We’ve been caught out by this more than once. A data connection that worked fine at the hotel cuts out the moment you’re on a rural road, or roaming charges kick in and you switch data off — and suddenly you’re navigating by road signs in a language you don’t speak. The fix takes two minutes on hotel WiFi and costs nothing: download your maps before you leave.
This guide covers how to download Google Maps for offline use on iPhone and Android, how much phone storage you’ll actually need, what works without a data connection (and what doesn’t), and the alternatives worth having as a backup.
Quick Reference: What Works Offline
| Feature | Offline? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| GPS location tracking | Yes | Uses phone’s GPS chip, no data needed |
| Driving directions | Yes | Full turn-by-turn with voice |
| Walking directions | Yes | Added in 2023 — used to be online-only |
| Search for places | Yes | Restaurants, petrol stations, hotels, etc. |
| Business hours and reviews | Partial | Shows cached info from when you downloaded |
| Live traffic and rerouting | No | Needs data — biggest limitation |
| Public transport directions | No | Timetables require a connection |
| Street View | No | Only works online |
| Satellite/aerial view | No | Only standard map tiles are saved |
How to Download Google Maps for Offline Use
The process is almost identical on iPhone and Android. You’ll need a WiFi connection (or a generous data plan) and enough free storage on your phone.
Method 1: Download a specific area
This is the quickest way and works well for a single destination or road trip route.
- Open Google Maps and search for your destination (e.g. “Sardinia” or “Algarve”)
- Tap the location name or address at the bottom of the screen
- Tap the three-dot menu (⋯) in the top right, then Download offline map
- Pinch and zoom to adjust the blue rectangle — this is the area that will be saved
- Check the storage estimate at the bottom (it tells you how many MB the download will use)
- Tap Download
The download happens in the background, so you can keep using your phone. It typically takes 2–5 minutes on decent WiFi.
Method 2: Download from your profile
This method gives you more control and lets you manage multiple downloaded regions.
- Tap your profile picture (top right in Google Maps)
- Tap Offline maps
- Tap Select your own map
- Pan and zoom to the area you want
- Tap Download
You can rename each download afterwards (tap the three dots next to it), which helps when you’re saving multiple regions for a road trip. We name ours by destination and year — “Sardinia 2026”, “Algarve South”, “Loire Valley” — so we know what’s current at a glance.
Turn on auto-updates
Downloaded maps update automatically every 15 days on WiFi and expire after 30 days if not refreshed at all. To avoid arriving somewhere with stale maps:
- Go to your profile picture → Offline maps
- Tap the gear icon (settings)
- Turn on Auto-update offline maps
- Set Auto-download to WiFi only (so it doesn’t eat your data plan)
With this on, Google Maps will refresh your saved maps whenever you’re on WiFi. One less thing to remember before a trip.
For the full official walkthrough from Google, see their Google Maps offline guide.
How Much Storage Do You Need?
This is the question nobody seems to answer properly. Here are approximate download sizes based on what we’ve actually saved for our own trips:
| Region | Approx. Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A single city (e.g. Barcelona, Lisbon) | 50–150 MB | Plenty for a city break |
| Small island (e.g. Ibiza, Menorca, Lanzarote) | 30–80 MB | Download the whole thing — it’s tiny |
| Larger island (e.g. Sardinia, Crete, Mallorca) | 150–400 MB | One download usually covers it |
| A region (e.g. Algarve, Tuscany, Loire Valley) | 200–500 MB | May need 2 rectangles for oddly shaped areas |
| Small country (e.g. Portugal, Greece) | 400–800 MB | May need to split into 2-3 downloads |
| Large country (e.g. France, Spain) | 1–2.5 GB | Split into regions — north/south or by coast |
There’s a maximum download area — you can’t save all of Europe in one go. For a two-week road trip, expect to use 1–3 GB total depending on how many regions you cover. That’s roughly the size of a Netflix episode, so not a big deal on a modern phone with 64GB+ storage.
Tip: Download maps the night before over WiFi at your hotel or Airbnb. Airport WiFi works too, but it tends to be slower and sometimes cuts out mid-download. Don’t rely on downloading maps at your destination — if you need offline maps, it’s probably because you won’t have reliable internet when you arrive.
Countries Where Offline Maps Don’t Work
Google restricts offline map downloads in some countries due to licensing or legal restrictions. As of 2026, you cannot download offline maps for:
- South Korea — national security laws restrict map data export. Use Naver Map or KakaoMap instead (both work offline).
- China — Google Maps is blocked entirely. Use Baidu Maps or Amap (Gaode).
- Parts of India — some border regions are restricted.
