How Long Does a Virtual Tour Stay Live? Is There a Monthly Fee?
A tour is shot once, but how long does it last? Who hosts it, will there be monthly payments, and could it disappear one day?
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How Long Does a Virtual Tour Stay Live? Is There a Monthly Fee?
This question comes up when people ask for a quote, but it rarely gets a clear answer. And it's a fair question: you're making a one-time payment, and you want to know how long you'll get service in return.
The answer depends on where the tour is hosted.
Where does the tour live?
Knowing that a virtual tour can sit in three different places explains everything:
1. Google Maps and Business Profile The tour is hosted on Google's servers. There's no monthly fee. As long as your Business Profile is active, the tour stays live, with no time limit.
2. The production company's server Some tours are hosted on the producer's own infrastructure. Here, how long it stays available depends on your agreement with the company.
3. Subscription platforms On platforms like Matterport, hosting usually runs on a monthly or yearly subscription. If the subscription ends, the model may become unavailable. We compared the two in our Matterport or Street View article.
Over the long term, this difference turns into a serious cost difference.
How it works for tours integrated with Google
The tours we produce are published on Google Maps and hosted by Google. In practice, this means:
- No monthly payments
- No time limit
- Costs don't rise as traffic grows
- No worries about server maintenance, renewals or backups
Some of the 1,600+ tours in our archive have been live for years and still work.
When can a tour become unavailable?
No time limit doesn't mean "nothing can ever happen." These situations can affect the tour:
If the Business Profile is closed: the tour disappears too. It usually comes back when the profile is reopened.
If the business closes permanently: the profile is archived and the tour becomes unavailable.
If the address changes and isn't updated: the tour stays live but shows the wrong venue. In that case it needs to be removed; we cover the details in our business details have changed article.
If ownership of the profile is lost: without access to the profile, nothing can be done with the tour.
None of these four is caused by the tour itself; they're caused by the Business Profile. This shows that the life of your tour depends on the health of your profile.
Tours embedded on a website
A tour embedded on your site loads from wherever it's hosted. For tours integrated with Google, this creates no extra cost; your site only displays the frame, and it puts no load on your server.
We explain how to embed it in our embedding a virtual tour on your website guide.
Does a tour become technically outdated?
No. The panorama format has stayed the same for years, and browsers continue to support it.
What becomes outdated isn't the technology, it's the venue. If you've renovated or changed the layout, the tour no longer reflects reality. That's not a technical problem; it's a content problem, and an update solves it.
Questions to ask when getting a quote
Three questions are enough to understand the long-term cost:
- Where will the tour be hosted? On Google's side, or on the company's server?
- Is there a monthly or yearly payment? If so, how much and for how long?
- What happens to the tour if I stop working with the company?
The third question is the most critical and the least asked. If the answer isn't clear, it pays to be careful.
For other points to ask about when choosing a company, see our how to choose a virtual tour company guide.
In short
A virtual tour published on Google Maps has no monthly fee and no time limit. The life of the tour depends on your Business Profile staying active.
If you're offered a different setup, especially subscription-based hosting, finding out about it up front makes a big difference in the long run.
Frequently Asked Questions
There's no monthly fee for a tour published on Google Maps; hosting is on Google's side. Some platforms require a subscription for the tours they host themselves.
A tour on Google Maps stays live as long as the Business Profile remains active. There is no set time limit.
When the profile is closed, the tour disappears too. It usually comes back when the profile is reopened.
An embedded tour loads from wherever the tour is hosted. Tours integrated with Google have no extra hosting fee.
A tour on Google Maps stays, because it is linked to your profile. For tours hosted on a separate platform, the contract terms decide.
Technically, it doesn't become outdated. But when the venue changes, the tour no longer reflects reality, and an update is needed.
That depends on your agreement with the producer. It's one of the points to ask about when getting a quote.
Yes. On these platforms, hosting usually depends on a subscription; when the subscription ends, the model may become unavailable.
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