Does Google Maps optimize the order of my stops?

No. Google Maps drives your stops in exactly the order you entered them. You can drag stops up and down manually, but it will never calculate the fastest order for you — that's the piece a route optimizer adds.

Google Maps · multiple stops

Google Maps route planner with multiple stops — and past the 10-stop wall

Google Maps is a great multi-stop navigator right up until stop number 11 — and it never reorders your stops to save you time. Here's how to add multiple stops properly, where the hard limits are, and the free 2-minute workaround when your day has more than 10 stops.

Adding multiple stops in Google Maps

Enter your first destination and tap Directions.
Desktop: click the + under the destination. Phone: tap the ⋮ three-dot menu → Add stop.
Repeat for each stop. Drag stops up or down to change the order by hand.
Tap Done / Start to navigate.

That works exactly as advertised — for a small route.

The two walls you'll hit

Limit	What happens
10 stops maximum	Start point + 9 destinations. The Add stop option simply disappears on the 10th — desktop, iPhone, and Android alike.
No optimization	Google Maps drives your stops in the order you typed them. It will not compute the fastest order — with 10 stops there are 362,880 possible orders, and the difference between a good one and a bad one is real miles.

Why doesn't Google just raise the cap? The 10-stop limit has been unchanged for years across every device. Whatever the reason, plan around it rather than waiting on it.

The free workaround: optimize first, navigate second

The fix is to separate the two jobs. Let a route optimizer find the fastest order for the whole list, then hand Google Maps the driving in chunks it accepts:

Open the free multi-stop route planner and paste your addresses — one per line, starting point first, up to 100 stops.
Pick a round trip or a fixed final stop, then click Optimize Route. The fastest visiting order, total distance, and estimated drive time appear in seconds.
Click Open in Google Maps. A route over 10 stops opens as consecutive legs of 10 — finish a leg, tap the next. Each leg starts exactly where the previous one ended, so navigation is seamless.

Route up to 100 stops free

No account, no per-driver fees, and your address list is never sent to our servers. Optimized order in seconds, then straight back into Google Maps for turn-by-turn.

Open the route planner →

When manual ordering is fine — and when it's costing you

For 3–4 stops you know well, dragging them into order in Google Maps is fine. The math turns against you fast, though: at 8 stops there are already 40,320 possible orders, and studies of real delivery routes consistently find intuition leaves 10–25% of drive time on the table. If you run stops daily — deliveries, service calls, home visits, estate-sale hauls — that's an hour or more a week given back by a tool that costs nothing.

FAQ

How many stops can Google Maps handle?

10 total — your starting point plus 9 destinations, on desktop, iPhone, and Android. The Add stop button disappears when the route is full.

Does Google Maps optimize the stop order?

No. It navigates your stops in exactly the order you entered them. You can reorder by dragging, but it never calculates the fastest sequence — that's what a route optimizer adds.

Is there a free way to route more than 10 stops?

Yes — paste up to 100 stops into the free multi-stop route planner, optimize, and open the result in Google Maps in legs of 10. Free, no account.

Can I save a multi-stop route in Google Maps?

Not as a reusable multi-stop driving route. Keep the list in a note or spreadsheet and re-paste it into the planner when you need it — optimizing takes seconds.