Google Flights vs. Expedia: Which Is Better for Finding Cheap Flights in 2025?

If you’ve spent any time hunting for airfare in 2025, you’ll understand the struggle: There are a lot of places to look. Two of the biggest players—Google Flights and Expedia—often show up in the search bar first, but they work in very different ways. One is a powerful search engine built for exploring cheap fares across dozens of airlines. The other is a full-service online travel agency (OTA) that lets you book flights, hotels, cars, and packages all in one place.

The real question travelers ask (and the one you’re probably here for): Which one actually finds the cheapest flights? And more importantly, which one should you use?

We’ll break it down for you here. 

Why compare Google Flights and Expedia?

Because not all flight search tools are created equal.

Travelers often assume Google Flights and Expedia pull the same prices from the same sources, but that’s not quite the case. Google Flights is a search aggregator. It scans airline sites and OTAs (including sites like Expedia, Skyscanner, and Kayak) to show you fares. It doesn’t sell tickets itself. Expedia, on the other hand, does sell tickets, often bundling in its own pricing rules, payment options, and customer service.

That difference matters. It affects:

• The price you see
• The policies attached to your ticket
• How easy it is to change or cancel a flight
• What tools are available to help surface the lowest fares

So while both can help you score a deal, they serve different purposes depending on how you like to search and book.

What is Google Flights?

Google Flights has become the go-to tool for travelers looking for speed, transparency, and flexibility. It’s not an OTA. It’s a search engine that searches the web for flights across airlines and OTAs and shows you all the options. Then, it sends you to airlines or partner sites when you’re ready to book.

How Google Flights works

Google Flights pulls prices directly from airlines and third-party booking sites. You enter your dates and destination (or use the Explore map to browse), and Google Flights returns available fares, filters, and calendar views. Booking through Google Flights doesn’t exist, so once you choose a flight, Google Flights sends you to the airline or a booking site to complete your reservation. 

Key features and benefits

This is where Google Flights shines. Travelers rely on it for:

• Industry-leading price tracking: You can track any route or specific flight and get alerts when fares drop.
• Explore map: Plug in your dates or leave them flexible, and let Google show you where the deals are worldwide.
• Powerful filters: Baggage, layovers, airlines, flight times, emissions, alliances—you name it.
• Fast, transparent search: Google Flights updates faster than most OTAs and shows “typical prices” so you know if a fare is low or high.
• Calendar and date-grid views: One of the easiest ways available to find the cheapest travel dates.
• Price guarantees on some routes: Some flights booked through Google’s partner OTAs may include a guarantee, but this feature appears only occasionally.

In short, using Google Flights for cheap flights is one of the most reliable combinations in travel planning today.

Pros and cons of Google Flights

Pros of Google Flights

• Incredible flexibility for searching and comparing airfare
• Best-in-class calendar tools for spotting the cheapest dates
• Price alerts and historical price comparisons
• Directs you to book with airlines, which usually leads to smoother customer service
• Fast and intuitive

Cons of Google Flights

• You can’t actually book flights through Google Flights directly
• Not every airline appears (some small carriers are missing)
• Occasional mismatch between displayed prices and what airlines show at checkout (“ghost fares”)
• No loyalty points, bundles, or special OTA perks

Google Flights is ideal for exploring, comparing, and deciding—less so for booking itself.

What is Expedia?

Expedia is one of the largest online travel agencies in the world. Unlike Google Flights, it’s not just a search tool. It’s a full booking platform for flights, hotels, rental cars, cruises, and vacation packages.

How Expedia works

Expedia negotiates rates with airlines and travel providers. When you search on Expedia, you’re seeing fares it pulls from airline systems plus any promotions, bundles, or OTA-specific prices it has access to.

When you book on Expedia, the ticket is issued by Expedia—not the airline—which means you deal with Expedia for support, changes, or cancellations.

Key features and benefits

Expedia is attractive for travelers who want convenience and bundled savings. Key perks include:

• Expedia Rewards/One Key program: Earn points on flights (usually small), hotels (more substantial), and packages.
• Customer service: All booking management goes through Expedia.
• Bundled deals: Flights + hotels can lead to major discounts.
• Flexible payment options: Buy now, pay later options through Affirm or Klarna.
• Expedia cheap flights deals: Occasionally Expedia offers promo code discounts, partner deals, or sales that airlines don’t publish directly. 

