Google on October 16, 2026 rewrote the quota and pricing page for its Indexing API, the push channel that job boards and livestream publishers use to tell Google Search about new or removed pages. The page now lists three default limits, a statement that the API is free and a pointer to the Google API Console. The section that told developers to fill in a form for more quota and for approval to use the API is gone, and no replacement process appears anywhere in the English documentation.

In Short

Google has a special fast lane that lets job sites and livestream pages tell it about new pages, and it rewrote the page that explains how much that lane can be used. The page used to point to a form for asking for more, and that form is no longer mentioned. The daily limit of 200 page notifications per project is still written down, but Google does not say how anyone gets past it now.

What the changelog says

The change is listed on the Search Central "Latest documentation updates" page under October 16, with the heading "Updating the Indexing API quota page." The entry is two sentences long. According to Google, the "What" was: "Updated the Indexing API quota page to reflect the current quota limits and process." The "Why" was: "To document the current quota limits for the Indexing API and remove an outdated form."

That is the full explanation. Google did not publish a blog post, did not say when the form stopped being used, and did not describe what the "current process" is beyond what the page itself now shows. The quota page carries a footer reading "Last updated 2026-10-16 UTC," which matches the changelog date.

It was one of three Search Central documentation entries in October. The other two, on October 8 and October 1, covered the UGC Fresh Data Program and the guide on generative AI content.

The three limits on the page

The rewritten page, titled "Quota and pricing information," opens with a single sentence: "The Indexing API provides the following quota." A table with the heading "Default quota" follows. It has three rows.

DefaultPublishRequestsPerDayPerProject is the number of requests a Google Cloud project can send to the publish endpoint in a day. According to the page, "This includes both URL_UPDATED and URL_DELETED request types. The default value is set to 200." The page adds that "The daily quota resets at midnight Pacific Time, which means new quota can take up to 24 hours to become effective."

DefaultMetadataRequestsPerMinutePerProject covers read-only calls to the getMetadata endpoint, which reports when Google last received a notification for a URL. "The default value is set to 180," according to Google.

DefaultRequestsPerMinutePerProject is a ceiling across every endpoint. "The default value is set to 380."

None of the three numbers changed. They are the same values PPC Land recorded when Google clarified the Indexing API quota page in September 2024, when Google also said the per-minute ceiling had always been 380 and corrected documentation that implied otherwise.

Below the table, two short sections remain. "To view your quota, go to the Google API Console," reads the first. The second, under "Pricing," states: "All use of the Indexing API is available without payment."

That is the whole page. Its "On this page" navigation lists only "View your quota" and "Pricing."

What was removed

The PDF of the current page cannot show what was taken out, so the earlier version has to be reconstructed from other sources. Two are available.

The first is PPC Land's own coverage of the September 4, 2024 revision. That version described the default limits as being mainly for setup and initial testing, and said that anyone who needed more quota, or who wanted to use the API for pages with the eligible markup, had to submit a designated request form with project details from the Google Cloud console. Approval was not guaranteed, and the granted quota could change depending on the quality of the documents submitted through the API, according to the documentation at the time.

The second is the Italian translation of the quota page, which Google had not yet updated when PPC Land checked it on October 19. Its footer reads 2026-07-17 UTC. It still opens by describing the defaults as an initial quota for testing that requires additional approval for use and resource provisioning, and it still carries a section headed, in Italian, "Request quota and approval." That section repeats the eligibility rule for JobPosting and BroadcastEvent pages, links to a form for quota above the initial default and for approval to use the API, asks for Google Cloud project details, and warns that quota may rise or fall depending on document quality.

Comparing that translation with the English page of October 16 gives a clear picture of the edit, though it is an inference: Google has not published the old English text alongside the new one. Three things are no longer in the English quota page:

  • the link to the request form;
  • the statement that use beyond the default requires approval;
  • the warning that granted quota depends on the quality of submitted documents.

The "testing" framing of the 200-request default has also disappeared from the opening sentence.

The quickstart page changed too

The changelog mentions only the quota page, but it was not the only page edited that day. The English Indexing API quickstart also carries a "Last updated 2026-10-16 UTC" footer, as does the "Using the API" guide.

