Does the route planner find the fastest route?

No. It gives you a sensible visiting order for your places. It does not use live traffic or road-following drive times, so treat it as an order to visit in, not a fastest-route calculation.

How do I plan a route with more than 10 stops?

The planner splits your run into legs of 11 stops that overlap, and gives you a Google Maps directions link for each leg. You open the legs in turn. Our answer page on routing more than 10 stops in Google Maps explains the cap in full.

Can I use the route on my phone?

Yes, but open the Google Maps directions links in the Google Maps app. A mobile browser only honours 3 stops per route, so the app is the reliable way to get the full leg on your phone.

How many places can I plan for free?

The free tier covers a limited number of places, since processing uses row credits. You can check how many a run will use before you process it, and top up if you need more.

Can I use Waze or an offline map app instead?

Yes. The planner gives you a Waze link for each stop, and you can export your places as GPX for offline apps such as Organic Maps, OsmAnd or a Garmin device.

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How to Plan a Route from a Google Maps List

You saved the places, now put them in order. Turn a Google Maps list into a visiting order with directions links, Waze links and a printable run sheet.

July 4, 2026

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6 min read

You saved a pile of places in Google Maps, and now you want to visit them in a sensible order without re-typing every address. Google Maps lets you save a list, but it will not turn that list into a route. The new route planner in Takeout Tools does exactly that: you give it your places, and it gives you back a visiting order you can drive on your phone.

This guide walks you through it, and it is honest about what the tool does and does not do.

What the Route Planner Does

You start with a set of saved places and you end with an order to visit them in. That is the job.

The route planner takes your places and works out a sensible visiting order. From that order it gives you:

A Google Maps directions link for the drive, split into legs when you have more than 10 stops
A Waze link for each stop, since Waze handles one destination at a time
A printable run sheet with a QR code for every stop
The option to regenerate the order from a start point you choose, or as a round trip

It is a visiting order, not a traffic-optimised route. More on that limit below, because it matters.

How to Use It

You can feed the planner in two ways. Pick whichever matches where your places already live.

Paste a Shared Google Maps List

If your places are in a Google Maps list, share the list and copy the link. Paste that link into the route planner and it pulls the places in, ready to order. This is the quickest path if you have not used Takeout Tools before.

Pick Places You Have Already Processed

If you have already processed places in Takeout Tools, you do not need to paste anything. Open the route planner and pick from the places already in your account. Select the ones you want on this run and build the order from there.

Either way, the next step is the same: you get a visiting order, a set of navigation links, and a run sheet.

Getting Past the 10-Stop Limit

Google Maps caps a single route at 10 stops. If your run has more than that, one directions link cannot hold it.

The route planner handles this by splitting a long run into legs. Each leg holds 11 stops, and the legs overlap, so the last stop of one leg is the first stop of the next. You open the legs one after another and the drive stays continuous.

We wrote a full explainer on why the cap exists and how the workaround holds together. If you want the detail, read how to route more than 10 stops in Google Maps.

Taking It to Waze and Offline Apps

Google Maps is not the only place to drive your order.

Waze navigates to one destination at a time, so the planner gives you a separate Waze link for each stop. If Waze is your usual app, our guide on moving Google Maps saved places to Waze covers the wider workflow.

If you use an offline app such as Organic Maps, OsmAnd or a Garmin device, you will want your places as a GPX file. Our Google Maps saved places to GPX guide shows how to get there, so you can carry the whole run without a signal.

The Printable Run Sheet

Some runs are easier on paper. The run sheet prints your stops in order, with a QR code beside each one.

You scan a code and it opens that stop on your phone, so you get the order on the page and the navigation in your hand. It suits a driver working through a list, or anyone who would rather glance at a sheet than scroll a screen.

Honest Limits

You should know these before you rely on the tool.

It is a visiting order, not the fastest route. The planner gives you a sensible order to visit your places. It does not read live traffic, and it does not follow the road network to find the shortest drive time. If you need true drive-time optimisation across a fleet, that is a different kind of tool.
Google Maps in a mobile browser honours only 3 stops. Open the directions links in the Google Maps app, not a phone browser tab, or the extra stops drop off. On the desktop the browser handles the full leg.
The free tier covers a limited number of places. Processing places uses row credits, so a large run may need more than the free allowance. You can see how many places a run will use before you commit.
Locked shared-list places are excluded. If some places in a shared list are locked until you unlock them, they stay out of the order until they are unlocked.

None of these stop the tool being useful. They just set the right expectation, which beats a surprise on the road.