Route Planner vs Route Optimizer: What Is the Difference?

A route planner lets you arrange stops on a map. A route optimizer chooses the order for you. In practice most apps do both, so the useful question is who picks the order: you, or the software.

This page explains the difference in plain words, how an optimizer works, when each is enough and how to test one.

Key takeaways

• Route planner: you choose the order and the app draws the route. Google Maps works this way.
• Route optimizer: the software chooses the order that takes the least time or distance.
• The ordering problem grows fast: 8 stops have 40,320 orders; 12 have 479,001,600.
• Up to 9 stops in a fixed order, a planner is enough. For 10 or more stops, use an optimizer.
• Test it: plan your stops by hand, then let an optimizer order them and compare the distance.

What is a route planner?

A route planner lets you add the places you need to visit and draws a route between them. You decide the order. Google Maps works like this: it allows up to 9 stops, including the last one, and it drives them in the order you typed (Google Maps Help). That is fine for a short, fixed trip, such as a day out with a few stops.

What is a route optimizer?

A route optimizer takes a list of stops and tries to find the order that takes the least time or distance. You do not choose the order; the software does. The hard part is the number of choices. The number of possible orders for a list is the stop count multiplied by every smaller number down to 1.

Stops	Possible orders
4	24
6	720
8	40,320
10	3,628,800
12	479,001,600

A person can check 24 orders, perhaps 720 with patience. Nobody checks 40,320 by hand. An optimizer uses the driving time between every pair of stops and searches for a quick order. For long lists it uses methods that find a very good order quickly rather than checking every single one.

How does MiliRoute choose the order?

MiliRoute puts your stops in the quickest driving order using Google's estimated driving times for average traffic. In one real run on eight New York stops listed in no particular order, on 24 October 2026, the listed order was 85.9 km and 3 hours 24 minutes and the optimized order was 37.9 km and 1 hour 59 minutes. Driving times are Google's estimates for average traffic, not live traffic.

The list was far from the best order, so your gap will depend on how well you plan today. The New York example shows the stops and the screenshot.

Which one do you need?

Your day	Enough
Up to 9 stops, the same every day	A route planner such as Google Maps
10 or more stops, a different list each day	A route optimizer
Several drivers sharing one list	A team tool with dispatch
One trip with a few stops, any order	A route planner

Most "route planner" apps include an optimizer, and most "route optimizers" include a planner. Check for the thing you need: ordering the stops for you.

What does an optimizer not do?

• It does not know about things it was not told: a customer who is out until three, a road closure, or a low bridge. You keep control by pinning stops first or last and by adding notes.
• It uses estimated driving times for average traffic, so a live traffic jam is not in the plan.
• It orders one driver's route. Splitting a list across several vans is a different feature, called dispatch, found in team tools.

How does an optimizer find an order?

There are two broad ideas, and most software mixes them.

1. Build a good order quickly. Start at the first stop and keep adding the stop that fits best. This is fast, but it can paint itself into a corner, such as leaving one far stop for the end.
2. Improve it. Take the order from step 1 and try small changes: swap two stops, reverse a section, move one stop elsewhere. Keep any change that makes the route shorter or quicker, and repeat until nothing helps.

This is why an optimizer can handle a list that is far too long to check one order at a time. It does not claim the order is provably the best for very long lists; it claims a very good one, fast. For short lists, a computer can check every order.

What the optimizer measures matters too. Some minimise distance, some minimise driving time. They are not the same: a longer road with no traffic lights can be quicker. MiliRoute uses Google's estimated driving times for average traffic between each pair of stops.

What should you ask a vendor before you trust an optimizer?

• What does it minimise? Distance, time, or both?
• What data does it use for driving times? Estimates for average traffic, live traffic, or straight-line distances?
• How many stops can it order? The free limit and the paid limit.
• Can you pin stops first or last? This is how you keep control.
• Does it show the numbers? Total distance and driving time for the whole route, so you can check its claim on your own stops.

How do you test an optimizer for free?

1. Take tomorrow's stops.
2. Plan them in the order they came in, and note the total distance.
3. Let an optimizer order them and compare the two distances.
4. If the gap is small, you were already planning well. If it is large, you have found your saving.

MiliRoute is free for routes of up to 10 stops, with no credit card, so you can run the test today. See how to plan a delivery route for multiple stops for the full routine.

Is a route optimizer the same as AI route planning?

Search results use the two terms loosely. What matters is what the software does: it takes stops and returns an order. How it searches (exact methods, heuristics or machine learning) is the vendor's business; judge it by the distance it gives you on your own stops. The article on how route optimization works explains the methods in plain words.

Questions

What is the difference between a route planner and a route optimizer?

A planner lets you arrange stops and draws the route. An optimizer chooses the order for you to save time or distance.

Is Google Maps a route optimizer?

No. It keeps the order you typed and allows up to 9 stops, including the last one.

How many stops can an optimizer handle?

It depends on the app. Free plans range from 5 to 15 stops per route, and paid plans go to hundreds or more. See the limits side by side and the price comparison.

Do I need an optimizer for 8 stops?

Probably yes if the list changes every day, because 8 stops have 40,320 possible orders. If it is the same list every day and you already know the order, no.

Does an optimizer use live traffic?

MiliRoute uses Google's estimated driving times for average traffic, not live traffic.

Sources

• Google Maps Help: multiple destinations
• MiliRoute optimizer run on 24 October 2026, eight public addresses in New York, Google driving-time estimates for average traffic

Last updated 28 October 2026.