What is a good Google rating for cafés?
The 500 studied cafés profiles averaged 4.29 stars and 43.4% sat at 4.5 or higher. Below 4.0 sat 17.6%. That describes the profiles studied, not the whole trade.
Original research · Industry · 2026
The cafés benchmark 2026
Rating, review volume and profile completeness across 500 cafés profiles in the United States and the Netherlands.
This page is the industry cut of our deep audit. Every figure comes from public fields the Google Places API returned for cafés; this is observational research, not a survey.
Deep audit 26 August 2026 · free to cite under CC BY 4.0 · source: Google Maps Platform Places API
Research snapshot
- Study
- The Cafés Benchmark 2026
- Publisher
- RecensioAI B.V.
- Industry
- Cafés
- Markets
- United States and the Netherlands
- Profiles analyzed
- 500
- US sample
- 352
- Netherlands sample
- 148
- Audit date
- 26 August 2026
- Research type
- Observational analysis
- Source
- Google Maps Platform Places API
- Version
- 1.0
- Published
- 26 August 2026
These figures describe the 500 profiles studied and are not representative of all cafés in either country. We do not publish individual business names.
1. Key findings
Every figure below uses the same denominator: the 500 studied cafés profiles, unless a market is explicitly named.
4.29★
average rating for cafés
US 4.26 · Netherlands 4.38
Cafés · n=500
43.4% reached 4.5 stars or higher and 17.6% sat below 4.0.
363
median review count
US 504 · Netherlands 83
Cafés · n=500
The median describes the profiles studied and is not a target for your business.
10.6%
no website was returned
Cafés · n=500
No phone number for 11.4% either, and no regular opening hours for 6.2%.
83.2
average field coverage (out of 100)
Cafés · n=500
A RecensioAI measure across six public API fields. Not a Google score and not a claim about quality.
2. United States versus the Netherlands
Ratings sit closer together than review counts: 4.26 versus 4.38 stars, but 504 versus 83 reviews for the median profile.
United States
4.26★
median 504 reviews
n=352
Netherlands
4.38★
median 83 reviews
n=148
3. What was missing on the profiles
Share of the studied profiles for which the Places API did not return the field.
Cafés (n=500) All six trades
No website
10.6%
9.5%
No phone number
11.4%
5.3%
No regular opening hours
6.2%
3.7%
No photo returned
5.8%
1.8%
Accessibility information was returned for 84.8% of the studied cafés profiles and an editorial summary for 46.2%.
4. How other trades performed
Same audit, same fields, different cohorts. Each trade has its own benchmark page.
Quick answers from the research
Each answer refers to the profiles studied and names the sample the figure comes from.
How many Google reviews does a cafés profile typically have?
The median studied profile had 363 reviews: 504 in the US sample (n=352) and 83 in the Netherlands sample (n=148).
How complete are cafés profiles on Google?
For 10.6% of the studied cafés profiles the Places API returned no website, for 11.4% no phone number and for 6.2% no regular opening hours. Average field coverage was 83.2 out of 100.
Do cafés differ between the US and the Netherlands?
In this sample the average rating was 4.26 in the US and 4.38 in the Netherlands, with medians of 504 and 83 reviews. The difference sits mostly in volume, not in rating.
How was this industry benchmark measured?
Through the Google Places API, across 500 unique cafés profiles in the United States and the Netherlands, audited on 26 August 2026. Observational research, not a survey.
Methodology
We requested 500 unique cafés profiles through the Google Places API (352 in the US, 148 in the Netherlands) and recorded rating, review count and the presence of six public fields for each.
Trade assignment follows the primary category Google returned. A venue that could be seen as both a café and a restaurant sits in one cohort, not both.
The sample is not weighted to the true business mix of either country, and nothing on this page is a claim about ranking causes.
Version and updates
This is version 1.0, published on 26 August 2026. This URL is permanent: new editions and corrections appear here rather than at a new page, so existing citations keep working.
This study is part of RecensioAI's research programme, where we keep our methodology and every edition. The main study is The State of Local Reputation 2026.
An industry average is context. Your street is useful.
Run a free scan of your Google Business Profile and see how your public signals compare with similar cafés nearby.
How to cite this research
Journalists, agencies and researchers may use these aggregate figures freely under CC BY 4.0. One condition: cite the source and link back to this page.
RecensioAI (2026). The Cafés Google Business Profile Benchmark 2026: ratings, review volume and profile completeness across 500 profiles in the United States and the Netherlands. https://recensioai.com/benchmark/cafes
Canonical URL: https://recensioai.com/benchmark/cafes