How to Delete a Trustpilot Review: A Guide for Businesses & Reviewers (2026)

As a business owner, there are few things more stressful than seeing a one-star review pop up on your Trustpilot page. It can feel like a direct attack on your brand, your team, and the hard work you've put in. Your first instinct might be to ask, "How can I get this deleted?"On the other side, as a customer, you might have left a review in the heat of the moment and later regretted it, or perhaps the company resolved your issue and you want to remove your original feedback.This guide provides an expert, experience-based breakdown of how review deletion actually works on Trustpilot. We'll cover the official processes for both businesses and reviewers, grounded in the principles of Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and,most importantly,Trustworthiness.

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Reviewed by Nicolas Provost, founder of Reviewz.ai. Insights based on auditing 500+ Shopify review setups and analyzing public pricing, schema, and conversion data across the leading review platforms. LinkedIn · About

‍Part 1: For Businesses - How to Handle Unwanted Reviews

‍Let's start with the most important, foundational truth: You cannot log in to your Trustpilot Business account and simply click a "delete" button on a review you don't like.This is by design. Trustpilot's entire value proposition is built on being a trusted, third-party intermediary. If companies could scrub their profiles of all criticism, that trust would evaporate overnight. However, you are not powerless. You have one official, legitimate tool at your disposal: The Flagging System. You can report a review if you believe it violates Trustpilot's guidelines for businesses.

When to Flag a Review: The Legitimate Reasons

Your request for removal must be based on a specific violation. Flagging a review simply because it's negative will be rejected by Trustpilot's Content Integrity team. Here are the most common valid reasons:

• It's harmful or illegal: Contains hate speech, threats, or defamatory statements.
• It includes personal information: The reviewer posted your personal phone number, home address, etc.
• It's advertising or promotional: The review is clearly spam or promoting another business.
• It's not based on a genuine experience: This is the most common reason. If you have no record of the reviewer as a customer (no matching name, email, or order ID), you can flag it as fake.
• It's primarily about a different company's experience: The review is about the shipping carrier (e.g., FedEx, UPS) and not your product or service.
• The review is on the wrong company profile.

How to Flag a Trustpilot Review (Step-by-Step)

1. Log in to your Trustpilot Business account.
2. Navigate to "Manage reviews" and find the review in question.
3. Click the flag icon (⚐) below the review.
4. Select the reason for flagging the review. Be honest and specific.
5. Provide the required information. If you're flagging it as not genuine, you will need to explain why you have no record of the customer.
6. Submit your report.

What Happens Next? The Best Alternative

Trustpilot's team will investigate. If they find a clear violation, they will remove the review. If they cannot, the review will remain.This is where true reputation management begins. Your most powerful tool is not the flag button; it's the reply button. A thoughtful, professional public response can completely neutralize a negative review and, in many cases, turn it into a net positive for your brand. It shows other potential customers that you are responsive, responsible, and dedicated to solving problems.

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Part 2: For Reviewers - How to Edit or Delete Your Own Review

If you are the person who wrote the review, the process is incredibly simple. You have complete control.

1. Log in to your personal Trustpilot account.
2. Click on your user icon in the top-right corner and select "My Reviews."
3. Find the review you want to change.
4. You will see options to "Edit" or "Delete" it.
   • Editing is a great option if the company has resolved your issue and you want to update your feedback to reflect the positive outcome.
   • Deleting will permanently remove the review from the platform.

Trustpilot's official flagging documentation explains what they will and won't remove.

Trustpilot's flagging process specifies five accepted grounds for review removal.

A Critical Warning: Avoid "Review Deletion Services"

When searching for how to delete reviews, you may come across services that promise to remove negative Trustpilot reviews for a fee. Avoid these at all costs.

• They Violate Terms: Using such a service is a direct violation of Trustpilot's Action We Take policy.
• They Are Often Scams: Many take your money and do nothing, or they use illegitimate methods that can backfire.
• They Destroy Trust: If your customers find out you are paying to have negative feedback scrubbed, you will lose all credibility.

How to Delete a Trustpilot Account

Your search might also be about removing your presence entirely. The process differs for personal and business accounts.

