google-reviews-client 0.2.0

A lightweight Python client for Google Business Profile reviews and locations (non-official)

google-reviews-client

A lightweight, non-official Python client for the Google Business Profile API: accounts, locations, and reviews.

Not affiliated with Google. This library isn't an official Google product. Google, Google Maps, and related marks are trademarks of Google LLC.

Features

• Incremental sync - fetch only new or updated reviews
• Auth-agnostic - accepts any google.auth.credentials.Credentials (OAuth2, service account, etc.)
• CLI included - fetch and save reviews from the terminal with a single command
• Minimal dependencies - only httpx and google-auth at runtime

Prerequisites

Before you can use this project, you'll need:

1. A Google Business Profile - owner or manager access to a verified business listing on Google, active for at least 60 days
2. A Google Cloud project - this is where your API credentials live
3. API access approval - Google requires a formal application, then you enable the APIs
4. OAuth credentials - configure the consent screen and download a JSON file for authentication

If you already have all of these, skip to Installation. Otherwise, follow the steps below - they walk you through everything.

1. Set up your Google Business Profile

You need to be an owner or manager of a verified business listing that's been active for at least 60 days before you can request API access.

If you don't have a listing yet:

1. Go to business.google.com and sign in with your Google account
2. Click Add your business to Google and follow the prompts
3. Google will ask you to verify ownership - this usually happens via postcard, phone, or email
4. Wait for verification (up to 5 business days) and then 60 more days before you can request API access

If your business is already on Google Maps but you haven't claimed it, search for it on Google Maps, click your business, and select Claim this business.

2. Create a Google Cloud project

A Google Cloud project is a container for your API credentials. You don't need to pay anything - the free tier is enough.

1. Go to console.cloud.google.com/projectcreate
2. Give it a name (e.g., "My Business Reviews") and click Create
3. Note your project number from the project dashboard, you'll need it in the next step

3. Get API access approval and enable the APIs

The Business Profile API is not open to everyone - Google reviews each application.

Apply for access:

1. Go to the API access request form
2. Select "Application for Basic API Access" from the dropdown
3. Use the same email that's an owner or manager on your Business Profile
4. Enter your project number from step 2 and your company website URL

You'll get an email within 5 business days. You can also check your status in Cloud Console → APIs → Quotas for the Account Management API: 0 requests per minute means pending, 300 requests per minute means approved.

After approval, enable these APIs in the API Library:

1. My Business Account Management API (accounts and locations)
2. Google My Business API (reviews) — this one is private and only appears in the API Library after your access is approved

For each one: search by name → click on it → click Enable.

4. Set up OAuth credentials

You need to configure the OAuth consent screen (what users see when they log in) and create a credentials file (what the CLI uses to start the authentication flow).

Configure the consent screen:

1. Go to APIs & Services > OAuth consent screen
2. Choose External user type and click Create
3. Fill in the App name (anything you like) and your email address
4. You can skip the Scopes step - the CLI requests the right scopes automatically
5. Under Test users, click Add users and enter your Google account email
6. Click Save and Continue through the remaining steps

Important: You must add yourself as a test user. Without this, you'll get an "Access blocked" error when trying to log in.

Create OAuth credentials:

1. Go to APIs & Services > Credentials
2. Click Create Credentials > OAuth client ID
3. Choose Desktop application as the application type
4. Give it a name (e.g., "Reviews CLI") and click Create
5. Click Download JSON and save the file in the directory where you'll run the CLI

The downloaded file will be named something like client_secret_123456.apps.googleusercontent.com.json - the CLI auto-detects it, so you don't need to rename it.

Installation

pip install google-reviews-client

Or with uv:

uv add google-reviews-client

Quick Start

CLI

With uv installed, run directly without installing:

uvx 'google-reviews-client[cli]'

Or install it first, then run:

pip install 'google-reviews-client[cli]'
google-reviews-client

The CLI authenticates via browser-based OAuth, fetches your reviews, prints them to the terminal, and saves them as JSONL.

# First run — auto-detect client secrets, run OAuth, select accounts/locations
google-reviews-client

# Subsequent runs — auto-sync all saved targets
google-reviews-client

# Specify client secrets file for first-time setup
google-reviews-client --client-secrets-file /path/to/client_secret.json

# Use a specific config file
google-reviews-client --config-file [e-mail]

# Set language for reviews (saved per-location in config)
google-reviews-client --language pt-BR

# Verbose mode — shows file search details and full error tracebacks
google-reviews-client -v

First run

On first run, a browser window opens for Google OAuth. After granting consent, the CLI prompts you to select accounts and locations, then creates a config file (e.g., [e-mail]) with your credentials and selections.

You can select multiple accounts and locations — the CLI will sync all of them on each run.

