Google Reviews API: Google Business Profile API, limits and how to export Google reviews
There are two official Google review APIs and they do different jobs. The Places API returns a maximum of five reviews for almost any business, and bills under Google's most expensive Places SKU. The Google Business Profile API returns every review for a profile you own and have verified, with no per-call charge, but access is gated behind a manual application. Neither one lets you pull the full review history of a business you do not own. Below is what each API returns, what it costs, what the terms allow you to store, and how to pick.
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Most people searching for a reviews API only want reviews on their own site. That is a script tag, not an integration project.
The distinction that decides everything
Two Google review APIs, and most guides conflate them
Almost every problem people hit with Google review data comes from picking the wrong one of these two. They differ on ownership, depth, price and approval, and the choice is made for you by which business you are asking about.
| Places API | Google Business Profile API | |
|---|---|---|
| Whose reviews | Almost any business listed on Google Maps | Only profiles you own and have verified |
| How many reviews | Maximum of 5. No pagination, no offset, no sort | All of them, including your replies |
| Cost | Billed under the Place Details Enterprise plus Atmosphere SKU, the priciest Places tier | No per-call charge |
| Approval needed | No. Enable the API and use a key | Yes. Manual application, reviewed by Google |
| Can you reply | No | Yes, via reviews.updateReply |
| Can you post a review | No | No. Google blocks this deliberately |
| Use it for | Showing a handful of reviews for a place you do not control | Exporting, reporting and replying across your own locations |
Sources: Google's Places API reference and policies, and the Business Profile API review data and prerequisites documentation. Checked 12 August 2026.
Places API
The five review ceiling, and why it has not moved
This is the limit that sends most developers looking for an alternative, so it is worth being precise about what it is and what it is not.
Google's Places API reference states it directly: a maximum of 5 reviews can be returned. There is no page token for reviews, no offset, and no parameter that sorts the set differently to reach a sixth. Developers have been asking for one publicly since 2015 and the cap has not changed.
The practical effect shows up on cheap review widgets. If a site has been displaying the same five testimonials for two years, it is almost certainly reading Places and there is nothing the vendor can do about it. That is a platform limit, not a product decision.
The reviews field also carries a billing consequence people miss. Asking for reviews moves the request into the Place Details Enterprise plus Atmosphere SKU. Google gives its Enterprise SKUs the smallest monthly free allowance of the three product tiers: 1,000 free calls per SKU per month, against 5,000 for Pro and 10,000 for Essentials. The field that costs the most has the least free headroom, so a busy page that calls Places on every visit gets expensive quickly. Cache what the terms let you cache and never call the API from the browser on page load.
What a Places review object contains
The fields you get back per review, from the Places API reference.
ratinga number between 1.0 and 5.0textthe localized review textoriginalTextthe review in its original languageauthorAttributionreviewer name, avatar and profile linkpublishTimean RFC 3339 timestamprelativePublishTimeDescriptionthe "3 weeks ago" stringgoogleMapsUria link to the review on MapsflagContentUria link to report a problem with itvisitDatewhen the author visited, to year and monthnamethe review's resource identifier
Note there is no reviewer email, no order value and no way to link a review back to a customer record. Attribution data is all you get.
Google Business Profile API
Every review you own, once Google lets you in
This is the API that actually answers the question most people are asking. The catch is not the code, it is the application.
| Endpoint | What it does |
|---|---|
| accounts.locations.reviews.list | Lists all reviews of a location, which is the endpoint behind any bulk review audit |
| accounts.locations.reviews.get | Returns one specific review |
| accounts.locations.batchGetReviews | Returns reviews from multiple locations in a single request, the one that matters for multi-location brands |
| accounts.locations.reviews.updateReply | Publishes or updates your reply to a review, via HTTP PUT |
What Google requires before it will approve you
- A Google Cloud Console project
- An organization account, not a personal one
- A Business Profile that is verified and has been active for at least 60 days
- A website that represents the business on the profile
- A submitted access request describing your use case
Google says a follow-up email is sent after the request has been reviewed. The 60 day requirement is the one that catches new businesses, and there is no way to shorten it.
