Free tool · for any local business
How many reviews to raise your Google rating?
To lift a 4.3-star profile with 41 reviews to 4.5, you need 17 more five-star reviews. The formula is reviews × (target − current) ÷ (5 − target). Enter your profile’s numbers to see your count and how long it takes at your pace.
The formula
Stars you have, stars you need
reviews needed = ⌈ current reviews × (target − current rating) ÷ (new review average − target) ⌉ months = reviews needed ÷ new reviews per month rating after one 1-star review = (current rating × reviews + 1) ÷ (reviews + 1)
The top line is the shortfall in total stars: how many stars the profile would need at the target, minus the stars it has. Each new review closes that gap by the difference between its stars and the target. A five-star review closes 0.5 of a star when the target is 4.5, so a gap of 8.2 stars takes 17 reviews.
Worked example
From 4.3 to 4.5 with 41 reviews
- At 4.3 stars across 41 reviews, the profile holds 176.3 stars in total.
- At 4.5, the same 41 reviews would need 184.5 stars. The gap is 8.2 stars.
- Each five-star review adds 0.5 above the target, so the profile needs 8.2 ÷ 0.5 = 16.4, rounded up to 17 reviews.
- At 2 reviews a month that takes about 9 months. At 6 a month it takes about 3 months.
- Today, a single one-star review would pull the rating to 4.22, which still displays as 4.2.
What shoppers expect
The benchmarks behind the target
| Finding | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Only use businesses rated 4 stars or more | 68% | SourceBrightLocal Up from 55% in 2025. Survey of 1,002 US adults. |
| Only use businesses rated 4.5 stars or more | 31% | SourceBrightLocal Up from 17% in 2025. |
| Only use businesses with a perfect 5.0 | 10% | SourceBrightLocal |
| Won’t use a business with fewer than 20 reviews | 47% | SourceBrightLocal |
| Only care about reviews from the last three months | 74% | SourceBrightLocal |
| Always write a review when asked | 28% | SourceBrightLocal Up from 16% in 2025. |
| Every input on the calculator | — | Exampleuse yours The rating, count and paces are examples so the tool shows a result. |
Making the number move
A pace you can keep up
The count matters less than the pace. Shoppers in BrightLocal’s survey weight recent reviews heavily, so twenty reviews in one month followed by silence does less than five a month all year.
- Ask at the moment the customer is happiest, usually right after the job is finished and paid.
- Send a direct link to your review form by text or email. Every extra tap loses people.
- Reply to every review, good or bad, in your own words. Shoppers notice templated replies.
- Ask everyone, not only the customers you expect to be happy. Filtering who gets asked breaks Google’s rules.
Questions
Before you trust the number
How is a Google rating calculated?
Google shows the average star rating across a profile’s reviews, rounded to one decimal place. Google doesn’t publish its exact rounding or filtering rules, and it removes reviews that break its policies, so treat this as close math rather than a promise about what the profile will display.
Why is my answer off by a review or two?
The rating you see on your profile is already rounded. A 4.3 could be anything from about 4.25 to 4.35, which moves the result slightly. If you can count your stars (five-star reviews × 5 plus four-star × 4 and so on, divided by the total), enter that exact average for a tighter answer.
Is 4.5 really the number to aim for?
In BrightLocal’s 2026 survey of 1,002 US adults, 68% said they only use businesses with four stars or more and 31% said 4.5 or more, up from 17% a year earlier. Only 10% insist on a perfect 5.0. Volume matters too: 47% won’t use a business with fewer than 20 reviews.
Why does one bad review hurt so much?
With few reviews, each one carries more weight in the average. The calculator shows what a single one-star review would do to your rating today. The bigger your review count, the smaller that drop gets, which is one reason a steady flow of reviews protects a rating.
Should every new review be counted as five stars?
Only as a best case. Lower the average for new reviews to 4.8 or 4.7 if that matches your recent history. If the new reviews average at or below your target, the target can’t be reached by adding reviews, and the calculator says so.
Can I offer a discount for a review?
Google and Yelp don’t allow incentives for reviews, and the FTC’s 2024 rule bans fake reviews and paying for positive ones. Ask every customer, make it easy with a link or QR code, and never filter who gets asked based on whether they’re happy.
If the gap looks long
Ask after every job without anyone remembering to.
Workahead’s Reviews & Reputation plan drafts a review request when a job closes and a reply when a review comes in. Every public reply waits for your approval. Tell me what you use for jobs and texts.
Workahead is independent and not affiliated with Anthropic, Google, Invoca or BrightLocal. Results are planning estimates built from the numbers you enter, not measured results for your business.