Can you offer a discount for a Google review?

The short answer: no

Google's review policy is blunt about this: you may not offer anything of value in exchange for a review. A discount, a free side dish, an entry into a prize draw, a coupon for next time, cash — the moment "write a review" is tied to "get something", the line has been crossed.

Plenty of owners think: I never asked them to lie, they really were happy, I am only saying thank you. That is a reasonable instinct, but Google is not policing whether the content is true. It is policing whether the motive behind the review has been contaminated by a transaction. Once a benefit is attached, the review stops counting as spontaneous.

What exactly Google prohibits

• A discount, free food, a gift or loyalty points in exchange for a review
• Entry into a prize draw for writing one
• Paying staff a bonus, or counting reviews towards their targets
• Buying reviews, or swapping them with another business
• Reviews written by family, friends or staff on their own accounts
• Asking whether the customer was happy first, and only handing the QR code to the happy ones

That last one catches the most people out. It has a name - review gating - and while it feels merely shrewd, Google lists it explicitly as a violation, because it distorts the rating systematically.

What happens if you are caught, and who pays

This part matters: the consequences land on your own Google Business Profile, not on whoever helped you do it.

1. The reviews get removed in bulk. You may wake up dozens down, with no notice.
2. The profile gets restricted: reviews switched off, photos blocked, visibility on the map reduced.
3. For serious or repeated cases, the account is suspended. Appeals take months, and in the meantime you are effectively off the map.

A service provider can change domain and carry on. You have exactly one Google listing. Which is why any arrangement that keeps the revenue and hands you the risk is a bad deal.

This is federal law now, not just a platform rule

Plenty of owners file this under "Google's rules" and assume the worst case is losing some reviews. In the United States that reading is out of date.

The Federal Trade Commission finalised its Consumer Review Rule (16 CFR Part 465) in late 2024, making several practices unlawful outright, among them:

• Buying or selling fake reviews
• Offering anything of value in exchange for a review with a particular sentiment
• Soliciting reviews only from people expected to leave favourable ones - the review gating described above

The rule carries civil penalties of up to $51,744 per violation. Enforcement began in late 2025, and businesses have been receiving warning letters.

What matters here: this runs independently of Google's own penalties, and both can land at once. Google removing your reviews and restricting your profile does nothing to settle the FTC side, and vice versa.

So "worst case, I lose some reviews" gets the arithmetic wrong twice: it underrates the platform side (see Google Business Profile suspended? What to do for what a suspension actually costs) and leaves the federal side out entirely.

This is background, not legal advice. For your own situation, talk to a lawyer.

So what can you actually do

Quite a lot, and it works about as well. What these all have in common: they lower the effort, they do not change the intent.

• Ask, in person, with no strings. Just "if today was alright, would you mind saying so on Google?"
• Pick the moment. Right after someone says "that was great" beats a text message two days later.
• Shorten the path. A QR code at the till, on the table, on the takeaway bag, so nobody has to search for your name.
• Help them find the words. Most people are not unwilling - they are staring at an empty box.
• Treat every customer the same. Same code, same sentence, happy or not.

No QR code yet? Our free Google review link generator will produce one from your Maps link. No signup.

One sentence that settles any case

Are you changing how easy it is to write, or whether they write and what they say?

The first is fine. The second is not. Test anything against it:

• QR code on a table tent → changes the effort → fine
• A free coffee afterwards → changes whether they write → not fine
• Helping a customer put their own thoughts into words, which they then edit and post → changes the effort → fine
• Writing it for them, or posting on their behalf → changes what is said → not fine
• Only handing the code to happy customers → changes who writes → not fine

If a company offers to remove your bad reviews

That is against the rules. Google does not accept review removal as a service, and no provider has the power to delete somebody else's review. All they can do is walk through the same reporting process you can walk through yourself - and You got a one-star note. Now what? Paying does not raise the success rate.

More to the point: if they start filing bulk reports or inventing grounds to make something happen, it is your account that answers for it, not theirs.

Where this leaves you

Playing by the rules sounds like a constraint. It is mostly a saving. The gain from breaking them is one-off; the cost keeps coming. Lowering the effort is slower, but the reviews it earns do not vanish overnight.

One thing you can do today: settle on the sentence you will use, and pin it up by the till for staff to read. No tool, no budget needed. If you then want that last step to be shorter, set up a free QR code - the first three at each location are on us.