Is There a Google Play Reviews API for Apps You Don't Own?

By the RoleDawn team · Published 2026-10-07 · Updated 2026-10-07

Google's official Google Play Developer API (Reply to Reviews) only returns reviews of apps in your own Play Console account, and only recent ones. For any public app, call https://roledawn.com/api/v1/app-reviews?store=google&id=<package name>: you get the reviews shown on the app's Google Play page as JSON, each with the star rating, text, date, the app version it was written for, helpful votes and the developer's reply when there is one. No API key and no Google account. Google Play shows about 20 reviews per country and language, so call several languages for more.

• Any public app. No Play Console, no service account, no app ownership.
• Context on every review. The app version it was written for, helpful votes and the developer's reply.
• Every language. lang=de, es, pt-BR … with the matching country.
• Same fields as the App Store. One parser for both stores; switch store=apple.

What does Google's official API cover?

So to read a competitor's reviews, or an app you do not manage, use a public-data API.

Step 1: find the package name

It is the id= value in the app's Google Play address: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.duolingo.

Step 2: request the reviews

1- and 2-star reviews of Duolingo in the US store:

curl "https://roledawn.com/api/v1/app-reviews?store=google&id=com.duolingo&rating=1,2&limit=2"

Real response, captured 2026-10-07 (review text shortened to 280 characters for this page):

{
  "store": "google",
  "id": "com.duolingo",
  "country": "us",
  "lang": "en",
  "app_title": "Duolingo: Learn Languages",
  "app_url": "https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.duolingo",
  "rating": 4.73,
  "ratings_count": 49545626,
  "fetched_at": "2026-10-07T12:41:45.028Z",
  "total": 17,
  "count": 2,
  "limit": 2,
  "offset": 0,
  "next_offset": 2,
  "reviews": [
    {
      "id": "7dcfd51a-b75f-435e-a6f7-1b0eff28c96a",
      "rating": 2,
      "title": null,
      "text": "My opinion of the app has been dropping a lot lately. Removing the sentence discussions has been a huge loss. I made heavy use of those to understand mistakes or sentences I didn't quite get. Now, many mistakes leave you confused and with no explanation or way to figure out what…",
      "date": "2026-03-08T05:22:08.000Z",
      "app_version": "6.69.3",
      "thumbs_up": 2056,
      "developer_reply": null,
      "developer_reply_date": null
    },
    {
      "id": "9e69dc43-3f7d-4226-9168-7b3b01b18c20",
      "rating": 1,
      "title": null,
      "text": "While it started good, this app has quickly spiraled into something I dread doing. For starters, every single time challenge is far too short and should be at least 2 to 5 minutes longer. Especially in the beginning stages. Second, I have trouble spelling, I always have and alwa…",
      "date": "2026-02-16T04:24:29.000Z",
      "app_version": "6.66.5",
      "thumbs_up": 308,
      "developer_reply": null,
      "developer_reply_date": null
    }
  ]
}

app_version shows which release each review is about, thumbs_up how many people found it helpful, and developer_reply the developer's public answer (null when there is none).

How do I get reviews in other languages?

Google Play groups reviews by language. Pass lang together with the matching country:

curl "https://roledawn.com/api/v1/app-reviews?store=google&id=com.duolingo&country=de&lang=de&limit=1"

Real response, captured 2026-10-07 (review text shortened to 200 characters for this page):

{
  "store": "google",
  "id": "com.duolingo",
  "country": "de",
  "lang": "de",
  "app_title": "Duolingo: Sprachen & Schach",
  "app_url": "https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.duolingo",
  "rating": 4.64,
  "ratings_count": 49545628,
  "fetched_at": "2026-10-07T12:41:45.620Z",
  "total": 20,
  "count": 1,
  "limit": 1,
  "offset": 0,
  "next_offset": 1,
  "reviews": [
    {
      "id": "c7aaadfe-77fb-4f01-ab6e-0acdc005a15d",
      "rating": 2,
      "title": null,
      "text": "Früher war die App ganz brauchbar, um Vokabeln zu lernen (Spanisch). Mittlerweile funktioniert das echt nicht mehr gut. Gerade beim Wiederholen der Wörter ist die Sprachausgabe unvollständig oder feh…",
      "date": "2026-09-08T22:17:33.000Z",
      "app_version": "6.95.4",
      "thumbs_up": 0,
      "developer_reply": null,
      "developer_reply_date": null
    }
  ]
}

Can I get the app's rating and installs too?

Yes. /api/v1/app?store=google&id=com.duolingo returns the rating, ratings count, star histogram, install bracket, latest update date, ads and in-app purchase flags. Each review response also repeats the app's rating and ratings_count.

How do I save the reviews to CSV?

The review fields are the same as for the App Store, so the script in How to export App Store reviews to CSV or JSON works unchanged with store=google&id=com.duolingo; add app_version and developer_reply as extra columns if you need them.

Limits

• Google Play shows about 20 reviews per country and language on the app page; that is what the API returns. Call several languages for a wider sample.

• Each app is read live and cached at the edge for up to 60 minutes per country and language; fetched_at says when it was read.
• Direct calls to roledawn.com are a free demo: 50 requests per IP per day across all RoleDawn APIs (reset at 00:00 UTC) and 60 per minute. The X-RateLimit-Daily-Remaining header shows what is left.
• Need more calls or an API key? The App Store & Google Play Reviews API on RapidAPI has the same endpoints and fields, with a free plan, paid monthly plans and a usage dashboard.
• Public data only: the API reads each host's robots.txt first and follows it, and identifies itself as RoleDawnBot. No logins.

All parameters and fields: App Reviews API reference · OpenAPI spec.

FAQ

Related: App Reviews API reference · Export App Store reviews to CSV or JSON · App Store & Google Play Reviews API on RapidAPI · Jobs API. RoleDawn is not affiliated with Google; Google Play is a trademark of Google LLC.