The compliant ways to get Amazon reviews are short and specific: use the Request a Review button in Seller Central, enrol eligible products in Amazon Vine, send a neutral review request through Buyer-Seller Messaging inside the permitted window, and put a neutral, non-incentivised note in your packaging. Everything else, including paid, discounted or gated reviews, risks suspension.
Amazon does not ban asking for reviews. It bans asking for good ones. Hold that distinction and most of the policy becomes easy to follow. Details below come from Amazon’s own Communication Guidelines and Vine pages, checked on 12 September 2026, so read the live versions before you build a process.
Key takeaways
- Amazon’s Communication Guidelines allow proactive messages for a defined list of reasons, including requesting a product review, within 30 days of order completion.
- Amazon prohibits language that incentivises or persuades a buyer to leave a positive review, including offers of money, gift cards or free products.
- Amazon Vine is open to Professional sellers with Brand Registry or generic products, FBA offers, and listings with fewer than 30 reviews.
- Vine enrolment costs $0 for up to 2 units, $75 for 3 to 10 units and $200 for 11 to 30 units per parent product.
- Packaging inserts may thank the customer and ask for honest feedback. They must not ask for positive reviews or divert buyers away from Amazon.
- The Request a Review button sends Amazon’s own neutral template and is the safest option.
What does Amazon allow you to do to get reviews?
Amazon allows a neutral request for a review after a purchase. You can use the Request a Review button, send one Permitted Message through Buyer-Seller Messaging, enrol in Vine, and include a neutral insert. You cannot offer anything of value, ask for positive reviews, or try to suppress negative ones.
Amazon frames its own advice around service rather than tactics. Its seller pages say to focus on delivering exceptional customer service to earn more reviews, and describe a Customer Reviews tool for brands to track reviews and contact buyers who leave a rating below three stars, offering a refund or asking for more information to fix the issue.
The same page states plainly that sellers cannot “attempt to influence customer ratings, feedback, and reviews, or make requests for customers to remove negative reviews or post positive reviews”. That sentence is the whole policy in miniature.
How does the Request a Review button work?
The Request a Review button sits on the Order Details page in Seller Central. Clicking it sends an Amazon-written, neutral message asking the buyer to rate the product and the seller. You cannot edit the wording, which is exactly why it is the lowest risk way to ask.
Because Amazon writes the text, there is no way to breach the guidelines with wording, and the message is translated into the buyer’s language automatically.
- Send it once per order, inside the permitted window after delivery.
- Do not pair it with a separate message asking for the same thing. Repetition reads as pressure.
- Skip orders that had a delivery problem or an open case. Asking there invites a one-star review.
Third-party tools that click the button for you exist, but the rules do not change: one neutral request, no follow-up nagging.
How does Amazon Vine work and what does it cost?
Amazon Vine sends free units to trusted reviewers called Vine Voices in exchange for honest reviews, which Amazon labels as Vine reviews. Sellers enrol a parent product and choose how many units to offer, up to 30. Amazon charges an enrolment fee based on that number, not on the reviews received.
Amazon’s Vine page sets out the requirements: a Professional selling account, a Brand Representative or Reseller role on a brand in Brand Registry or generic products in your catalogue, and eligible FBA offers. The listing itself must have FBA selected as the fulfilment method, fewer than 30 reviews, and an image and description. Adult, digital and bundled products are not eligible.
| Units enrolled per parent product | Enrolment fee | Cost per unit offered |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 2 | $0 | Free |
| 3 to 10 | $75 | $7.50 at 10 units |
| 11 to 30 | $200 | $6.67 at 30 units |
Amazon adds a useful protection: you are not charged until 30 days after enrolment and after your first review is published, and if no Vine review arrives within 90 days of enrolment you are not charged at all. Full terms are on Amazon’s Vine page.
The real cost is the stock. Thirty units of a $30 product is $900 of inventory given away plus the $200 fee, and Vine Voices write honest reviews, so a product with a genuine flaw will be told so in public. Use Vine on products you are confident in, at launch, when the listing has fewer than 30 reviews.
What can you put in a packaging insert?
An insert can thank the buyer, explain how to use the product, give warranty and contact details, and ask for honest feedback. It must not request a positive review, offer any reward in exchange for a review, route unhappy buyers away from leaving a review, or push shoppers to buy from your own website instead.
| Allowed | Not allowed |
|---|---|
| Thank you note and brand story | “Leave us a 5 star review” |
| Setup, care and safety instructions | Gift card, refund or free gift in exchange for a review |
| Warranty registration and support contact | “Contact us before leaving a negative review” |
| A neutral line inviting honest feedback | “Buy direct on our site for a better price” |
| Social handles and a QR code to a content page | A QR code to a landing page that filters reviews by rating |
The last row is the one that ends accounts. Any funnel that sends happy customers to Amazon and unhappy customers to a support form is review gating, and Amazon treats it as manipulation regardless of how politely it is worded. This is covered in more depth in this review of Amazon package insert rules.
What can you say in Buyer-Seller Messaging?
Amazon’s Communication Guidelines allow proactive messages only for defined reasons, one of which is requesting a product review or seller feedback. Such messages must be sent within 30 days of order completion, must avoid marketing content and external links, and must not push the buyer toward a positive review.
The guidelines list what is prohibited in unusually plain terms. Messages may not contain “Marketing or promotional messaging, including coupons”, or “language that either incentivizes or persuades the buyer to submit positive product reviews or seller feedback, including by offering compensation, money, gift cards, free or discounted products”.
