How to add your business to Apple Maps

The short answer

You add or claim a business on Apple Maps through Apple Business, Apple's free portal that replaced Apple Business Connect in April 2026. You can do it from any computer in a browser. The steps:

1. Sign up for Apple Business at business.apple.com. You set up an organization with your name, a phone number and a work email.
2. Verify your organization. Apple asks for two methods, such as an EIN or D-U-N-S Number plus a business license or utility bill, and the review can take up to five business days.
3. Add your location. Search for it first; if it's already on Maps you claim it, otherwise you create it.
4. Fill in the place card. Category, hours, phone, website, photos, and the exact spot of your entrance.
5. Keep it current. Update hours and add showcases, and check any changes Apple makes from customer reports.

Why bother with Apple Maps if you're on Google?

Because Apple Maps shows your business whether you manage it or not. Apple builds its map from many data providers: its Maps data attribution page credits business listings data from dozens of companies, including Foursquare and Tripadvisor, and credits "Reviews from Yelp". If one of them has an old phone number or the wrong hours, that's what an iPhone user may see.

Your place card also travels further than the Maps app. Apple says it "appears in many Apple apps, from Maps to Siri to Calendar, Messages, and Spotlight searches" (from its introduction to Apple Business). Claiming it is the only way to control what it says.

Step 1: How do you sign up for Apple Business?

Apple Business is Apple's single portal for businesses, so it also covers devices, email and more. For Maps you only need the brand and location part. Apple's help page Sign up for Apple Business walks through it:

1. Go to business.apple.com and select Sign up now.
2. Enter your organization's name, its website (optional, but Apple says it can speed up verification) and its address. Leave the agency checkbox unticked unless you manage listings for other businesses.
3. Enter your own first and last name. Apple wants a real person's name: names like "IT Coordinator" get sent back.
4. Create a password, add your phone number, and enter the codes Apple sends to your email and phone.
5. Agree to the Apple Business terms and conditions.

Two details trip people up. The email for this first account can't already be an Apple Account for any other Apple service, though it can be from a public provider like Gmail (per Apple's requirements for Apple Business). And if you used Apple Business Connect before, you don't sign up again: sign in at business.apple.com with the personal Apple Account you used there.

Step 2: How does Apple Maps business verification work?

Apple verifies your organization, not just one address. According to its sign-up help page, you have 60 days after signing up to do it, you need two methods of verification, and the review "can take up to five business days", longer at busy times. If your organization isn't approved within the window, Apple deletes the organization and its data. So don't sign up and leave it for later.

To start, go to Settings > Organization and select Verify Now. Choose one method, add it, then repeat with a second, and select Send for Review. The methods Apple lists:

There is one shortcut for a business that already appears on Maps. When you add an existing location, Apple may offer to verify it with a phone call to the number it has on record for that place. You enter the four-digit code from the call. If you don't recognize the number Apple shows, Apple says to contact Apple Business support rather than guess.

Watch your inbox during verification. Apple repeatedly asks you to make sure your email filters allow mail from all apple.com domains.

Step 3: How do you add or claim your location?

This follows Apple's help page Add a single location in Apple Business:

1. Choose Brands > Locations, select Add Location, then Add single location and Next.
2. Type your business name. If Apple finds it, select it to claim the existing place. If not, select Add a new location with this name.
3. Enter the address, then drag the map until the marker sits on the right building. Satellite or Hybrid view makes the entrance easier to see.
4. Fill in the default language, the display name, the primary category, the status (Open, or Opening Soon with a date no more than six months away), the phone number and, optionally, a website. Apple also accepts a Facebook, Instagram or TikTok page in place of a website.
5. Set your opening hours, then choose your brand or create one.
6. If your organization is already verified, select Done. If this is your first location, verify your organization now (step 2).

If Apple says This location is already managed, someone else claimed it: a former owner, an old agency or a listings company. Apple says to add it anyway, then select Request Transfer next to it, explain why, and attach a document such as a business license or utility bill. Apple says that review can take up to five business days.