For most of Europe, the Americas, Southeast Asia, Japan, and Australasia, offline downloads work without issues. We’ve used them in Vietnam, Hong Kong, Portugal, and Argentina without problems. If you’re heading somewhere off the beaten track, try downloading the maps before you leave home — if Google won’t let you, you’ll know to grab an alternative app.
Pro Tips for Using Google Maps Abroad
We’ve used offline Google Maps across Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia — on road trips, city breaks, and family holidays with a toddler in tow. Here’s what we’ve picked up:
Save your key locations before you go
Star your hotel, the car hire pickup point, the airport, and any restaurants or places you’ve booked. These saved places appear on your offline map, making it much easier to navigate without typing. We create a shared list for each trip (“Sardinia 2026”, “Loire Valley”) so both phones have the same pins — useful when one of you is driving and the other is dealing with a nap protest in the back seat.
Download more than you think you’ll need
Plans change. On our Sardinia trip we’d only downloaded the north coast around Alghero, then decided to drive south to check out a hotel near Villasimius. The route disappeared halfway down the SS131, and we spent twenty minutes navigating by road signs through Oristano. Download the whole island or region, not just the area around your hotel — it’s only a few hundred MB extra.
Use WiFi-only auto-download
By default, Google Maps may try to update your offline maps over mobile data. If you’re on a travel eSIM or limited roaming plan, this can eat through your allowance. Set it to WiFi-only in the offline maps settings.
Enable battery saver, but not airplane mode
Your phone’s GPS works without a data connection, but it needs the GPS radio to be on. Aeroplane mode disables GPS on some phones (particularly older Androids). If you want to save battery, use your phone’s battery saver mode instead — GPS will still work, and the phone won’t waste power searching for cell towers it can’t connect to anyway.
Bring a car charger
GPS navigation drains battery fast — roughly 10–15% per hour with the screen on. For any drive longer than an hour, plug your phone in. A dual-port USB car charger costs under £10 and means both driver and navigator can stay topped up. We throw one in our hand luggage for every rental car trip — small enough to forget it’s there until you need it.
A decent phone mount for the car makes a big difference too. Propping your phone in a cup holder with Google Maps running is a recipe for missed turns (and arguments). A suction mount on the windscreen or a vent clip keeps it at eye level, more like a proper sat nav. We’ve got more suggestions in our best travel gadgets post.
Don’t forget the car hire itself
If you’re renting a car abroad, skip the GPS add-on at the desk — it’s usually £10–15/day for a clunky device when your phone does the same job for free. We compare prices on DiscoverCars, which searches all the major rental companies and local agencies. The local ones are often half the price of the Hertz/Europcar desks at the airport.
Best Alternatives to Google Maps Offline
Google Maps is the obvious choice, but it’s not always the best for offline use. These are the alternatives we’ve actually used:
Organic Maps (free, no ads)
Best for: hiking, cycling, and places with limited data coverage
Built on OpenStreetMap data, which is community-maintained and often includes trails, footpaths, and rural roads that Google Maps misses entirely. The app is designed from the ground up for offline use — you download complete country maps (not rectangles), and everything works immediately. No account needed, no ads, no tracking.
We first tried it while walking sections of the England Coast Path and it showed footpaths that Google Maps didn’t have at all. It’s become our go-to for any walking holiday — the trail detail is genuinely better. The trade-off is that the interface is more basic, there’s no Street View, and the driving routing isn’t as polished as Google’s. But for walking and cycling, we’d pick it over Google Maps every time.
HERE WeGo (free)
Best for: driving in Europe with no data
Made by HERE Technologies — the same company that supplies map data to BMW, Audi, and Mercedes for their built-in sat navs You download entire countries (not areas), and it includes full turn-by-turn navigation, speed limits, and lane guidance offline. The driving experience feels closer to a dedicated sat nav than Google Maps does.
It also shows public transport routes in many European cities offline, which Google Maps can’t do. The downside is it’s less well-known, so the community reviews and place listings are thinner than Google’s. For driving, though, it’s excellent.
OsmAnd (free / paid)
Best for: power users who want maximum control
The Swiss Army knife of offline maps. OsmAnd lets you download OpenStreetMap data for any country, add custom layers (contour lines, hillshade, nautical charts), and configure just about everything. It’s overkill for a beach holiday in Ibiza, but if you’re doing a serious road trip or a multi-day hike and want one app that handles everything, this is it.
The free version limits you to 7 map downloads. The paid version (around £8) removes that limit — worth it if you travel often.
Apple Maps (iPhone only, iOS 17+)
Best for: iPhone users who want offline maps without installing anything extra
Apple added offline map downloads in iOS 17 — if you’ve got an iPhone running iOS 17 or later, you already have it. No third-party app needed. It supports full offline turn-by-turn navigation for driving, walking, cycling, and transit, and it caches place info like opening hours and ratings from when you last connected.
