Using Python requests and the Google Maps Geocoding API

geocode.py

# Using Python requests and the Google Maps Geocoding API.
#
# References:
#
# * http://docs.python-requests.org/en/latest/
# * https://developers.google.com/maps/

import requests

GOOGLE_MAPS_API_URL = 'http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json'

params = {
    'address': '221B Baker Street, London, United Kingdom',
    'sensor': 'false',
    'region': 'uk'
}

# Do the request and get the response data
req = requests.get(GOOGLE_MAPS_API_URL, params=params)
res = req.json()

# Use the first result
result = res['results'][0]

geodata = dict()
geodata['lat'] = result['geometry']['location']['lat']
geodata['lng'] = result['geometry']['location']['lng']
geodata['address'] = result['formatted_address']

print('{address}. (lat, lng) = ({lat}, {lng})'.format(**geodata))
# 221B Baker Street, London, Greater London NW1 6XE, UK. (lat, lng) = (51.5237038, -0.1585531)
  

Just tried RyanKor's solution above (August 2021) ; it worked!
I've re-written his instructions (on adding the Geocoding API to your Google Cloud Platform project, then getting that's project's API key)

To get a google API key:

1. go to Google Cloud Platform ( console.cloud.google.com )
2. Sign up if you haven't already
3. make a new project in the dashboard.
4. in the top centre search bar ('Search products and resources'), search for 'geocoding API'
   Note it's not free, but the cost is very minimal: $6.29 per 1K requests.
5. Hit the 'Enable' button. This will add that API to your project
6. Last, find the API key (in your project, under the API menu on the left, select Credentials, then all your API keys will show up. Scroll right to the Key column, and use copy link to copy your API key.
7. Paste the API key into 'params' for your request.

Here is what a key looks like (note this is not an actual working key; you'll have to get your own):
XIzaCymizrfTr77GlKxYb7BhqQmo5qImd3ZFZto

So params looks like:
params = {'address': 'Mountain View, CA',
'sensor': 'false', 'key': 'XIzaCymizrfTr77GlKxYb7BhqQmo5qImd3ZFZto'}

(There's also an optional 'region' key that I didn't include here)

After adding the key to params:

params = {
'address': '221B Baker Street, London, United Kingdom',
'sensor': 'false',
'region': 'uk',
'key' : 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX'
}

This is what i get from the terminal output:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "c:/Users/Documents/google api key print.py", line 24, in
result = res['results'][0]
IndexError: list index out of range