Does Google Business Profile Q&A affect local ranking?

That is a boundary on what Google publishes, not proof that Q&A can never have any indirect relationship with another ranking system. Do not turn Q&A activity into a ranking guarantee or report a higher answer count as the cause of a higher local position.

The published local-ranking factors answer explains Google's three-factor summary in full.

That description gives Q&A an information role. It does not say that asking questions, answering them, or increasing the answer count improves a local result.

Seeing Q&A-derived information in Search is a display observation. It is not evidence that the business received a higher local position because of Q&A activity.

The site's Google Business Profile Q&A overview covers the owner answer route and the distinction between native Q&A and the discontinued API.

Google says Q&A is available only for select business categories and regions, and that its appearance and functionality may change. Business owners and other Business Profile managers can answer questions in the Q&A section when the feature is available.³

For a local-ranking check, compare the same query and search location over time, then describe the observation against Google's published relevance, distance, and popularity frame. Keep Q&A activity and answer counts as separate records unless Google publishes a source that establishes a ranking relationship.

If an integration depends on the retired API, use the current Q&A API status to remove that dependency. Do not treat a discontinued API or a manual Q&A surface as evidence about local ranking.