Google Business Profile costs nothing. You can claim your business, verify it, upload photos, respond to reviews, post updates, and manage all core features without paying Google a cent. This has been true since the platform launched as Google My Business and remains the case today. The confusion usually comes from three places. First, some third-party services charge to set up or manage your profile for you, which is unnecessary since the platform itself is free. Second, Google Ads can show up in the same interface, and those obviously cost money, but they're optional and separate from your organic listing. Third, scam calls claiming you need to pay to "renew" or "verify" your Google listing are common—hang up, Google never calls for payment. At Ottawa SEO, we set up hundreds of profiles for clients at no Google-side cost. The real expense is time: proper setup means choosing the right categories, writing an optimized description, uploading high-quality photos, and managing the verification process, which can take 5–14 days by postcard or longer if your business type requires video verification. Ongoing management—posting weekly updates, responding to reviews within 24 hours, monitoring Q&A—takes 2–4 hours monthly for most local businesses. Google does offer advanced features through third-party integrations that may cost money. Booking systems, e-commerce plugins, and reputation management tools often charge monthly fees, but again, those are external services, not Google charging you. The core profile that appears in Maps and local search results stays free forever. The ROI is outstanding because local pack rankings deliver high-intent traffic. A well-optimized profile in a mid-sized Canadian market like Ottawa can generate 500–2,000 monthly views and 50–200 direction requests without spending a dollar on ads. If someone offers to sell you a Google Business Profile or charges a recurring fee just to keep it active, they're either reselling a free product or running a scam. Set it up yourself or hire an agency for one-time setup and optional ongoing management, but never pay Google directly for the listing.