What Did Google Change on October 16?
Google’s changelog for its Search documentation has a single Indexing API entry for October 16, 2026. Under “What,” it says Google “Updated the Indexing API quota page to reflect the current quota limits and process.” Under “Why,” it says: “To document the current quota limits for the Indexing API and remove an outdated form” (Google Search Central).
Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz reported the same morning that the edit reached further than the changelog says, across three pages, and that Google removed “the old approval process and initial testing explanation, the sitemap recommendation, and, most importantly, the default quota details” (Search Engine Roundtable). To check, we compared each live page with the most recent earlier copy in the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine: the quota page as of October 5, the Using the Indexing API page as of October 6, the Quickstart as of October 12, and the Prerequisites page as of July 27. The earlier copies of the first three carry a “Last updated 2026-07-16 UTC” stamp; the live versions say “Last updated 2026-10-16 UTC.”
Roundtable’s account is right about the approval wording and the sitemap passage. On one point our reading differs: the quota page still lists the default values. What went is the framing of those values as a testing allowance that needed approval to exceed.
What Did the Pages Say Before and After?
| Page | Removed (earlier Wayback copy) | Now reads |
|---|---|---|
| Quota and pricing | “The Indexing API provides initial default quota for testing, and it requires additional approval for usage and resource provisioning.” A heading “Initial default quota,” described as quota “for initial API onboarding and testing submissions.” | “The Indexing API provides the following quota:” followed by a “Default quota” list with the same three values. |
| Quota and pricing | A “Request quota and approval” section: the scope sentence, a link to “fill out this form” to “request quota beyond the initial default quota and gain approval,” and “The quota may increase or decrease based on the document quality.” | Nothing in its place. A “View your quota” section points to the Google API Console. |
| Using the Indexing API | Three repetitions of “The Indexing API provides a default quota for testing. To use the API, request approval and quota.” | Removed. A link that read “how to request quota” now reads “the default quota.” |
| Quickstart | “Request approval and quota. The Indexing API provides a default 200 quota for API onboarding and submission testing, and it requires additional approval for usage and resource provisioning.” | Removed from the list of setup steps. |
| Quickstart | “For websites with many short-lived pages like job postings or livestream videos, we recommend using the Indexing API instead of sitemaps because the Indexing API prompts Googlebot to crawl your pages sooner than updating the sitemap. However, we still recommend submitting a sitemap for coverage of your entire site.” | “For websites with many short-lived pages like job postings or livestream videos, the Indexing API keeps content fresh in search results because it allows updates to be pushed individually.” |
| Prerequisites | No change in the text between the July 27 copy and the live page. | Project, service account, Search Console ownership, delegated owner. |
The approval language was not old. Google’s changelog shows that on September 4, 2024 it “Clarified that the default quota is for setting up the Indexing API, and how to request approval and quota,” explaining that “the default quota is for initial setup and testing, and it requires additional approval for usage and resource provisioning.” A week later, on September 11, 2024, it added that submissions “are subject to spam detection, and attempts to exceed quotas may result in revoked access.” The October 16 edit reverses the first of those and leaves the second in place.
What Are the Limits Now?
requests per minute
The third limit is daily, not per minute, so it is not charted: 200 publish requests (URL_UPDATED and URL_DELETED combined) per project per day, resetting at midnight Pacific Time. Google says new quota "can take up to 24 hours to become effective."
The chart shows the two per-minute ceilings on Google’s quota page, 380 requests across all endpoints and 180 metadata reads; the binding limit for most users is the third, 200 publish requests a day. All three values match the October 5 copy.
The quota page says the daily allowance “includes both URL_UPDATED and URL_DELETED request types,” resets at midnight Pacific Time, and that “new quota can take up to 24 hours to become effective.” The Using the Indexing API page adds that a batch can combine up to 100 requests but that “Quota is counted at the URL level”: 10 URLs in one batch count as 10. On price, the page says: “All use of the Indexing API is available without payment” (Google, Quota and pricing).
Did the Approval Step Really Go Away?
From the documentation, yes. From the system, Google has not said. Its changelog calls the old form “outdated,” which suggests the documented process no longer matched the real one, but it does not say what the real one is. The Prerequisites page lists only setup: a Google API Console project, a service account, verified ownership in Search Console, and adding the service account as a delegated owner (Google, Prerequisites).
The practitioners Roundtable quoted read it as a paperwork change. Alexander Chukovski wrote on X: “This change makes zero sense. A new service account still gets a default quota of 200. No change here.” He added that the removed text had “hinted you need to request a quota increase, so now the form is only visible in the console.” Nick LeRoy wrote that his own testing tool returned a 200 status from a sandbox but “404 from getMetadata, showing it never reaches Google’s index queue” (Search Engine Roundtable). Those are individual reports, and the conclusion in LeRoy’s is his own; we did not test the API.
What has not been removed is the warning. The Quickstart still says: “All submissions through the Indexing API undergo rigorous spam detection. Any attempts to abuse the Indexing API, including the use of multiple accounts or other means to exceed usage quotas, may result in access being revoked” (Google, Quickstart).
What Is the Indexing API Still For?
Two kinds of page. The Using the Indexing API page says the API can “tell Google to update or remove job posting or livestreaming event pages from the Google index” and that it “can only be used to crawl pages with either JobPosting or BroadcastEvent embedded in a VideoObject.” Google’s video documentation is blunter: “The Indexing API only supports livestream videos.” Its job posting documentation tells employers to “Use the Indexing API to request removal of a job posting URL from the Google Search index” and still recommends the API “instead of sitemaps” for job posting URLs, while “we still recommend submitting a sitemap for coverage of your entire site” (Google, Job posting). So the sitemap advice was removed from one page and kept on another, for the same kind of URL.
