Google Reviews API in 2026: What It Costs, the 5-Review Limit, and the No-Code Alternative
The Google reviews API is not one product that returns every review for every business. Google provides a Places API for place information about any business and a Business Profile API for locations that you manage. Their review access is different.
Places API (New) returns no more than 5 reviews for a place. The Business Profile API can return all reviews for a managed location, but it is not a competitor-research API. You must control an eligible profile and receive approval.
The right path therefore depends on the question. Use Places when a small relevant sample is enough. Use Business Profile when you need the full review history for your own locations. Use a third-party service or a browser workflow when you need public reviews from a business you do not manage.
Two APIs, two different jobs
Places API for any business
Places API describes places that appear in Google Maps. A Place Details request can include the place name, address, rating, review count and a small review sample. The rating field ranges from 1.0 to 5.0. The userRatingCount field is the total number of ratings, including ratings that have no review text.
The review array is not a paginated archive. Places API (New) returns a maximum of 5 reviews and sorts them by relevance. The legacy Place Details service also returns up to 5 reviews. Its sorting options are most relevant or newest, but changing the order does not increase the cap.
This API suits maps, discovery and place-detail features where a few representative reviews provide context. It does not suit a dataset that needs every review for a business.
Business Profile API for your own locations
Business Profile API review methods are for locations that you manage. They return all reviews for an eligible managed location and use OAuth 2.0 credentials. The batchGetReviews method paginates with pageSize and pageToken.
This API suits a business responding to feedback, consolidating reviews from its own locations or feeding an internal reporting system. It does not grant access to a competitor's full history merely because that history is visible in Google Maps.
The ownership boundary is the key distinction. Places answers “what summary data can an app show about this place?” Business Profile answers “what review data can this approved manager retrieve for locations it controls?”
Places API: the 5-review limit and the price
In Places API (New), reviews belong to the Place Details Enterprise + Atmosphere SKU. That SKU includes fields such as reviews and editorial summaries. It also includes atmosphere fields unrelated to reviews, so the billable tier is determined by the field mask, not just the endpoint name.
| Place Details tier | Price per 1,000 requests | Free requests per month | Volume price shown |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials | $5.00 | 10,000 | Down to $0.38 |
| Pro | $17.00 | 5,000 | Down to $1.28 |
| Enterprise | $20.00 | 1,000 | Down to $1.51 |
| Enterprise + Atmosphere | $25.00 | 1,000 | Down to $2.28 |
If you request the reviews field, the relevant listed price is $25.00 per 1,000 Place Details Enterprise + Atmosphere requests. The monthly free amount is 1,000 requests. Lower Place Details tiers cost less, but they do not make the reviews field a lower-tier field.
The 5-review cap applies per place response. Paying for more Place Details calls does not expose later pages of reviews for that same place. Repeating a request is not a method for enumerating the full review history.
Cost and completeness are separate questions. A Places request may be affordable for showing a relevant sample in an application, yet still be unsuitable for sentiment analysis because the sample is small and relevance-sorted.
Use a narrow field mask when the application only needs place identity or rating summary fields. Adding reviews moves the request to the Enterprise + Atmosphere SKU. Separate requests do not create a hidden review pagination path. They create more billable Place Details calls while the response still carries no more than 5 reviews.
Before implementation, write down whether the product needs a sample, a total rating count or the underlying review text. A map card may need only a rating and userRatingCount. A research export needs review text across the relevant history. Those are different data requirements, and only the first one fits comfortably inside a basic place-details workflow.
Business Profile API: all reviews, only your profiles
Business Profile API can return all reviews for a location you manage. Access requires an approved Google Cloud project and OAuth 2.0 credentials. You apply through the Google Business Profile API contact form and provide the Cloud project number.
Google's prerequisites say the applicant must manage a verified Business Profile that has been active for more than 60 days and has a website. Approval is therefore an eligibility step, not a toggle available to every new Cloud project.
Approved projects receive a default quota of 300 queries per minute for the Business Information API and the other Business Profile APIs. Edits are limited to 10 per minute per profile. The review retrieval workflow should paginate results and store the next page token until no further page remains.
This access can support an internal dashboard for owned locations. It can also support review response and analysis workflows tied to the managed account. It should not be presented as a general Google Places API reviews feed because the ownership and approval requirements are fundamental.
What this means for research
You cannot pull a competitor's full review history through Google's official APIs. Places returns a maximum of 5 relevant reviews. Business Profile can return the full set only for locations you manage.
That limitation changes how you design a study. A Places sample can illustrate what Google considers relevant, but it cannot support a claim about the distribution of every review. The total rating count helps describe volume, but it does not provide the missing review text.
Document the source of each field in the final dataset. A place rating and total count can come from Places, while a complete owned-location review set can come from Business Profile. Mixing those sources without labels can make a small relevance sample look like a complete history.
If you need all public reviews for a business you do not own, the available routes are a third-party scraper API or a browser tool that reads the public Google Maps review interface. DataForSEO, SerpApi and Bright Data are examples of third-party routes. Their current prices were not verified for this guide, so no price comparison is included.
For any route, collect the smallest dataset that answers the research question. Keep the source URL and collection context. Avoid treating reviewer names or profiles as a product for resale. A review dataset can contain personal information even when the source page is public.
The no-code way: scrape Google Maps reviews in your browser
A browser extension is the direct no-code option when the reviews are visible in Google Maps and you need a file for analysis. Open the review list, let the page display the records and run the supported extension in that browser session.
Reddit Comment Scraper also supports Google Maps reviews. It exports supported review records to CSV or JSON without a Google API key. Google Maps support is included in the Starter plan, which costs $49 a month or $399 a year.
Starter also includes Reddit, YouTube, Amazon, Facebook post comments, Etsy, Steam, Quora, Hacker News and Product Hunt, plus the Adlicio web app and the Claude connector. It does not support Instagram or TikTok.
This workflow is manual. It is suited to a researcher who can open a business review page and wants a spreadsheet. It is not a substitute for an approved Business Profile integration that must sync owned locations on a schedule.
A browser workflow also does not change the need to respect platform terms and use review data responsibly. Test a representative business page before planning a large collection job, and check that the exported fields match the analysis you intend to run.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Places API return all reviews?
No. Places API (New) returns a maximum of 5 reviews for a place, sorted by relevance. Legacy Place Details also returns up to 5. It is useful for a small review sample, not a complete history.
Is the Google reviews API free?
Google Maps Platform uses billable SKUs with monthly free request amounts. The Place Details Enterprise + Atmosphere SKU that includes reviews costs $25.00 per 1,000 requests and includes 1,000 free requests per month. Business Profile API access requires approval for an eligible profile.
Can I export my own Google reviews?
Yes. The Business Profile API can return all reviews for a location you manage. It uses OAuth 2.0 and paginates results with pageSize and pageToken. Access requires approval, and the business profile must meet Google's eligibility requirements. See the Google reviews export guide for other methods.
Is scraping Google reviews allowed?
Public reviews are commonly collected for internal research, but access method and use still matter. Review Google's current terms, collect only what you need, avoid reselling personal data and get legal advice for a high-risk or commercial use case.