

It's illegal to hold and use a phone or sat nav while driving, including when stopped at traffic lights or in a queue. Navigation must be hands-free, for example in a holder that doesn't block your view of the road (gov.uk: using mobile phones when driving). Open the next stop while you're parked at the current one, not after you've pulled away.

If you've outgrown nine stops, try the free route planner: paste in the day's addresses and see the order before you set off.