Reference guide · search-console · Published 2026-08-16 · 3 min read
Google Indexing API for Search Console
Google Indexing API explained: the JobPosting and BroadcastEvent limits, the 200 per day quota, and why it is not a page-notify tool.
- ·The restricted scope
- ·Quota and limits
- ·Not a page-notify tool
What the Indexing API is restricted to
The Google Indexing API is one of the surfaces inside Search Console's API platform, but its scope is narrow: it is limited to pages carrying JobPosting or BroadcastEvent structured data. Google's own documentation says the API "can only be used to crawl pages with either JobPosting or BroadcastEvent embedded in a VideoObject."
That restriction is enforced, not a suggestion. If your pages do not contain one of those two marked-up types, an otherwise ordinary URL cannot be submitted through the API, and asking for more quota for a general content site is declined.
| Content type | Allowed through Indexing API |
|---|---|
| JobPosting structured data | Yes |
| BroadcastEvent inside VideoObject | Yes |
| Blog posts, product pages, articles | No |
Quota and limits
The Indexing API runs under a Google Cloud project, and its defaults are:
- Default publish requests 200 per day per project. Both
URL_UPDATEDandURL_DELETEDcount against this total. - Read-only metadata (checking status) has its own 180 per minute.
- The combined endpoint rate is 380 per minute.
The daily publish quota resets at midnight Pacific time. It is a project-level cap, so everything sharing one project draws from the same 200. Quota increases are granted case by case and only make sense for sites that really use the two supported content types.
| Endpoint action | Default limit | Scope |
|---|---|---|
Publish/remove (URL_UPDATED/URL_DELETED) | 200 / day | Per Cloud project |
Read status (getMetadata) | 180 / min | Per Cloud project |
| All endpoints | 380 / min | Per Cloud project |
Why it is not a page-notify tool
A common misconception is that the Indexing API is a general "tell Google a page changed" tool that beats a sitemap. It does not work that way: for ordinary pages the scope restriction above forbids submission, and even within scope Google does not guarantee indexing. The reliable defaults remain:
- A good XML sitemap tells Google all your URLs exist, and it is not quota-limited.
- URL Inspection (
Search Console > URL Inspectionand its API) is the correct surface for a spot-check or aRequest indexingon a specific page. - Sitemap submission keeps Google aware of new and changed pages at any volume.
The Indexing API shines only for the specific freshness case it targets, jobs and livestreams, where a rapid re-crawl matters and the page legitimately carries the required markup. For everything else, request indexing and submitting your sitemap are the honest, quota-light paths, and you keep track of each URL in the URL Inspection reference.