How to Add Google Reviews to Your Product with an API

There are three ways to add Google reviews to your product with an API. The Google Business Profile APIs give you every review and let you reply, but only for locations your users own or manage, and only after Google approves your project. The Places API returns up to 5 reviews for any public place, with strict display and storage rules. A third-party review API sits on top and gives you Google plus other review sites in one format.

Which one fits depends on a simple question: do your users own the businesses whose reviews you want to show? This guide walks through each option, the rules Google publishes for it, and how to plan an integration for a platform with many locations.

Option 1: Google Business Profile APIs

This is Google's API for businesses and the tools that manage them. It is the only Google option that returns a location's full review list and lets you post replies.

What the reviews endpoints do

Google's review data guide covers listing all reviews for a location, getting one review, getting reviews for several locations in one batch request, and creating, updating or deleting a reply. These methods live under the v4 API at mybusiness.googleapis.com.

The reviews.list reference adds some useful details:

• The call is "only valid if the specified location is verified."
• The maximum page size is 50 reviews, with a page token for the next page.
• Results can be sorted by rating, rating descending or update time descending. The default is update time descending.
• It needs the business.manage OAuth scope.

Who can get access

Access has two layers: your project needs approval, and you need access to each profile.

First, the project. Google's prerequisites page says you request access through the GBP API contact form, using an email address listed as an owner or manager on a business profile. Applicants must "Manage a Google Business Profile that is verified and active for 60+ days" and have a website for that business listed on the profile. The same page says a project with a quota of 0 QPM (queries per minute) is not approved yet, and an approved project shows 300 QPM.

Second, the profiles. Google's Business Profile API FAQ says that even with API access, "you can't query a Google Business Profile data unless you have access to that particular Google Business Profile." Businesses can give a partner access in two ways: through OAuth, where the partner uses the merchant's credentials, or by adding the partner as a manager on the profile. Google recommends partners add themselves as managers, not owners.

Quotas

Google lists its standard quotas on the usage limits page, and suggests spreading requests evenly through the day to avoid quota errors. You can ask for higher limits with a quota increase request. The same page says requests are typically denied if your app doesn't consistently reach its current limit, uses less than half of it on average, or sends traffic in spikes.

Replies and storage rules

Google's Business Profile APIs policies set out rules every platform should read before building:

• If you respond to reviews for a client, "you must receive their authorization first."
• You must not automate or trigger review replies "without the user's prior specific and express consent."
• Replies must follow Google's prohibited and restricted content policies.
• You can't pre-fetch, cache, index or store API content for use outside your project, except limited amounts to improve performance. Stored content must be kept no more than 30 calendar days, stored securely, and not manipulated or aggregated.

For new-review alerts, Google's notifications guide explains that new or updated reviews can be published to a Cloud Pub/Sub topic that you link to each Business Profile account.

Best fit: products where your users own or manage the locations and want to read and reply to their own Google reviews.

Option 2: Places API (New) and Place Details

The Places API is part of Google Maps Platform. It works for any public place, not just ones your users manage.

What you get

You call Place Details (New) with a place ID and a field mask that lists the fields you want. Google's docs say there is no default list of fields, and leaving out the field mask returns an error. The same page lists reviews among the fields that trigger the Place Details Enterprise + Atmosphere SKU, so check pricing for that SKU before you request them.

The Place resource reference describes the reviews field as a "List of reviews about this place, sorted by relevance. A maximum of 5 reviews can be returned." Each review includes the rating, text, publish time and an author attribution with name, profile link and photo.

That limit matters. You get a sample of reviews, not the full history, and you can't page through older ones. The API also has no way to reply.

Display and caching rules

Google's Places API policies include:

• "You must always credit the author when displaying photos or reviews." If space is limited, the minimum for reviews is the author's avatar.
• Each review must link to the original on Google Maps, using the link Google provides.
• You must show a short notice explaining how reviews are ordered and filtered. By default they are ordered by relevance.
• When you show Places data without a Google Map, you must show Google Maps attribution: the Google Maps logo where possible, or the text Google Maps if space is tight.
• You must not pre-fetch, cache or store Places API content beyond the allowed exceptions. The place ID is exempt, so you can store place IDs indefinitely.

Best fit: showing a rating and a handful of recent or relevant reviews for public places on a listing or search page.

Option 3: A third-party review API

Review APIs from third-party providers give you Google reviews alongside other review sites through one integration. Providers differ in how they connect to each site, which sites they cover, how fresh the data is, and whether they can post replies. Ask each vendor:

• Which sites are covered, and how is each one connected?
• Do you get the full review history or only recent reviews?
• How often is data refreshed, and are there webhooks for new reviews?
• Can replies be posted back to Google and other sites, and what permission does the business owner need to give?
• How are reviews normalized across sites?

