To develop a simple method for the detection of grapevine berry inner necrosis (GINV) that does not depend on expensive instruments, a reverse transcription (RT) loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay was developed. A set of primers was used in RT-LAMP to specifically detect GINV and different GINV variants belonging to groups 1, 2 and 3. The sensitivity of the RT-LAMP was about 100 times greater than that of conventional RT-PCR. Furthermore, a rapid “pin-prick” assay without RNA extraction was developed to detect GINV in RT-LAMP. The assay performed well for the detection of GINV from different parts of field grapevine plants and micropropagated grapevine plantlets, and had a higher detection rate of GINV than RT-PCR in the tested grapevine samples. •The sensitivity of GINV RT-LAMP was 100 times greater than conventional RT-PCR.•The GINV RT-LAMP can be applied to detect different GINV variants.•The “Pin-prick” RT-LAMP was a simpler way without RNA extraction.•The “Pin-prick” RT-LAMP performed well in field and in vitro grapevine samples.