# Google Maps Review Collector (`skcho/google-maps-review-collector`) Actor

Collect Google Maps reviews for any place, preserved in the language the reviewer originally wrote them in. Sweeps every sort order and language pass to maximise unique review coverage.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/skcho/google-maps-review-collector.md
- **Developed by:** [seungkyu cho](https://apify.com/skcho) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Automation, AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $4.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Google Maps Review Collector

Reviews for any place — **kept in the language the reviewer actually wrote them
in.**

That distinction is the entire point of this actor. Google will happily hand you
a machine translation of every review, and most tools take it. If you're doing
sentiment analysis, translated text is a different dataset with different results.

### What a row looks like

```json
{
  "recordType": "googleMapsReview",
  "placeName": "이치란 시부야점",
  "author": "伝説のわさび",
  "rating": 5,
  "text": "深夜に行っても回転が速くて待ち時間が短い。",
  "originalLanguage": "ja",
  "isOriginalText": true,
  "capturedUnderHl": "ja",
  "relativeDate": "2 months ago",
  "photoCount": 3,
  "photoUrls": ["https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/..."],
  "ownerReplyText": null,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-26T04:41:03.219Z"
}
```

`isOriginalText` tells you whether you're looking at the reviewer's own words or
Google's translation of them. `capturedUnderHl` shows which language pass caught
it — useful when you're auditing coverage.

### How the original text is recovered

Google only shows a review's original text when you browse in that review's own
language. So this actor **sweeps the place once per language you list**, merges
the results by review ID, and keeps the original-language version whenever one
turns up.

Measured on a Tokyo ramen shop with `["ko", "en", "ja"]`, capped at 200 reviews:

| | Single pass | Three passes |
|---|---:|---:|
| Reviews returned | 200 | 200 |
| **With original text** | 79 (39%) | **200 (100%)** |
| Languages represented | ko only | ko / en / ja |

Same bill, two and a half times the usable data.

The cap is applied **once, at the end**, after every pass has run — and the trim
keeps original-language reviews ahead of translated ones. You get the most useful
200, not the first 200.

### Input

```json
{
  "placeUrls": ["https://www.google.com/maps/place/.../data=!4m7!3m6!1s0x..."],
  "maxReviewsPerPlace": 200,
  "sortBy": "newest",
  "languages": ["ko", "en", "ja"],
  "expandLongReviews": true,
  "headless": false
}
```

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `placeUrls` | **Must be the long `/maps/place/.../data=…` form** — copy it from the address bar |
| `sortBy` | `newest`, `relevance`, `highestRating`, `lowestRating` |
| `sweepAllSortOrders` | Run all four orders — the single best way to raise unique coverage |
| `wideLanguageSweep` | 14-language pass when you don't know the audience |
| `keepOriginalOnly` | Drop reviews whose original text never surfaced |
| `expandLongReviews` | Click through "More" so long reviews aren't truncated |

### Honest limits

- **This is not every review.** Google caps how deep a review list will scroll,
  and the cap differs per sort order. On a place with 5,166 reviews: relevance
  gave 848, newest 750, and rating-sorted stopped at 176. All four orders combined
  reached 1,341 — about 26% of the total. Extra language passes barely move that
  number; they change *which text* you get, not *how much*.
- **Roughly a third of reviews have no text at all** — star-only ratings. That's
  Google, not a collection failure.
- **Owner replies are truncated** near 125 characters, and unlike review bodies
  they have no "More" button to expand. A trailing `…` means the rest is gone.
- **`headless: false` is the working default.** Google serves headless sessions a
  limited page with no reviews on it.
- Google's terms prohibit automated collection. The risk and the use you make of
  the data are yours.

### Good for

- Multilingual sentiment analysis that isn't reading translations
- Competitor review monitoring across locations
- Finding what low-rating reviewers specifically complain about
- Location research where the local-language reviews are the honest ones

# Actor input Schema

## `placeUrls` (type: `array`):

One Google Maps place URL per line. Open the restaurant in Google Maps and copy the full address-bar URL — the long /maps/place/.../data=... form. A URL without that data= part does not resolve to a place and will be skipped.