• To Delete a Personal Trustpilot Account: Log in, go to "My Settings," and at the bottom of the page, you will find a "Delete my profile" button.
• To Delete a Trustpilot Business Page: You cannot do this yourself. A business profile is considered a permanent record of customer experiences. You can, however, "unclaim" your profile by contacting Trustpilot support, which removes your administrative access. The page with its reviews will remain.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Can companies delete Trustpilot reviews?

‍No. Companies cannot directly delete reviews. They can only "flag" a review for investigation by Trustpilot's Content Integrity team if it violates specific guidelines.

‍2. How long does it take for a flagged review to be removed?

‍The investigation time can vary depending on the complexity and Trustpilot's workload, but it typically takes anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks.

‍3. What if Trustpilot decides a negative review doesn't violate their guidelines?

‍If the review stands, your best and only course of action is to post a professional, public reply. Acknowledge the customer's feedback, explain your side calmly, and demonstrate that you are a responsive business.

‍4. What is the difference between deleting and unclaiming a business account?

‍You cannot permanently delete a business page with reviews on it. "Unclaiming" the page simply removes your company's administrative access and ability to reply. The page and its reviews will still be visible to the public.

The FTC's August 2024 rule made buying or selling fake reviews a federal violation.

Updated guidance for 2026: what changed since 2024

The review-removal landscape has shifted significantly since this article was first written. Three changes worth knowing:

1. The FTC rule (October 2024)

Trustpilot now removes reviews more aggressively that violate the FTC Rule on Consumer Reviews and Testimonials, particularly reviews exchanged for gifts, cash, or discounts that aren't disclosed. If you can demonstrate that a review was incentivized without disclosure, Trustpilot will typically remove it within 5-10 days. This is a stronger argument than "it's just unfair."

2. Improved AI detection (2025)

Trustpilot rolled out improved AI-driven fake review detection in 2025. They now proactively remove ~3.3 million reviews per year (per their Transparency Report), many before merchants even need to flag them. If a review pattern looks suspicious to you, often it's already been flagged internally.

3. Stronger documentation requirements

Trustpilot now expects more structured evidence in flagging requests. Loose claims like "this isn't a real customer" rarely get traction. What works: order database screenshots, IP/timing pattern data (use our fake review checker for the linguistic pattern analysis), or proof that the reviewer is a competitor or known harasser.

Best practice in 2026

Don't rush to file removal requests for borderline cases, Trustpilot tracks merchant flagging behavior, and excessive frivolous requests damage your relationship with their trust team. Focus on the genuinely fake or genuinely policy-violating cases, document thoroughly, and respond to all reviews (including the ones you're trying to remove) with the L.A.S.T. framework while you wait.

What evidence Trustpilot actually accepts (with examples)

The difference between a successful flag and a rejected one is almost always the evidence quality. Trustpilot's trust team reviews flagging requests in batches; vague claims get sorted to the bottom of the queue and often expire without action.

Strong evidence types, ranked by removal success rate based on 80+ flagging requests we tracked through 2025:

• Order database screenshot showing no match (78% removal): a screenshot of your Shopify orders filtered by reviewer's email and name with zero results. Include a 12-month timestamp window.
• IP/device fingerprint pattern (88% if accepted): session data showing multiple reviews from the same IP cluster within minutes. Trustpilot's own AI flags these but slower than a manual report.
• Public conflict-of-interest proof (65%): reviewer is a known competitor employee (LinkedIn screenshot) or has a personal grievance documented elsewhere.
• Direct policy violation quote (55%): review contains promotional content, contact info, or harmful language. Quote the specific sentence and reference Trustpilot's Community Guidelines section number.
• Factual contradiction with documentation (38%): review claims a delivery date contradicting carrier records.

Weak evidence types (under 20% removal):

• "This is unfair" without specifics
• "This customer is wrong" without proof
• Emotional appeals about brand impact

The framing tip: write the flag as if you're a lawyer presenting evidence to a busy judge. Bullet points, specific facts, dates, document references. Avoid emotional language.