We cover more of these questions in before you build review integrations.

Best fit: platforms that need Google plus other sites, many locations, and less code to maintain.

How to plan an integration for many locations

Whichever option you pick, a platform with hundreds or thousands of locations runs into the same five problems. Plan for them up front. For the location side of Google, see our guide to managing Google Business Profile for multiple locations.

1. OAuth and permissions

Decide how each business grants access. With the Business Profile APIs, that's OAuth with the business.manage scope or manager access on each profile. Build a clear connect flow, store tokens securely, and handle revoked or expired access. Track which locations are connected so your product only shows a reply button where replies can actually post.

2. Location mapping

Each location in your system needs to map to the right Google location (and, for Places, the right place ID). Chains and franchises make this hard: similar names, moved addresses, duplicate listings. Keep your own location ID as the main key and store the Google identifiers against it.

3. Sync and freshness

Decide how fresh reviews need to be. Use notifications or webhooks for new reviews where you can, and a scheduled sync as a backstop. With the Business Profile APIs, page through results (up to 50 per page), spread calls across the day to stay inside your quota, and follow Google's storage rule: only limited amounts, only to improve performance, for no more than 30 days. With Places, plan to re-fetch reviews rather than store them.

4. Replies

Get each business's authorization before replying for them. Google's policies also say you must not automate or trigger replies without the business's prior, specific and express consent, so get that consent before any automatic replies. Keeping a person in the loop for AI drafts is the simplest way to stay safe. Handle failures: a revoked connection or rejected reply should show up in your product, not fail quietly.

5. Monitoring and other sites

Watch for disconnected locations, quota errors and sync gaps. Plan for the next request: your customers may soon ask for Facebook, Tripadvisor or industry sites too. Each one has its own access model and rules. For the wider picture of managing Google reviews day to day, see our Google review management guide.

For platforms: Google reviews and 80+ other sites through one API

Shout About Us is the review management API for marketplaces and platforms. The Review Data API gives your product reviews and ratings from Google, Yelp, Facebook and 80+ sites in one normalized format: reviewer, site, date, rating, review text and owner response.

Here's how it maps to the problems above, based on our API docs:

• Location mapping: you create accounts and locations through the API and can pass your own IDs, which most endpoints accept in place of ours. A location gets reviews for a site once that site's URL is set.
• Sync and freshness: reviews are collected on your plan's schedule, and the first Google collection usually completes within minutes. Webhooks tell you when a review is collected, updated or deleted, either immediately or in batches every 1 to 12 hours. An updated_since filter supports incremental sync.
• Replies: the Review Response API gives you AI-drafted replies posted to Google through Google's official Business Profile API, plus Facebook and other supported sites, with each business's authorization. Drafts are saved, not posted, until someone posts them. Posting needs the business owner's permission on each site, and each review shows whether posting is available for it.
• Monitoring: webhook events report failed posts and disconnected review pulls or posting connections.

The same API also covers Review Insights, Review Solicitation and Review Removal, with Verified Reviews (first-party reviews) available to approved partners. Pricing is $0.50 to $3.00 per location per month plus usage. The full list of sources is on our supported review sites page.

For the details of how Shout About Us handles Google specifically, including reply posting and removal requests, see our Google Reviews API page.

FAQ

Can I get all Google reviews for any business through Google's API?

Not through one Google API. The Business Profile APIs return a location's reviews only if you have access to that profile. The Places API works for any public place but returns a maximum of 5 reviews.

Do I need Google's approval to use the Business Profile APIs?

Yes. You request access through Google's GBP API contact form. Google's prerequisites page says an approved project shows a quota of 300 QPM, and 0 QPM means it isn't approved yet.

Can I store Google reviews in my database?

Only within Google's rules. You can store limited amounts of Business Profile API content, only to improve performance, for no more than 30 calendar days, securely and without aggregating it. Places API content can't be cached or stored beyond the allowed exceptions, though place IDs can be stored indefinitely.

Can I reply to Google reviews through an API?

Yes, through the Business Profile APIs, for locations you have access to and with the business's authorization. The Places API can't post replies.

Which option should a platform with many locations choose?

If your users manage their own Google profiles and you only need Google, the Business Profile APIs work well. If you only need a few reviews for public places, use Places. If you need Google plus other sites across many locations, a third-party review API saves you building and maintaining each integration.

Get started

See how the Review Data API brings Google reviews and 80+ other sites into your product. Request an API key to try it, or book a demo to talk through your integration.