## `maxReviewsPerPlace` (type: `integer`):

Stops scrolling once this many review cards are loaded in a single language pass. 0 = scroll until Google stops serving more.

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

Which order Google should serve reviews in. "newest" gives the most stable, least duplicated sweep; "relevance" is Google's default ranking.

## `sweepAllSortOrders` (type: `boolean`):

Ignores the setting above and collects under all four sort orders, merging the results. Google caps how deep any single list goes, and each order exposes a slightly different slice, so this raises total coverage at roughly 4x the time.

## `languages` (type: `array`):

The hl= values to load the page under, one per line. A review comes back untranslated only in the pass matching the language its author wrote in, so add the languages you expect this place's reviewers to use.

## `wideLanguageSweep` (type: `boolean`):

Ignores the list above and sweeps 14 common languages (ko, en, ja, zh-CN, zh-TW, es, fr, de, pt-BR, it, ru, th, vi, id). Maximises original-text coverage; takes roughly 14x as long.

## `keepOriginalOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Drops reviews whose original text was never captured, instead of keeping Google's translation as a flagged fallback.

## `expandLongReviews` (type: `boolean`):

Clicks every "see more" so long reviews are stored in full rather than truncated. Adds noticeable time on large places.

## `headless` (type: `boolean`):

Not recommended. Google answers headless sessions with a "limited view" page that contains no reviews at all; leave this off so a real browser window opens.

## `scrollDelayMs` (type: `integer`):

Pause between scroll steps. Raise it if the list stops loading early or you start getting blocked.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "placeUrls": [
    "https://www.google.com/maps/place/%EC%9D%B4%EC%B9%98%EB%9E%80+%EC%8B%9C%EB%B6%80%EC%95%BC%EC%A0%90/data=!4m7!3m6!1s0x60188ca8749c6b39:0xf2802bee15a9a6e!8m2!3d35.6611185!4d139.7009846!16s%2Fg%2F1vvr668f"
  ],
  "maxReviewsPerPlace": 0,
  "sortBy": "newest",
  "sweepAllSortOrders": false,
  "languages": [
    "ko",
    "en",
    "ja"
  ],
  "wideLanguageSweep": false,
  "keepOriginalOnly": false,
  "expandLongReviews": true,
  "headless": false,
  "scrollDelayMs": 700
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

One row per unique review, with the original-language text where it could be recovered and a flag saying whether it was.

## `files` (type: `string`):

Per-place review exports: a full JSON dump and a readable Markdown summary.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "placeUrls": [
        "https://www.google.com/maps/place/%EC%9D%B4%EC%B9%98%EB%9E%80+%EC%8B%9C%EB%B6%80%EC%95%BC%EC%A0%90/data=!4m7!3m6!1s0x60188ca8749c6b39:0xf2802bee15a9a6e!8m2!3d35.6611185!4d139.7009846!16s%2Fg%2F1vvr668f"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("skcho/google-maps-review-collector").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "placeUrls": ["https://www.google.com/maps/place/%EC%9D%B4%EC%B9%98%EB%9E%80+%EC%8B%9C%EB%B6%80%EC%95%BC%EC%A0%90/data=!4m7!3m6!1s0x60188ca8749c6b39:0xf2802bee15a9a6e!8m2!3d35.6611185!4d139.7009846!16s%2Fg%2F1vvr668f"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("skcho/google-maps-review-collector").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "placeUrls": [
    "https://www.google.com/maps/place/%EC%9D%B4%EC%B9%98%EB%9E%80+%EC%8B%9C%EB%B6%80%EC%95%BC%EC%A0%90/data=!4m7!3m6!1s0x60188ca8749c6b39:0xf2802bee15a9a6e!8m2!3d35.6611185!4d139.7009846!16s%2Fg%2F1vvr668f"
  ]
}' |
apify call skcho/google-maps-review-collector --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,skcho/google-maps-review-collector"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/NGR6lJG4SF30o1gO2/builds/K5pIY1lh8nHh2peoa/openapi.json