How to delete a Google review — your own, and what about someone else's
"How do I delete a Google review?" — a question with two completely different answers depending on who's asking. If you wrote the review yourself, deleting is a three-click affair. If you're a business owner who wants someone else's review gone — there is no shortcut, but there is a procedure, and a few expensive misconceptions worth clearing up right away.
Let's take it by role.
Deleting your own review
You've changed your mind, the problem got fixed in the meantime, or you were simply too harsh. Your reviews are part of your Google account and always under your control:
- Open Google Maps and sign in with the account the review was written from.
- Tap your profile picture, then "Your contributions".
- Open the "Reviews" tab and find the one in question.
- From the three-dot menu choose "Delete review" — or "Edit", if you'd rather soften the tone or add an update.
Editing is often smarter than deleting: a review saying "after my complaint they fixed everything, credit where due" is worth more to you and the business than an empty space. Deleting is permanent — a removed review can't be restored.
You're the owner and want someone else's review gone
First, the thing you need to know, however unwelcome: there is no "delete" button for other people's reviews. Not on your profile, not in settings, not on any plan. A review can be removed only by its author — or by Google, and only when it violates Google's content policies.
That leads to two different scenarios:
The review is negative but genuine
An unhappy guest with a real experience is not a policy violation — such a review doesn't get removed, however much it stings. Reporting honest criticism not only fails; it wastes the time you should spend on the thing that works: a calm, specific public reply. A well-answered criticism is often worth more to future guests than another five-star.
The review breaks the rules
Fake, vindictive, written by a competitor or about the wrong business — those are the categories Google removes. The reporting process, the appeal and the realistic timelines are covered in detail in our fake-reviews guide; in short: report from your Business Profile, track the status in Google's reviews tool, appeal if the report is rejected — and be patient, because it takes days, sometimes weeks.
Three misconceptions that cost money
- "We'll pay an agency, they guarantee removal." Nobody outside Google can guarantee a review's removal. Agencies that "guarantee" it either file the same report you can file yourself for free, or use methods that can cost you the whole profile. A removal guarantee is a red flag, not a service.
- "We'll close the profile and the reviews disappear." They don't. Marking a business permanently closed doesn't remove the profile from search, and the reviews stay visible. You lose the channel and keep the ratings — the worst of both worlds.
- "We'll make a new, clean profile." Duplicate profiles of the same business violate Google's rules, confuse guests, and as a rule end up merged — with all the old reviews back in one pile.
What actually moves the rating
If the motive for deleting is your average rating, the maths has better news: a bad review doesn't get erased — it gets diluted. A steady inflow of new, honest ratings from happy guests does exactly what you wanted deletion to do, only legally and permanently; how to start that inflow, we've already covered. And how many new five-stars it takes to lift the average — we've done the arithmetic here.
In short: delete your own review in half a minute; for someone else's, choose between replying (always) and reporting (when the rules are on your side). Everything else is a waste of time — or money.