Google Maps places API to only return cities?

This is an old question, but the accepted answer is not correct for the specific question.

The correct argument for the types parameter to return only cities is (cities). So the complete URL would be:

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/autocomplete/json?input=green%20lanes&types=(cities)&key= API_KEY_HERE

You can see more information here. Also, I omitted the sensor parameter since it's not needed anymore.

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/autocomplete/json?input=green%20lanes&types=geocode&sensor=false&types=regions&key=API KEY HERE

should be

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/autocomplete/json?input=green%20lanes&sensor=false&types=(regions)&key=API KEY HERE

ZERO RESULTS, because regions does not search for street name:

the (regions) type collection instructs the Place service to return any result matching the following types: locality sublocality postal_code country administrative_area1 administrative_area2