Blog / 11 November 2026 · 2 min read
App Store and Google Play Reviews API: Official Limits Explained
Both app stores have official APIs for reviews. Both were designed for one job: letting developers read and reply to reviews of their own apps. If that's all you need, they're a good fit. If you're building a product that analyses reviews across many apps, they run out quickly.
Google Play Developer API
The Reply to Reviews API is the official route, and it's narrow (Google Play docs):
- it returns reviews "created or modified within the last week";
- it only shows reviews that include comments, not star-only ratings;
- it covers production versions of the app only;
- quotas are 200 GET requests an hour and 2,000 replies a day, and replies are capped at 350 characters;
- access needs a service account with the "Reply to reviews" permission on that app.
The one-week window is the big one. If your job doesn't run for eight days, those reviews are gone from the API. There's no backfill either, so you start from the day you connect.
App Store Connect API
Apple's API is more generous on volume. GET /v1/apps/{id}/customerReviews returns "all customer reviews for your app", up to 200 per request. You can sort by rating or date and filter by territory and rating. Replies go through the Customer Review Responses endpoints. (App Store Connect API)
But it's still your app only. Ask for another developer's app and you get a 403.
Where the official APIs stop
| Google Play API | App Store Connect API | |
|---|---|---|
| Your own apps | Yes | Yes |
| Any app | No | No |
| History | Last 7 days | Yes |
| Star-only ratings | No | Yes |
| Reply | Yes | Yes |
That works for a developer managing their own app. It doesn't work for:
- app analytics and feedback tools whose customers haven't granted store access;
- competitive research across a category of apps;
- history on Google Play beyond seven days.
Getting reviews for any app
ReviewLake collects public reviews for any app on the App Store and Google Play, with full history on the first run and only new reviews afterwards. They arrive in the same format as reviews from 50+ other sites, so app reviews go through the same pipeline as everything else. See mobile apps, or how CX and feedback tools combine app reviews with survey data.
Official API details checked against Apple and Google developer documentation on 11 November 2026.