Can You Delete a Google Review? The Honest Answer
You can delete a Google review you wrote yourself in seconds. A review someone left about your business? Only Google can — here's exactly how it works.
Yes and no — it depends entirely on whose review it is. You can delete a Google review you wrote yourself in about thirty seconds. You cannot delete a review someone else left about your business; only Google can, and only when it breaks one of Google's content policies. Those are two completely different situations, and most of the confusion around deleting a Google review comes from mixing them up.
This guide covers both. If you left a review you regret, the fix is quick and it's below. If a customer left one you wish would disappear, the honest path is longer — but it's the one that actually protects your business.
Deleting a Google review you wrote
This is the easy case. A review belongs to the person who wrote it, and you can remove your own at any time, permanently.
On a computer
- Go to maps.google.com and make sure you're signed in with the account you used to leave the review.
- Open the menu (☰) and select Your contributions, then Reviews.
- Find the review, click the three-dot menu (⋮) beside it, and select Delete review.
- Confirm.
On the Google Maps app
- Open Google Maps and tap your profile icon.
- Tap Your contributions, then Reviews.
- Find the review, tap the three-dot menu (⋮), and choose Delete review.
- Confirm.
One thing to know: deletion is permanent, and you can't recover a deleted review. If you only want to change what you said — say, after a business fixed the problem — use Edit review instead. Editing keeps the review live but updates its content and its date.
Can you delete a review someone left about your business?
No. There is no button, setting, or contact at Google that lets a business owner delete a review of their business. This catches people out constantly, because it feels like it should be possible — it's your listing, after all. But if businesses could delete reviews they didn't like, Google reviews would be meaningless, so the ability simply doesn't exist.
What you actually have are three indirect routes, and only one of them is in your hands:
- Ask the reviewer to remove it. Because the review belongs to them, they can delete it using the steps above. Sometimes, after you've genuinely resolved their complaint, they will.
- Report it to Google. If the review breaches Google's content policies, you can flag it, and Google may take it down.
- Wait for Google's own enforcement. Google's systems remove reviews they detect as fake or policy-breaking, independently of any report.
When Google will remove a review for you
Reporting only works when the review actually violates a policy. A review being negative, unfair, or even wrong is not, by itself, grounds for removal — that's a genuine opinion, and it stays. Google removes reviews that fall into categories like:
| Policy breach | Typical example |
|---|---|
| Fake engagement | A review from someone who was never a customer, including a competitor. |
| Off-topic | A complaint about a different business, or about something unrelated to their experience. |
| Advertising or spam | Promotional content, links, or phone numbers inside the review. |
| Personal information | Naming a staff member or posting private details. |
| Harassment or hate speech | Threats, slurs, or targeted abuse. |
| Profanity or obscenity | Language used to offend rather than inform. |
To report a review: open your Business Profile, find the review, and use the Report option — or use Google's dedicated Reviews Management Tool, which also lets you check the status and appeal once if the review is kept. Evaluation typically takes several days. Reporting the same review repeatedly doesn't help and can hurt.
What to do about the reviews you can't delete
Most negative reviews are real customers describing a real experience, and no amount of reporting will remove them. That isn't the disaster it feels like — because the reviews you can't delete are the ones you can outweigh.
Reply, and reply for the next reader. Your response isn't really aimed at the unhappy reviewer — it's aimed at the next prospect reading the thread. A calm, specific reply that takes responsibility and offers to fix things does more for your reputation than deletion ever would, because prospects judge how you handle problems as a preview of how you'd handle theirs.
Change the arithmetic. One 1-star review against twelve reviews drags your average to about 4.2. The same review against a hundred and twenty barely moves it. The most reliable way to neutralise a bad review isn't removal — it's volume. Businesses that ask every satisfied customer for a review find that individual bad ones stop mattering.
That's the shift worth making: from trying to delete the reviews you can't, to systematically generating the ones you can. It's slower than a delete button, and it's the only approach that actually works — and it's exactly what a tool like Dinopix Reviews is built to do, monitoring every review in one place, drafting replies with AI, and automatically asking your customers for reviews after each job so your average keeps climbing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I delete a Google review without the reviewer knowing?
You can only delete reviews you wrote yourself, and no one is notified when you do. You cannot delete a review someone else left about your business at all — with or without their knowledge. The only way that review comes down is if the reviewer removes it, or Google removes it for a policy breach.
If I delete my Google Business Profile, do the reviews get deleted?
No, and it's a costly mistake. Removing or unverifying your profile does not delete its reviews — the listing and its reviews typically remain visible in Google Search and Maps. You simply lose the ability to reply, report reviews, or manage how your business appears.
How long does it take Google to remove a reported review?
Google states that review evaluation typically takes several days. Reports submitted through the Reviews Management Tool show a status of "decision pending" until they're assessed. Reporting the same review multiple times does not speed up the process.
Can I delete a fake review a competitor left?
Not directly, but you can report it. A review from a competitor who was never a customer falls under Google's fake engagement policy, and one driven by an undisclosed conflict of interest may fall under misrepresentation. Report it citing that policy — but be aware you'll need the review's content to support the claim, as Google won't act on your assertion alone that the person is a competitor.
I deleted my own review by mistake — can I get it back?
No. Deleting a review you wrote is permanent and it can't be recovered. If you want to keep a review live but change what it says, use Edit review instead of deleting it. If you've already deleted it, you'd need to write and post a new review from scratch.
Is it legal to pay someone to delete a bad review?
Paying a reviewer to remove a negative review is a serious risk. It breaches Google's policies on incentivised reviews, and in the United States the FTC's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule and in Australia the Australian Consumer Law both prohibit misleading conduct around reviews, with substantial penalties. The safe approach is to resolve the underlying issue and let the customer decide freely.
Sources
This guide draws on the primary sources below. Regulations change — always check the current version.
