Google Place ID

A Google Place ID is a unique text identifier for a place in Google Maps — a business, a landmark, a bus stop. It looks like ChIJN1t_tDeuEmsRUsoyG83frY4: a short string beginning ChIJ in most cases, though other prefixes exist.

It identifies the place unambiguously, which a name and address cannot. Two dentists on the same street with similar names have different Place IDs, and a business that moves keeps the same one.

Mostly when software has to be certain which place you mean. The Google Maps and Places APIs use it as the primary key. Review widgets use it when a name search is ambiguous — the Shopify install flow asks for it specifically.

You do not need one for everyday use of Google Business Profile. It is a developer-facing identifier that leaks into ordinary tools when precision matters.

Three routes, in order of convenience.

• Use the finder above, or Google’s own Place ID Finder, and search your business name

• Open your listing in Google Maps, share it, and read the ID from the resulting link where one is present

• Query the Places API directly if you are already working with it

A Google Business Profile is the listing itself, the thing the Place ID points at. A Google review link is a URL built from the Place ID that opens the review box — the generator is here.