Every location belongs to a brand. Apple's page About locations explains that brand details such as the name, logo and cover photo carry over to each location, and you can still give each location its own cover photo.

Step 4: What can you edit on your Apple Maps place card?

Once the location is yours, Apple's page on editing a single location lists what you can keep up to date:

• Normal and special hours. Special hours cover holidays, events and extended hours.
• Photos. Apple suggests rotating them, for example for a season or holiday.
• Good to Know. Useful facts about the location, which Apple says may appear on Maps, in search results and across Apple.
• The map position. Drag the map or enter coordinates if the marker is on the wrong building.
• Showcases and Actions. Covered below.

Showcases

A showcase is a small promotion on your place card: a new item, a deal, an event. Apple's guide to creating your first showcase gives the limits: a headline of up to 38 characters, a body of up to 100 characters, a photo with alt text of up to 100 characters, and an optional button. A showcase runs for up to 365 days (90 by default). Apple reviews each one, so plan at least three days ahead, and if one language is rejected, the whole showcase is rejected.

Example (fictional), sized to fit:

• Headline: Fall tune-up week, 20% off
• Body: Bike tune-ups Monday to Saturday this week. Walk in or book a time online.

Actions

Actions are buttons on your place card that open your website or booking platform. Apple's page About Actions says the types depend on your category; a restaurant, for example, can add Menu, Reserve, Waitlist, Pickup and Delivery. Each Action needs Apple's approval, which can take up to three business days, and customers need iOS 17.4 or later to see Actions on an iPhone.

Where do Apple Maps ratings and reviews come from?

Apple Maps has its own ratings. Apple's iPhone guide to rating places and adding photos in Maps explains that people rate a place from its place card, on the categories Apple shows for that kind of place, and can add their own photos. Apple notes that its Ratings and Photos feature isn't available in every country or region, and that if the Rate button doesn't appear, the place can't be rated.

Place cards can also carry customer reviews from other sites. Apple's guide to getting information about places says a place card may include customer reviews, and its Maps data attribution page credits "Reviews from Yelp". That makes your Yelp page part of your Apple Maps presence, even if you never think about Yelp. Our guide to free business listing sites covers Yelp and the other listings worth claiming.

Your Google reviews don't appear on Apple Maps, as far as any Apple page says. They live on your Google Business Profile.

How do you keep your Apple Maps listing accurate?

Customers can report a problem from your place card, for example that you were closed when Maps said open. Apple's page on maintaining location information accuracy says it reviews these reports and may edit your name, status or hours. When it does, it emails your account's administrators, and the location shows Updates Available. You can accept the change with Looks Good, or edit it to something different if Apple got it wrong.

The bigger risk is drift between platforms: you change your hours on Google and forget Apple. Keep one list of your official details and update every platform from it on the same day. If you use Mekomi for your Google Business Profile, note that it works only on Google, so Apple Maps changes are still yours to make.

Apple Business itself is available in more than 200 countries and regions, but not every feature is everywhere. Apple's feature availability page lists what each country gets (brand and location management is listed for the US and Canada). Check your country there before you start.

How is Apple Maps different from Google Business Profile?

The jobs are similar; the details differ. The ones that catch Google users out:

• Apple verifies your organization once. After that, Apple's steps for adding another location end with a simple Done, with no new verification.
• Apple reviews promotions before they go live. Showcases and Actions wait for approval; plan around the review times above.
• Ratings work differently. Apple Maps users rate categories of a place, and reviews can come from Yelp; on Google, customers write reviews on your profile and you reply to them.
• Apple Business is broader. The same portal manages devices, email and payments; you can ignore all of that for Maps.

If you haven't claimed your Google profile yet, do that first: our guide on how to claim your business on Google takes you through it, and Google Business Profile verification covers the methods Google offers.