Before October 16 the scope sentence appeared on three pages. It now appears on two, because the section of the quota page that carried it was deleted. Nothing we read adds a content type, and the October 16 changelog entry does not mention scope.
Can a Company Use It for Press Pages?
Not as a documented use. A press release, a bylined article, a podcast episode page or a newsroom post carries neither JobPosting nor a livestream BroadcastEvent. Google’s pages do not say what happens to other URLs submitted through the API, and we do not guess. They say what the API “can only be used” for, that spam policies apply to what is submitted, and that abuse can cost access.
Our recommendation, not a platform rule: use the routes Google documents for ordinary pages. Submit and maintain a sitemap (How to Submit a Sitemap to Google and Bing), use URL Inspection to check status and request a crawl (How to Check If a Page Is Indexed by Google), and, for a news publisher, a news sitemap (How to Create a News Sitemap). Bing and other engines accept IndexNow (How to Set Up IndexNow). Realistic waits are in How Long Does Google Take to Index a New Page?
What This Means for Anyone Buying a Placement
Expect to hear the October 16 edit described as Google “opening up” the Indexing API. On Google’s own pages it did not: the limits, the free price and the two supported page types are where they were. If a vendor offers to “push” a placement or a press release into Google through an API, ask which documented method it uses and which page type the URL carries. A placement on a third-party site is also that publisher’s page to submit, not yours.
And indexing is not ranking. A page in Google’s index is eligible to appear; it is not promised a position, a Top Stories slot or a citation in AI Overviews. Ask any vendor what it can show from Search Console after the fact, rather than what it can trigger before.
Methodology and Limitations
Four limits apply. First, our before-and-after comparison uses the latest Wayback Machine copies available, dated October 5, 6 and 12 for the three changed pages; we compared the visible text, not the underlying HTML. Second, we did not call the API, so we cannot say whether quota requests or approvals still happen inside the Google Cloud console. Third, the practitioner quotes are individual reports relayed by Search Engine Roundtable. Fourth, Google has said nothing beyond its one-line changelog entry.
Conclusion
Google deleted the approval process from its Indexing API documentation and kept everything else: the 200-a-day default, the free price, the spam warning and the job-posting and livestream scope. That removes a step that may already have been a dead letter. It does not create a new route into Google for press pages, which still get there the ordinary way.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Google change in the Indexing API documentation on October 16, 2026?
Google's changelog says it updated the quota page "to reflect the current quota limits and process" and to "remove an outdated form." Comparing Wayback Machine copies, the approval and quota-request wording was also removed from the Using the Indexing API page and the Quickstart.
Does the Indexing API still need approval?
Google's documentation no longer mentions an approval step or a request form. Google has not said whether anything changed in the system itself, and practitioners quoted by Search Engine Roundtable say new accounts still get a default quota of 200.
What are the Indexing API quotas?
Google's quota page lists 200 publish requests per day, 180 getMetadata requests per minute and 380 requests per minute across all endpoints, per project. The values are the same as before the October 16 edit.
Is the Indexing API free?
Yes. Google's quota page says "All use of the Indexing API is available without payment."
What pages can use the Indexing API?
Google says it "can only be used to crawl pages with either JobPosting or BroadcastEvent embedded in a VideoObject," meaning job postings and livestream video pages.
Can I use the Indexing API for a press release or news article?
Not as a documented use. Our recommendation is a sitemap, a news sitemap where eligible, and Search Console's URL Inspection tool.
Sources
This explainer compares Google's Indexing API pages as published on October 16, 2026 with the most recent earlier Wayback Machine copies (October 5, 6 and 12, 2026, and July 27, 2026 for Prerequisites), and draws on Google's documentation changelog, two related Google structured-data pages and Search Engine Roundtable's report, all read on October 16, 2026. Recommendations on routes for ordinary pages are ours, not Google rules. We did not test the API.
- official Google Search Central, Latest documentation updates. Supports the October 16, 2026 entry and the September 4 and 11, 2024 entries. Read October 16, 2026.
- platform documentation Google for Developers, Quota and pricing. Supports the limits, reset time, 24-hour lag, price wording and, via the Wayback Machine copy of October 5, 2026, the removed passages. Last updated 2026-10-16 UTC. Read October 16, 2026.
- platform documentation Google for Developers, Using the Indexing API. Supports the scope sentence, spam-policy line, batch size, URL-level counting and, via the Wayback copy of October 6, 2026, the removed approval lines. Read October 16, 2026.
- platform documentation Google for Developers, Indexing API Quickstart. Supports the spam-detection warning, the new freshness sentence and, via the Wayback copy of October 12, 2026, the removed sitemap and approval passages. Read October 16, 2026.
- platform documentation Google for Developers, Prerequisites. Supports the setup steps; unchanged against the Wayback copy of July 27, 2026. Read October 16, 2026.
- platform documentation Google Search Central, Job posting structured data. Supports the retained sitemap recommendation and the removal instruction. Read October 16, 2026.
- platform documentation Google Search Central, Video structured data. Supports "The Indexing API only supports livestream videos." Read October 16, 2026.
- trade press Search Engine Roundtable, Google Updates Indexing API Quota Information. Supports Roundtable's account and the Chukovski and LeRoy posts. Dated October 16, 2026. Read October 16, 2026.