Short version: Amazon's own "Request a Review" button, in Seller Central's order detail page, sends one message per order asking for a product review and seller feedback together — Amazon writes it, you can't edit it, and you can't send it twice. There's no reliable, Amazon-published day window for when it appears; watch for the button rather than counting days. Never offer anything in exchange for a review. Once you've clicked it by hand a few times, the same request can run itself once a day under a standing authorization you control.
If you've searched for how to ask an Amazon buyer for a review, you've probably landed on a guide claiming there's a precise window — "5 to 30 days after delivery" shows up on nearly every one of them. We build the automation that calls this exact feature through Amazon's own Solicitations API, and that's not what we see: Amazon decides eligibility order by order, and doesn't publish one universal day count you can rely on. Below is what the button actually does, what its policy forbids, and where the popular advice gets ahead of what Amazon documents.
What the Request a Review button actually sends
Amazon controls the entire message. When you click Request a Review on an eligible order, Amazon sends a single notification asking the buyer for two things at once: a product review and seller feedback. You don't write it, you can't customize it, and Amazon sends it in the buyer's own language automatically. That's also exactly what the underlying API endpoint is named — productReviewAndSellerFeedback — which is the clearest first-party signal that this has always been one combined ask, not two separate ones.
Because Amazon owns the wording, there's nothing to A/B test, personalize, or optimize about the message itself. The only thing a seller actually controls is which orders get asked and when — which is also where most of the real mistakes happen.
How to send one, step by step
- Open Seller Central and go to Orders → Manage Orders. Find the order you want to follow up on.
- Open the order's detail page. If the order is eligible, a Request a Review button appears.
- Click it once. There's no confirmation screen to customize — clicking sends Amazon's message immediately.
- Don't click it again. Amazon allows exactly one request per order through this feature. A second click on the same order won't send a second message.
If you don't see the button on an order you expected to, that almost always means Amazon hasn't decided the order is eligible yet — not that something is broken. See the next section.
When does the button actually show up?
This is the part where most advice overreaches. A lot of it states a firm window — commonly "5 to 30 days after delivery" — as if Amazon documents it that way for every order. We haven't found a first-party Amazon page that commits to a universal number, and building against this exact feature, what we actually see is Amazon answering per order rather than applying one fixed calendar rule. Some orders become eligible sooner, some later, and Amazon's own delivery-date fields aren't even populated the same way for every fulfillment method.
The practical version: don't build a habit around counting days. Check the order detail page (or, if you've connected an automation, let it re-check periodically) and act on what Amazon actually shows you, rather than assuming a specific date will unlock it. If an order still shows no button well after it should reasonably be eligible, that's a signal to move on rather than dig for a workaround — there isn't a second channel for the same request.
What Amazon's policy forbids when you ask
The request itself is Amazon-controlled, but what you do around it is still governed by Amazon's Community Guidelines — the same policy that governs what gets a review taken down. A few rules that apply directly to requesting:
- No compensation for a review, in either direction. You can't offer a refund, discount, free product, gift card, or any other payment in exchange for a review or for changing one — and this applies even when the offer is framed as customer service rather than a review ask.
- One request per order, full stop. Amazon's own button enforces this mechanically. Don't try to route around it by also asking through buyer-seller messaging on the same order — that's the same ask through a different channel, not a second, separate opportunity.
- The request has to reach real, verified buyers of that exact order. Anything that manufactures reviews outside of an actual purchase — family, friends, review-exchange groups, paid review services — falls outside what a review request is supposed to be, and outside Amazon policy on manipulated reviews entirely.
None of this is exotic; it's the same "the review has to be real, and asking for it can't tip the scale" principle that governs the rest of Amazon's review ecosystem. If you're not sure whether something crosses a line, our companion guide to what Amazon's Community Guidelines actually cover lays out all fourteen violation categories in one place, including the compensated-review rule in full.
What we saw: a shipped, delivered order with no return and no existing seller-feedback entry showed no Request a Review button on day 6 after delivery, but did on day 12.
What that means in practice: not that "day 12" is a rule to memorize for every order — only that eligibility genuinely varies order to order, which is exactly why checking the order (or letting automation re-check it) beats counting days on a calendar.
A request-a-review checklist
- ☐ Order is fully shipped, with no FBA customer return on file
- ☐ Order doesn't already have a seller-feedback entry from this buyer
- ☐ You've checked the order detail page for the button rather than assuming a specific day
- ☐ You have not already sent a request for this order
- ☐ No incentive, discount, refund, or free product has been offered in exchange
- ☐ No second ask is going out through buyer-seller messaging for the same order
Once you've done it by hand, automate it under your own authorization
Clicking through Manage Orders works fine at a handful of orders a week. It stops working once you're shipping at real volume, because the mechanics that matter — skip returns, skip orders that already have feedback, don't ask twice, respect Amazon's per-order answer — are exactly the kind of bounded, repetitive, reversible checks that are safe to hand to an agent rather than a person clicking through pages one at a time.
That's what OptimalCentral's Auto Review Request does: once a day, on a connected Seller Central account, it checks your recently shipped orders and sends Amazon's own request — the same one, through Amazon's Solicitations API — to each order Amazon says is eligible, up to a daily limit. Orders with an FBA return, orders that already appear in your seller-feedback report, and anything not yet shipped are never asked, and you can exclude specific ASINs yourself. None of that runs without you first signing a one-time standing authorization for that exact configuration; change any setting and it pauses until you confirm the new one. It's included from the Brand plan, and the 14-day free trial runs it too, at a lower daily cap.
Stop clicking through orders one at a time
OptimalCentral is the operating system for your Amazon business — and on a connected account, it's a 24×7 optimizing agent that acts under the permissions you grant it. Auto Review Request is one of the bounded, reversible jobs it runs unattended once you authorize it; anything that touches money or your listing still waits for your approval. Try it free for 14 days.
Start free trial →Getting a review is only useful if the listing behind it can convert the traffic that review helps bring in — our listing audit checklist covers the fields worth fixing first. And if a review request goes fine but a review that lands afterward looks like it breaks a rule, see our guide to what paid review-removal services actually charge and guarantee before paying anyone to chase it.
Frequently asked questions
What does Amazon's Request a Review button actually send?
A single message that Amazon writes and controls, asking the buyer for both a product review and seller feedback at once. A seller cannot edit the wording, choose which one to ask for, or send it more than once per order.
How many days after delivery can I request a review on Amazon?
Amazon does not publish one universal number. Plenty of guides repeat a 5-to-30-day window, but in practice eligibility is decided order by order on Amazon's side, and the button (or an API call behind it) simply comes back eligible or not. Watch for the button itself rather than counting days.
Can I offer a discount or refund for a review on Amazon?
No. Amazon's Community Guidelines bar creating, editing, or removing a review in exchange for payment, a refund, a discount, a free product, a gift card, or any other compensation, and that applies to product reviews the same way it applies to the seller-feedback side of the same request.
Can I send a review request a second time if the buyer doesn't respond?
No. Amazon allows exactly one request per order through this feature, and it is not meant to be layered with a separate ask through buyer-seller messaging. If the first one goes unanswered, the order's chance has passed.
Is there a way to send Amazon's Request a Review automatically?
Yes. OptimalCentral's Auto Review Request checks your recently shipped orders once a day and sends Amazon's own request, through Amazon's Solicitations API, to each order Amazon says is eligible — skipping FBA returns, orders already in your seller feedback report, and anything you exclude — under a one-time standing authorization you can revoke by changing any setting.