Free tool
How many reviews do you need?
Put in where you are and where you want to be. You get the number of 5-star reviews between the two, and roughly how long that takes. Free, nothing saved, no sign-up.
The number under your name on Google, like 4.1
Google shows this next to your rating
48 more five star reviews
takes 4.1 to 4.5 across 60 reviews. Today a one star review costs you 0.1; by then it would not move your rating at all.
| Reviews a week | Time to get there |
|---|---|
| 1 | 48 weeks, about 11 months |
| 3 | 16 weeks, about 4 months |
| 5 | 10 weeks, about 2 months |
This is your own arithmetic, not a forecast: the average of the reviews you have with the reviews you would add. We count the true average rather than the rounded one, so the figure never leaves you a review short. Nothing here is sent anywhere or saved.
Ready to start collecting them? Get your review link. It opens the star box straight away, so asking takes one message.
Why the number is bigger than people expect
A rating is an average, so every review you already have is holding it in place. A shop with 30 reviews at 4.0 needs 30 more 5-star reviews to reach 4.5. A shop with 300 reviews at 4.0 needs 300. The work is not harder for the bigger shop. There is simply ten times more of it.
That cuts the other way too, and it is the better half of the news. A single 1-star review takes 0.1 off a listing with 30 reviews and nothing at all off one with 300. Reviews are not only how you climb; they are what stops one bad evening from mattering.
Why 5.0 is not a target
Once a listing holds one review below five stars, the average can get close to 5.0 and never reach it. Shops that show a perfect 5.0 usually have very few reviews, which customers read as easily as you do. Between a 5.0 from 7 reviews and a 4.6 from 300, the second is the one people trust.
Getting there without breaking Google’s rules
The number above assumes 5-star reviews from real customers who came in and were happy. There is no other kind worth having, and the shortcuts are what get listings suspended:
- offering a discount, freebie or anything else in return for a review
- asking only the customers you expect to be happy
- writing reviews yourself, or asking staff or family to
Ask everybody, the same way, every time. That is both the rule and the thing that actually works, because the reviews you get that way stay up.
The part most shops get stuck on
Almost nobody refuses to leave a review. They mean to, then they are in the car, and the moment is gone. Asking while the customer is still standing in front of you is the whole game, and it needs the star box to open in one step, not a Maps listing they have to scroll through.
- Get your review link. It opens the star box straight away, so a WhatsApp message after a visit takes one tap to act on. Find yours free.
- Put it where the customer already is. A plate on the counter they tap with their phone, while they are still there and still pleased. See how it works.
- Reply to the ones you get. It is the one signal you control that costs nothing. Draft a reply.
Is this accurate?
It is arithmetic on the two numbers you typed, not a prediction. The rating Google shows is the average of the ratings on your listing, so that is what this works out. We use the exact average rather than the rounded one, which means the figure is occasionally one review more than you strictly need and never one less.
What it cannot know is how many customers will actually leave a review, which is why the time column is worked from a pace you can judge yourself rather than a number we made up. Nothing you type is sent anywhere or saved.
Updated .