External links are out unless they are secure links needed to complete the order or links to Amazon. Emojis, animated images and more than three font sizes are also prohibited. Amazon even rules out filler: messages that only say thank you, or that you are there to help if there is a problem, are not permitted because they are unnecessary.
A compliant message is short: confirm the order arrived, state one thing that helps them use the product, invite an honest review, and stop. The full rules are in Amazon’s Communication Guidelines.
What gets Amazon seller accounts suspended?
Paying for reviews, trading free products for reviews, using review groups, reviewing your own or a competitor’s products, gating out negative feedback, and pressuring buyers to change or remove reviews. Amazon can suppress reviews, remove listings, withhold funds or suspend selling privileges, and messaging breaches alone can cost you Buyer-Seller Messaging.
- Paid or incentivised reviews. Cash, gift cards, refunds after purchase, free replacements offered in exchange for a review.
- Review exchange groups. Private chat groups that swap purchases and reviews are detectable and treated as manipulation.
- Family, staff and self reviews. Reviews from anyone with a material connection to the seller.
- Review gating. Filtering who is asked to review based on how satisfied they seem.
- Pressuring a reviewer. Asking a buyer to remove or amend a negative review, even with a refund attached.
- Buying a listing’s history. Merging or repurposing an unrelated ASIN to inherit its reviews.
Amazon states that failure to comply with its communication rules may result in suspension of messaging or of selling privileges. Treat that as the floor, not the ceiling, because review manipulation is enforced separately and more harshly.
How many Amazon reviews do you actually need?
There is no official threshold. What matters in practice is looking credible next to the other offers on the same search page. If competing listings show hundreds of reviews at 4.4 stars and yours shows six, shoppers hesitate, so the working goal is parity with the page, not a round number.
Rating quality beats volume. A listing at 4.6 stars with 80 reviews usually outperforms one at 3.9 stars with 500, because the star average appears in search results and shapes click-through before anyone reads a word.
A realistic sequence for a new product: two to five reviews from Vine at launch, a steady trickle from Request a Review as orders build, and a conversion rate that keeps orders flowing. Reviews follow sales far more reliably than sales follow reviews, which is why the listing work in our Amazon listing optimization guide comes first.
What this means for marketers and creators
What this means for marketers and creators
For marketers, reviews are a conversion asset with compliance risk attached, so treat them like any regulated creative. Write the insert and the message template once, get them checked against the live policy, and lock them. Then measure what reviews actually do to conversion rate and to your paid efficiency, because a rating lift often does more for cost per sale than a bid change.
For creators, the temptation is to ask your audience for reviews after gifting product. That is exactly the line Amazon draws: a review from someone you gave a free product to, outside Vine, is an incentivised review. Send followers to buy at full price, ask nothing, and let the reviews come. Use your social channels for demonstration and honest answers instead, with help from our free social media tools.
What is a compliant review process?
Make the product good, make the listing honest, ask once through Amazon’s own tools, respond to critical reviews with a fix, and never trade anything of value for a review. Write the process down so a new team member or an agency cannot improvise their way into a suspension.
- Fix expectation gaps in the listing first: sizing, compatibility, what is in the box.
- Enrol new products in Vine while they have fewer than 30 reviews.
- Use Request a Review once per eligible order.
- Keep inserts neutral, with no rating language and no off-Amazon selling.
- Monitor reviews below three stars and offer a real fix through the permitted channels.
- Audit any third-party tool or agency against the live Communication Guidelines every quarter.
Frequently asked questions
Can you ask customers for a review on Amazon?
Yes, neutrally. Amazon’s Communication Guidelines list requesting a product review or seller feedback as a permitted reason to message a buyer, within 30 days of order completion. You may not ask for a positive review, offer anything in return, or send marketing content alongside the request.
Is it against Amazon policy to offer a discount for a review?
Yes. Amazon prohibits language that incentivises or persuades a buyer to submit positive reviews, including offers of compensation, money, gift cards, and free or discounted products. That covers post-purchase coupons, refunds after a review and free replacement units offered in exchange for feedback.
How much does Amazon Vine cost in 2026?
Enrolment is free for up to 2 units per parent product, $75 for 3 to 10 units and $200 for 11 to 30 units. Amazon does not charge until 30 days after enrolment and after your first review publishes, and does not charge at all if no Vine review arrives within 90 days.
Can I put a review request card in my packaging?
Yes, if it stays neutral. You may thank the buyer, give support details and invite honest feedback. You may not ask for positive or five-star reviews, offer any reward for reviewing, route unhappy buyers away from Amazon, or use the insert to sell on your own website.
Can I ask a customer to remove a negative review?
No. Amazon says sellers must not request that customers remove negative reviews or post positive ones. You can respond publicly, contact the buyer through permitted channels to resolve the underlying problem, and report a review that breaks Amazon’s guidelines, but the request itself is prohibited.
How long does it take to get reviews on Amazon?
Only a small share of buyers review anything, so expect reviews to arrive slowly and in proportion to orders. Vine can produce the first few within weeks of enrolment. After that, steady sales plus a single neutral request per order is the only compliant lever you have.
Next steps
Audit what you send buyers today: your insert card, any automated message and any agency process. Anything that mentions a star rating, offers a reward or filters unhappy buyers needs rewriting this week. Then work on the two things that actually produce reviews, which are order volume and an honest page: start with our listing optimization guide, get traffic profitably with Amazon PPC for beginners, and check the margin behind it all with the FBA fee breakdown and our free Amazon seller tools.
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