Pros and cons of Expedia

Pros of Expedia

• Book flights, hotels, cars, and packages in one place
• Access to OTA-exclusive promotions and bundles
• Rewards points that can be redeemed for hotels or activities
• Customer service intermediates with airlines on your behalf
• Useful for multi-leg or multi-city itineraries with different airlines

Cons of Expedia

• Customer service varies widely in quality
• Change/cancel rules can be stricter than airline policies
• Some fares may be “Basic OTA fares” with more restrictions
• Refunds can take longer
• Sometimes more expensive than booking directly with the airline

Expedia can be great for booking, but it’s not always the best for searching and finding the best flight deal.

Google Flights vs Expedia: Key differences

Both Google Flights and Expedia can help you save money, but they approach airfare very differently.

Pricing comparison

Travelers are often surprised to learn:

Google Flights doesn’t set prices. It simply shows what airlines and OTAs are selling.

Expedia helps set the prices you see. It uses negotiated rates, algorithmic adjustments, and OTA taxes/fees.

So which one is cheaper? Most of the time, Google Flights helps you find the cheapest fare because it scans multiple airlines and OTAs at once. Expedia can sometimes offer cheaper fares, especially when you’re dealing with bundle deals, OTA discount codes, certain partner airlines, hotel + flight packages, and flash sales—but Expedia can also show higher prices than the airline on occasion.

When it comes purely to surfacing the lowest base fare, Google Flights usually wins. When it comes to packaged savings or promotions, Expedia has the edge.

Ease of booking and customer service

Google Flights:

• Sends you to airlines to book, which is better for after-booking help
• Airlines typically offer more reliable customer service
• There are fewer restrictions and clearer refund policies when you book directly through the airline

Expedia:

• Handles everything, which can be helpful, but the quality of that support can be hit or miss
• Some Expedia-issued tickets have extra restrictions
• Changes can require long customer service waits

If you value smooth post-booking support, find the lowest fare on Google Flights, then book directly through the airline. 

Want to learn everything about using Google Flights to find great deals? Check out our full guide to Google Flights.

Extra tools and flexibility

The tools and flexibility is where Google Flights dominates. 

Expedia does offer tools that Google Flights doesn’t, such as loyalty points, bundled savings, package deals, and pay-later options. But for pure fare-finding flexibility, Google Flights is unmatched.

Which platform is best for your travel style?

Different tools work best for different travelers. Here’s how to choose.

When to use Google Flights

Use Google Flights when you want to:

• Find the cheapest dates to travel
• Compare multiple airlines at once
• Track prices over time
• Understand if a fare is unusually cheap or expensive
• Search multiple destinations simultaneously
• Avoid restrictions common with third-party bookings
• Book directly with airlines for better support

If your goal is strictly finding a great deal, Google Flights is the clear winner.

When to use Expedia

Expedia is the better choice when you want:

• A flight + hotel package deal
• To save with an OTA-only promo
• To earn or redeem Expedia/One Key rewards
• Pay-later options
• Customer service that handles everything for you
• To book multiple travel components in one cart

Expedia cheap flights can be a real win when an airline participates in a sale or promotion that isn’t available on its own website.

How to combine both for the best deals

Here’s the thing, though: The smartest travelers in 2025 don’t pick one. They use both strategically, and even tack on other money-saving hacks, like using Going to set flight alerts and help find flight deals to destinations they’ve never considered.

Here’s the optimal process:   

1. Start with Google Flights or Going to find the cheapest dates and airlines.
2. Check the airline’s website to see if the same fare is available directly. (Most of the time, it is—and with fewer restrictions.)
3. Then check Expedia. Compare prices on the same itinerary. See if a bundle discount or promo code makes the total cheaper. Check if you’ll earn any rewards on the booking.
4. Book where the value is best. This is not necessarily the lowest price. Sometimes better policies matter more.

This approach maximizes your ability to spot true deals and avoid headaches later.

Conclusion

Google Flights and Expedia are great tools, but they still rely on you knowing where to look. Going takes a different approach. Our flight-finding technology and team of travel experts watch prices around the clock and send you the rare deals you’d never uncover by searching manually, including mistake fares, flash sales, international steals, and the lowest prices from your home airport.

With the Going app, you get instant alerts on the best deals from your airports, direct-to-airline booking links, and handpicked itineraries that cut through the noise. Use Google Flights to explore, Expedia to book when it makes sense—but use Going to discover the deals you didn’t even know to search for.