Subsequent runs

On subsequent runs, the CLI auto-detects config files in the current directory and syncs all configured targets:

google-reviews-client v0.1.0
Directory: /Users/you/reviews

Using config: [e-mail]

My Business > My Coffee Shop
Syncing reviews since 2024-01-15T00:00:00...
Date        Rating     Review                                    Reviewer            Replied
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024-01-20  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐    Amazing coffee!                           John D.             No

Done! 1 new reviews saved to reviews-456.jsonl

Config file

The config file stores your OAuth credentials and selected accounts/locations:

{
  "credentials": { "..." },
  "targets": [
    {
      "account": "accounts/123",
      "account_name": "My Business",
      "locations": [
        {
          "location": "locations/456",
          "title": "My Coffee Shop",
          "language": "pt-BR"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

To change your selections, edit the config file:

• Remove a location from locations to stop syncing it
• Remove all targets to be prompted again on next run
• Remove language from a location to use the default
• Delete the config file entirely to start fresh (re-authenticate and re-select)

Programmatic Usage

from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from google_reviews_client import GoogleReviewsClient

# Create credentials (see "Authentication" section below)
creds = Credentials(
    token="your-access-token",
    refresh_token="your-refresh-token",
    token_uri="https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token",
    client_id="your-client-id",
    client_secret="your-client-secret",
)

client = GoogleReviewsClient(credentials=creds)

# Discover accounts and locations
accounts = client.list_accounts()
locations = client.list_locations(accounts[0].name)

# Fetch reviews (lazy iterator - pages fetched on demand)
for review in client.list_reviews(locations[0].full_name):
    print(f"{review.rating_value}/5 - {review.reviewer.display_name}")
    print(f"  {review.comment}")

Authentication

The library accepts any google.auth.credentials.Credentials instance. Here are common ways to create credentials:

From saved tokens

If you have OAuth2 tokens (e.g., from a previous authorization flow):

from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials

creds = Credentials(
    token="your-access-token",
    refresh_token="your-refresh-token",
    token_uri="https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token",
    client_id="your-client-id",
    client_secret="your-client-secret",
)

From a service account

from google.oauth2 import service_account

creds = service_account.Credentials.from_service_account_file(
    "service-account.json",
    scopes=["https://www.googleapis.com/auth/business.manage"],
)

Browser-based OAuth flow

For interactive scripts, use google-auth-oauthlib:

pip install google-auth-oauthlib

from google_auth_oauthlib.flow import InstalledAppFlow

flow = InstalledAppFlow.from_client_secrets_file(
    "credentials.json",
    scopes=["https://www.googleapis.com/auth/business.manage"],
)
creds = flow.run_local_server(port=0)

Usage Examples

List accounts and locations

accounts = client.list_accounts()
for account in accounts:
    print(f"Account: {account.account_name} ({account.name})")

    locations = client.list_locations(account.name)
    for location in locations:
        print(f"  Location: {location.title} ({location.full_name})")

Fetch all reviews

for review in client.list_reviews(location.full_name):
    print(f"{review.rating_value}/5 by {review.reviewer.display_name}")
    print(f"  Posted: {review.create_time}")
    if review.comment:
        print(f"  Comment: {review.comment}")
    if review.has_reply:
        print(f"  Reply: {review.review_reply.comment}")

Incremental sync

Fetch only reviews updated after a specific timestamp:

from datetime import datetime, timezone

last_sync = datetime(2024, 1, 1, tzinfo=timezone.utc)

for review in client.list_reviews(location.full_name, update_time=last_sync):
    print(f"New/updated: {review.review_id} - {review.rating_value}/5")

Error handling

from google_reviews_client import (
    GoogleReviewsClient,
    AuthenticationError,
    RateLimitError,
    NotFoundError,
)

try:
    reviews = list(client.list_reviews(location.full_name))
except AuthenticationError:
    print("Authentication failed. Check your credentials.")
except RateLimitError as e:
    print(f"Rate limited. Retry after {e.retry_after} seconds.")
except NotFoundError:
    print("Location not found. Check the location ID.")

Serialize reviews to JSON

import json

reviews = [review.to_dict() for review in client.list_reviews(location.full_name)]
with open("reviews.json", "w") as f:
    json.dump(reviews, f, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False)

API Reference

Client

Method	Returns	Description
list_accounts()	list[Account]	Discover accessible Google Business accounts
list_locations(account)	list[Location]	List locations under an account
list_reviews(location, *, update_time=None)	Iterator[Review]	Fetch reviews with lazy pagination

Models

Model	Key Fields
Account	name, account_name, type
Location	location_id, account_id, title, full_name (property)
Review	review_id, star_rating, comment, create_time, update_time, reviewer, review_reply
Reviewer	display_name, profile_photo_url, is_anonymous
ReviewReply	comment, update_time
StarRating	Enum: ONE through FIVE

Exceptions

Exception	Trigger
GoogleReviewsError	Base exception for all library errors
AuthenticationError	401 - invalid or expired credentials
PermissionError	403 - insufficient permissions
NotFoundError	404 - resource not found
RateLimitError	429 - rate limit exceeded (has retry_after attribute)
GoogleAPIError	5xx - Google API server error
ValidationError	Invalid parameters

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup and guidelines.

License

This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT License.