How to check whether you were approved
You do not have to wait for the email. Open the quota page for the API in your Google Cloud Console and read the queries per minute figure:
This is the single most useful thing to know while an application is pending, and it is barely mentioned outside Google's own prerequisites page.
Limits worth knowing before you build
Four things no Google review API will do
Each of these sends a steady stream of teams down a path that ends in a rewrite or a terms problem. They are all documented, just not in one place.
Post a review programmatically
Reviews can only be created by Google users through Google Search or Google Maps. Google blocks API creation deliberately, to stop automated review submission. Any service offering to place reviews for you is operating outside that, and buying reviews also breaks Google's prohibited content policy on incentives.
Pull a competitor's full review history
Places gives you five reviews of any business and Business Profile gives you everything for businesses you own. There is no overlap where you get everything for a business you do not own. Scraping the rest from Maps breaks the Maps Platform terms, which prohibit exporting or scraping Maps content.
Store Places review text forever
Place IDs are explicitly exempt from Google's caching restrictions and can be stored indefinitely. Review content is not exempt and falls under the caching limits in the Maps Platform terms. Teams who build a reviews table off Places and let it age are usually out of compliance without realizing it.
Display reviews without attribution
Google's policies state you must always credit the author when displaying photos or reviews, using the avatar, name and profile link where space allows. Users must be able to open the original review on Google Maps, and you must include a clear notice describing how reviews are ordered or filtered.
Pick the route by the job
Which option fits what you are actually trying to do
Four different jobs get filed under the same search. Three of them do not need an API at all, which is worth knowing before you spend a sprint on one.
| What you want to do | Best route | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Show your Google reviews on your website | A widget | No approval, no key, no caching problem, and attribution is handled for you. This covers most of the demand behind the search. |
| Export your reviews to a spreadsheet | Business Profile API, or a platform that exports CSV | There is no export button in the Business Profile dashboard that produces a review file. |
| Report on reviews across many locations | Business Profile API, batchGetReviews |
One request across locations, instead of one call per store. |
| Get alerted when a bad review lands | Review monitoring software | Polling an API on a schedule and routing alerts is the whole product. Building it is rarely cheaper than buying it. |
| Show reviews for a place you do not own | Places API | The only option, and you get five reviews, billed on the Enterprise SKU. |
Where ReviewJet fits
Skip the integration if all you needed was reviews on a page
Being straight about this: if you are building a data pipeline, you want Google's API and this page is here to save you a week of reading. If you are not, you probably never needed one.
Display without a build
Google, G2, Trustpilot and direct reviews render from a script tag, with review schema for SEO. No API key, no quota, no 60 day waiting period, and none of the caching questions above become yours.
Collection, which no API offers
Neither Google API can ask a customer for a review, because Google blocks programmatic review creation. Automated email and SMS request sequences are the only legitimate way to grow the number of reviews you have.
Export when you need the data
CSV import and export plus API access are included on the Pro plan, so review data can leave the platform for a spreadsheet or a reporting tool. Pricing is flat per account rather than per location.
One honest caveat: if your requirement is genuinely a warehouse feed with your own transformation layer, a review platform is a detour and you should go and get Business Profile API access. Start the application early, because the 60 day profile age requirement is not something you can work around later.
Questions people ask
Google Reviews API questions, answered
Keep reading
Related Google review pages
How to export Google reviews
Every route out, from the Business Profile API to Takeout, and which ones produce a usable CSV.
Google reviews widget for website
The no-code route: reviews on your own pages without an API key or a quota.
Can I use Google reviews on my website?
The permission, copyright and attribution questions answered properly.
Reviews aggregator
Pulling Google, G2 and Trustpilot into one feed instead of integrating each separately.
Reputation monitoring software
What polling review APIs on a schedule looks like when you buy it rather than build it.
How to respond to Google reviews
What updateReply publishes, and what to actually write in it.
Reviews on your site without an API project
Google, G2, Trustpilot and direct reviews in one widget, with collection sequences that grow the number you have. Flat pricing from $24 a month, no per location multiplier.
From $24/mo, billed yearly. No per-review fees.