To download: go to Settings → Maps → Offline Maps → Download New Map, search for your destination, and tap download. Coverage is solid across the US, Canada, Australia, most of Europe, and Japan. The trade-off is you can’t draw a custom rectangle like in Google Maps — you pick a fixed region — and map detail in rural areas can be thinner than Google’s. Worth having as a backup even if you prefer Google Maps, since it’s already on your phone and costs nothing to set up.
Google Maps Offline vs a Dedicated Sat Nav
If you’ve got a Garmin or TomTom sitting in a drawer, you might wonder whether offline Google Maps makes it redundant. We’ve used both for years, and there are genuine trade-offs:
| Google Maps Offline | Dedicated Sat Nav | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | £130–400 for the device |
| Screen position | Wherever you mount your phone | Purpose-built windscreen mount at eye level |
| Battery | Drains your phone (10–15%/hr) | Has its own battery/power |
| Live traffic | Yes (when online) | Yes (via built-in SIM or phone tethering) |
| Map coverage | Worldwide | Usually Europe or North America |
| Map updates | Automatic | Manual (see our free sat nav update guide) |
| Speed cameras | Inconsistent offline | Built-in database, regularly updated |
| Best for | Most people, especially occasional trips | Frequent drivers, motorhomes, older cars without CarPlay |
For most family holidays, Google Maps offline is more than enough. But if you drive abroad regularly, or you’re in a motorhome or older car without a modern infotainment screen, a dedicated sat nav still earns its place on the windscreen. We wrote a full guide on updating your Garmin with free maps — useful if you’d rather not pay Garmin £50+ a year for official updates.
Troubleshooting
Maps won’t download
Check you’re on WiFi (or have mobile downloads enabled in settings). If it still fails, force-close Google Maps and try again — sometimes it gets stuck mid-download. Also check you have enough free storage on your phone; the download will fail silently if you’re running low.
GPS not working offline
Make sure you’re not in airplane mode (which disables GPS on most phones). On Android, check that Location is turned on in your quick settings. On iPhone, go to Settings → Privacy → Location Services and make sure Google Maps is set to “While Using”.
Offline map expired
Downloaded maps expire after 30 days if not refreshed. Go to your profile → Offline maps, and tap Update next to the expired map. Turn on auto-update (described above) to avoid this in future.
Navigation stops mid-route
You’ve driven outside your downloaded area. Google Maps will show your GPS position (the blue dot) but can’t route you on roads it doesn’t have saved. This is exactly what happened to us in Sardinia — download more than you think you’ll need. If you’ve got a data connection at that point, Google Maps will switch to online mode automatically.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Google Maps offline use mobile data?
No. Once downloaded, navigation works entirely through your phone’s GPS chip — no data connection needed. The only time it uses data is during the initial download and when refreshing expired maps. If you want to be certain, you can turn off mobile data after downloading and navigation will still work fine.
Can I use Google Maps offline without a SIM card?
Yes. GPS works without any SIM card or data connection. Download your maps on WiFi before you travel, and you can navigate with no SIM at all. This is useful if you’re between eSIM providers or if your phone doesn’t support eSIM and you don’t want to swap your physical SIM abroad.
How long do downloaded maps last?
30 days before they expire, at which point Google Maps will prompt you to update. With auto-update on, Google refreshes them every 15 days on WiFi so you’ll never notice the expiry in practice.
Can I download maps for an entire country?
It depends on the country’s size. Small countries like Portugal, the Netherlands, or Greece can usually fit in one or two downloads. Larger countries like France or Spain need to be split into regions — you’ll see a message saying “selected area is too large” if you try to grab too much at once. For whole-country downloads in a single go, try Organic Maps or HERE WeGo instead.
Is Google Maps offline accurate enough for driving abroad?
In most of Europe, yes — it’s the same map data as the online version, just stored locally. The main thing you lose is live traffic, so you won’t get rerouted around jams or road closures. For rural areas in developing countries, the data can be patchier — when we drove through parts of Vietnam, Organic Maps (which uses OpenStreetMap) had better coverage of the smaller roads.
Does offline navigation include speed limits?
Google Maps shows speed limits in some countries when online, but this feature is inconsistent offline. If speed limits matter to you (and they should — fines in France and Italy are steep and they’ll follow you home via the rental company), HERE WeGo is more reliable for this, or pick up a dedicated sat nav with a speed camera database.
You Might Also Like
If you’re planning a road trip abroad, these guides might save you some time (and money):
- Update or Add New Maps to Your Sat Nav / GPS for Free — if you’ve got a Garmin gathering dust, this shows how to load free, up-to-date maps onto it
- Best Travel Gadgets — car chargers, phone mounts, power banks, and other gear we actually pack
- Best Travel Apps – Navigation, Money, Stays and More