Short answer: no, QR codes that link to your Google review page are not against Google's policy. What crosses the line isn't the QR code itself — it's how it's used. Here's exactly what's allowed, and what isn't, based on Google's published review policies.
What Google actually restricts
Google's review policies prohibit fake reviews, incentivized reviews (offering money, discounts, or gifts in exchange for a review or a specific rating), review gating (only sending happy customers to Google while diverting unhappy ones elsewhere so it never reaches Google at all), and reviews from people who never actually used the business.
A QR code that links straight to your review page: allowed
Simply making it easier for a real customer to leave a genuine review — via a QR code, a short link, a text message, or a printed card — is explicitly fine. Google wants more reviews from real customers; a QR code just removes friction from that process.
Where it becomes review gating: a gray area to avoid
The risk shows up when a business uses a star-selector step to only send 4- and 5-star customers to Google, while 1-3 star customers are sent to a private form and never given the option to post publicly at all. Google has cracked down on this pattern. The safer approach: give every customer, regardless of rating, the option to post to Google if they choose to — a private feedback form can be offered alongside that option for lower ratings, not instead of it.
Where it becomes incentivizing: also to avoid
Offering a discount, free item, or entry into a prize draw specifically for leaving a review — or for leaving a positive review — violates policy even if the review itself is genuine. It's fine to thank customers generally or run a loyalty program, but tying any reward directly to the act of reviewing is the line Google enforces on.
AI-suggested review text: allowed, with a caveat
Giving customers an editable starting sentence to help them write their own review is fine, because the customer is still writing their own experience in their own words. What isn't fine is generating a complete, unedited review and posting it on the customer's behalf, or writing reviews for people who never used the business — that constitutes review fraud.
The bottom line
QR codes themselves are not against policy — they're just a delivery method. The actual risk is in review gating and incentivizing, not the code. Keep the review option open to every customer regardless of rating, don't tie rewards to reviewing, and you're well within Google's guidelines.