In brief
Waze does not support a complete route with several intermediate stops. Its current help documentation allows one stop before the final destination. For a longer itinerary, plan the full stop order elsewhere, then open each Waze leg in sequence. Waze Planned Drives also schedules only a destination, not a multi-stop itinerary.
How many stops can you add in Waze?
You can add one intermediate stop to a Waze route. The stop sits before the final destination. If you need another stop after that, Waze says to start a new drive.
That limit appears in the current Waze instructions for adding a stop. It applies to the normal phone workflow, while the help page also documents how the same single-stop action appears in Android Auto, Android Automotive, and CarPlay.
| Feature | Current behavior | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Intermediate stops | One per route | A longer trip must be split into separate drives |
| Final destination | One | The intermediate stop is visited first |
| Planned Drives | One scheduled destination | It does not store a multi-stop itinerary |
| Live Map | No added stop | Adding a stop is not supported there |
How to add a stop in Waze
The exact labels can vary slightly by platform, but the phone workflow is straightforward.
Start the route to your final destination
Search for the final destination, view the route, and begin the drive.
Open the route controls
Tap the ETA panel at the bottom of the Waze screen, then choose Add a stop.
Choose the intermediate place
Search for a place or use a suggested category such as food, fuel, or parking.
Confirm the updated drive
Waze places the new stop before the original destination. After reaching it, the route continues to the final destination.
Planned Drives are not multi-stop routes
Waze Planned Drives solve a different problem. They let you choose a destination and arrival time, then receive a reminder based on expected traffic and your location.
The Waze Planned Drives documentation explicitly says a stop can be added before or during a drive, but not while planning it. A planned drive is therefore useful for deciding when to leave for one destination. It is not a saved sequence of lunch, coffee, sightseeing, and hotel stops.
The practical workaround for several stops
For a trip with several stops, keep one ordered itinerary outside Waze and treat every pair of places as a separate leg:
- Decide the complete stop order before departure.
- Open the first stop in Waze and navigate there.
- When you arrive, open the next stop as a new Waze drive.
- Repeat until the final destination.
This approach preserves Waze for live navigation without asking it to store a route format it does not support. The important part is keeping the next address and the remaining order easy to reach, so the driver is not rebuilding the plan at every stop.
How Ownway works with Waze
Ownway is being built around the same leg-by-leg constraint. It keeps the ordered itinerary in Ownway. During an active Waze Companion trip, arrival at each planned point, including route-shaping points, prepares a notification for the next leg. The driver taps that notification to open Waze.
It does not import a complete multi-stop itinerary into Waze, and it does not open the next leg without the driver's action. Ownway handles the plan; Waze handles each live navigation leg.
For the broader differences, see Apple Maps vs Google Maps vs Waze for multi-stop road trips.
If the itinerary itself is not ready yet, start with the route-first multi-stop road trip workflow.
Frequently asked questions
- Can Waze optimize several stops?
- No. Waze currently accepts one intermediate stop per route, so there is no complete multi-stop list for it to reorder or optimize.
- Can I add a stop to a Waze Planned Drive?
- Not while scheduling it. Waze says a stop can be added before or during the actual drive.
- Does Waze Companion put all stops into Waze?
- No. Ownway's Waze Companion keeps the itinerary in Ownway and prepares each Waze leg as the trip progresses.
Sources
- Add a stop to your routeWaze Help · Accessed August 14, 2026
- Plan a driveWaze Help · Accessed August 14, 2026