How to edit or delete a Google review you wrote

The short answer

Editing and deleting a Google review use the same few steps in Google Maps:

1. Open Google Maps, signed in to the account you reviewed with. Only that account can change the review.
2. Go to your reviews. On a phone: Contribute, View your profile, See all reviews. On a computer: Menu, Your contributions, Reviews.
3. Tap More next to the review. It sits next to each review in the list.
4. Choose Edit review or Delete review. Then follow the steps on screen.
5. Expect the date to change if you edit. Google shows the date of your last edit as the review's post date.

If you want to remove a review someone else wrote about your business, that's a different process: see how to remove Google reviews.

How do you find the Google reviews you've written?

Every review you post is listed on your Google Maps profile, so you don't need to search for each business again. Here is where the list lives on each device, according to Google's help pages:

From the same list you can share a review: Google puts a Share button at the bottom of each one.

Looking for the reviews customers left about your business instead? Those are on your Business Profile: Google's help page Manage customer reviews says to go to your Business Profile and select Read reviews.

How do you edit a Google review on an iPhone or Android phone?

The steps are the same in the Google Maps app on both:

1. Open the Google Maps app.
2. Tap Contribute, then View your profile.
3. Scroll and tap See all reviews.
4. Next to the review you want to change, tap More.
5. Tap Edit review, change the text, stars or photos, and follow the steps on screen to save.

Sources: Google Maps Help, Add, edit, or delete Google Maps reviews & ratings (iPhone & iPad) and the same article for Android.

How do you edit a Google review on a computer?

1. Open Google Maps in your browser, signed in.
2. At the top left, click Menu.
3. Click Your contributions, then Reviews.
4. Next to the review you want to change, click More.
5. Select Edit review and follow the steps on screen.

Source: Google Maps Help, Add, edit, or delete Google Maps reviews & ratings (computer).

How do you delete a Google review you wrote?

Follow the same path as editing and pick the other option. Open your list of reviews (on a phone, Contribute, View your profile, See all reviews; on a computer, Menu, Your contributions, Reviews), tap More next to the review, and choose Delete review.

Google says your review shows on Google Maps until you take it down. Its help page doesn't mention a way to undo a deletion, so our advice is to treat it as permanent. If you're only unhappy with part of what you wrote, editing is usually the better choice.

What happens when you edit or delete a review?

Here is what Google documents, and where it is silent:

• An edited review shows a new date. Google says the date of your last edit appears as the review's post date, so readers see when you last changed it rather than when you first wrote it.
• You can change everything you posted. Google says you can edit the review or change the rating and pictures after it's published.
• Customers can edit after the owner replies. Google's Manage customer reviews page tells business owners that customers can still change their review after reading the reply, and that the date then updates to the latest change.
• Google doesn't say what happens to the owner's reply. Its help pages don't describe whether an owner's reply stays under an edited review, or what happens to it when the review is deleted.

Can't find the review or the Edit option?

Work through these in order:

1. Check which account you're signed in to. Only the account that posted the review can change it. If you have a personal and a work Google account, switch and look again.
2. Check that the review is still live. Google removes reviews for policy reasons such as spam, and says it doesn't restore them. New reviews can also take a few days to appear while Google checks them (see About missing or delayed reviews). Our guide to Google reviews not showing covers both.
3. Check that it's a Google review. Google says Business Profiles can show reviews from other, non-Google sites. A review you wrote on another site has to be edited on that site.
4. Update the Google Maps app. Google recommends it for customers who have trouble leaving reviews on older phones, and it's worth doing before anything else on a phone.

Can you delete a Google review someone else wrote?

No. Google's help page is direct about it: you can't contact the person who wrote a review or delete their review yourself. What you can do is report it to Google, and Google removes reviews that break its policies.

If you own the business, you report it from your Business Profile, and you can appeal once if Google keeps it up. Our guides on how to remove Google reviews and fake Google reviews walk through both.

For business owners: how do you ask a customer to update a review?

Sometimes a bad review describes a problem you then fix: the faulty part is replaced, the order is refunded, the rude call is apologized for. At that point it's fair to let the customer know, and to mention that they can update their review if they want to.

What Google allows

Asking is allowed. Paying is not. Google's prohibited and restricted content policy says businesses may not offer incentives, "such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services", in exchange for "revision or removal of a negative review". That rules out "we'll refund you if you take the review down". Fix the problem because it's the right thing to do, and keep it completely separate from the review.

How to ask (our advice)

• Reply publicly first. A calm reply under the review shows future readers you took it seriously, whatever the customer does next. Our guide on how to respond to Google reviews covers negative ones.
• Fix it before you mention the review. Ask only once the customer agrees the problem is solved.
• Ask once, and make no a fine answer. Don't suggest a rating or wording; Google's policy also says businesses shouldn't request specific content.
• Make it easy. Send a link to this page so they don't have to work out where the Edit button is.

Two messages you can copy. Replace the words in [brackets]:

Low-star reviews are the ones worth answering most carefully. Mekomi's AI review replies draft a reply to every new review, and every 1 to 3 star review, or any review with a complaint, waits for your approval before anything is posted.