Apple Maps or Google Maps abroad: which to use in 2026

Apple Maps and Google Maps have gaps abroad, and the gaps are not the same. Google’s offline maps drive but do not walk. Apple’s feature list has no turn-by-turn navigation for Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia or Laos. Google Maps has none in South Korea yet.

What each app does with no signal

Apple added offline maps in iOS 17. Apple’s support page says a downloaded map includes turn-by-turn directions for driving, walking, cycling or riding transit. It also carries opening hours, ratings and arrival estimates. The page says offline maps exist only in select areas and that features vary by country and region. It does not say which areas or countries. Offline maps do not sync between devices, so download on the phone you will carry.

Google’s offline mode does less. Its help page says driving directions work offline and transit, cycling and walking directions do not. A driver offline gets no traffic information and no alternate routes. Google also says some countries and regions cannot be downloaded because of contractual limits, language support, address formats or other reasons, and it does not name them.

The difference shows on arrival day, when your data is not working yet and the hotel is a walk away. A downloaded city in Apple Maps can route you there. In Google Maps you get the map and no walking route.

Which app to use in which country

Apple’s iOS 27 feature list gives countries for each Maps feature, and Google publishes a coverage table for developers. Neither is a field test, and both show where the holes are.

• South Korea. Google Maps has place listings, reviews and public transit directions but no turn-by-turn driving or walking navigation, and the walking part of a transit route is drawn as a dotted line. Apple lists South Korea for turn-by-turn navigation but not for traffic or transit. Mobile Index counted 29.25 million monthly users for Naver Map in April, 12.77 million for KakaoMap and 9.08 million for Google Maps. Download Naver Map or KakaoMap before you fly. Our Korea guide covers both.
• Mainland China. Apple’s privacy page says Maps in China uses mapping services from Amap, and its feature list gives mainland China turn-by-turn navigation, traffic, transit and cycling. On an iPhone, Apple Maps is the one to open. On Android, install Amap before you fly.
• Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia and Laos. Apple’s list has turn-by-turn navigation for Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei but not for these four. Google’s table lists driving and walking directions for all of them, so Google Maps is the app to navigate with in Bali, El Nido, Siem Reap and Luang Prabang.
• Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. Apple’s list gives all five turn-by-turn navigation, traffic and transit, and Google’s table lists driving, walking and traffic for each. Italy, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom pass the same test, so in all of these pick the app you already know. Apple also lists trail and topographic maps for twelve countries, and Japan, Italy, France and Spain are among them.

How much data they use

Navigation costs little in either app. WhistleOut ran ten trips per app on an iPhone 7. The trips averaged 40 minutes and 22 miles, and the test measured 0.73 MB per 20 minutes for Google Maps. That is about 2 MB an hour, and an hour a day for a week comes to 15 MB. WhistleOut’s data monitor did not list Apple Maps separately, so the test took the “Other” line to be Apple Maps, since every other app was closed. Statista’s 2020 chart carries the same Google figure and gives Apple Maps 1.83 MB per 20 minutes. Taken at face value, that is about 5.5 MB an hour and 38 MB for a week at an hour a day. The iPhone 7 dates from 2016, so read all of these as an order of magnitude.

What takes real data is the downloads and the photographs. An offline map can run to hundreds of megabytes, and both apps show the size before you confirm. Satellite view, Street View and Look Around all load photographs. Do the downloading and the browsing on wifi. How much data Google Maps uses goes through the Google side in detail.

Setting up before you fly

1. Download your destination in both apps on wifi. In Apple Maps, tap your picture next to the search field, then Offline Maps, then Add Offline Map. In Google Maps, tap your profile picture, then Offline maps, then Select your own map.
2. If Optimize Storage is on in Apple’s Offline Maps settings, turn it off for a trip planned months ahead. With it on, Apple deletes unused offline maps after a period it does not state.
3. Check the expiry date of the Google download. Maps tries to refresh an area over wifi in its last 15 days, and an area that never sees wifi in that window can lapse.
4. Save the hotel, the arrival airport and your first station as pins in both apps, so none of them has to be typed on arrival.
5. Install the local app if the country needs one: Naver Map or KakaoMap for Korea, Amap on Android for China.

How much data to budget

Maps are a small part of a trip’s data, and the large download happens at home on wifi. Every Atli destination has a 1 GB plan that lasts seven days and a 3 GB plan that lasts thirty, set up in the WhatsApp or Telegram chat. At 2 to 6 MB an hour, directions will not be what uses them. Install the eSIM before you fly and turn it on when you arrive, and transit times, traffic and a search for dinner work in either app.

Checked against Apple’s iOS 27 feature list, Google’s help pages and the Korea Herald, October 2026. The data test used an iPhone 7.

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