Authentication ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Most operations on Google Maps require that you tell Google who you are. To authenticate with Google Maps, follow the `instructions `_ for creating an API key. You will probably want to create a new project, then click on the `Credentials` section and create a `Browser key`. The API key is a string that starts with the letters ``AI``. .. image:: _images/api_key.* You can pass this key to `gmaps` with the ``configure`` method:: gmaps.configure(api_key="AI...") Maps and layers created after the call to ``gmaps.configure`` will have access to the API key. You should avoid hard-coding the API key into your Jupyter notebooks. You can use `environment variables `_. Add the following line to your shell start-up file (probably `~/.profile` or `~/.bashrc`):: export GOOGLE_API_KEY=AI... Make sure you don't put spaces around the ``=`` sign. If you then open a `new` terminal window and type ``env`` at the command prompt, you should see that your API key. Start a new Jupyter notebook server in a new terminal, and type:: import os import gmaps gmaps.configure(api_key=os.environ["GOOGLE_API_KEY"])