The Italian quickstart, last updated on August 2, 2026, still says the API offers a default quota of 200 for onboarding and testing submissions and requires additional approval for use and resource provisioning. A check of the English quickstart on October 19 found no reference to a 200 default, onboarding, testing or approval. The only remaining reference to limits is in the paragraph on abuse, which warns that using multiple accounts or other means to exceed usage quotas may lead Google to revoke access. The quickstart also still states that every submission goes through spam detection.

The prerequisites page, last updated July 16, 2026, lists four setup steps: create a project in the Google API Console, create a service account, add that service account as an owner of the property in Search Console, and exchange a private key for an OAuth access token with the indexing scope. It has never mentioned a form or an approval step.

What did not change

The scope of the API is the same. The English documentation still limits the Indexing API to pages with JobPosting markup or a BroadcastEvent embedded in a VideoObject. That restriction to job postings and livestream pages has held since Google added livestream support in December 2018, and PPC Land's explainer on indexing notes the API covers job posting and broadcast event markup only, through publish and getMetadata endpoints with separate quotas.

The mechanics are also unchanged. A URL_UPDATED notification tells Google a page is new or changed. A URL_DELETED notification tells it a page is gone, and the page must already return a 404 or 410 status or carry a noindex tag. Up to 100 calls can be bundled into one batch request, but quota is counted per URL, so a batch of 100 uses 100 of the 200 daily publish requests. The getMetadata endpoint reports when notifications were sent, not when Google indexed or removed a page.

And the price is still zero.

The open question

What happens when a project needs more than 200 publish requests a day? The current documentation does not say.

Several readings are possible, and Google has confirmed none of them. The form may have been retired because quota requests now go through the standard quota tools in the Google Cloud console, which the page points to only for viewing quota. Approval may no longer be required for eligible pages. Or the process may simply be undocumented for now. The changelog calls the form "outdated," which suggests it was no longer the route Google wanted developers to use, but it does not say what took its place.

The distinction is not academic for a mid-sized job board. A site that posts and expires several thousand listings a day would exhaust 200 notifications within hours, and the September 2024 version of the page framed that default as a testing allowance. Projects that already hold higher allocations are not addressed either: the page lists only defaults.

There is also the matter of the quality clause. The removed text tied granted quota to the quality of submitted documents. Its disappearance from the quota page does not mean Google stopped applying that judgement, since the quickstart still describes spam detection on every submission and the possibility of revoked access. It does mean the documentation no longer states the link between quality and allocation.

Why the channel is so narrow

Google has kept the Indexing API on a short leash for years, and that context explains why a quiet edit to its quota page draws attention from technical SEO teams.

PPC Land reported in December 2024 that Google's absence from IndexNow, the push protocol backed by Microsoft Bing and Yandex, left the Indexing API as one of Google's few limited API-based options, restricted to job postings and live streams. Ordinary pages still depend on crawling and on manual requests through the URL Inspection tool, which carries its own limits.

The API has also been a recurring target for misuse. Pages without JobPosting or BroadcastEvent markup have been pushed through it in attempts to speed up indexing, which is why the quickstart's warning about multiple accounts exists. When Google's John Mueller said in July 2025 that poor indexing on strong hosting points to quality issues, PPC Land's coverage noted that the Indexing API is limited to specific structured data types, requires approval for production use and carries strict quota limits. On October 19, two of those three conditions remained visible in the English documentation.

A second push channel, with its own form

The timing invites comparison with a program Google documented eight days earlier. On October 8, Google published a page and application form for the UGC Fresh Data Program, a pipeline for forums and social platforms to send new user posts and engagement signals straight to Google. PPC Land reported that applicants face a 6 to 8 week wait for answers, that Google set six eligibility criteria without numeric thresholds, and that the program is described as independent of the Indexing API.

So in the same month, Google added an application form for one push channel and removed one from another. PPC Land's report on how the September 2026 spam update ended after 13 days made the same point about the gap: the existing Indexing API is no help to user-generated content platforms because it is limited to JobPosting pages and BroadcastEvent markup inside VideoObject.

The two channels serve different publishers, and nothing in the October 16 entry links them. Still, the contrast shows where Google is willing to accept direct submissions: job listings, livestreams and, now, approved user-content platforms, each under terms Google sets page by page.

Documentation churn at Search Central

The quota rewrite is part of a steady flow of small Search Central edits that change what site owners can rely on without any announcement beyond the changelog. On October 1, Google told sites to manually fact-check AI content before publishing, adding three sentences to its generative AI guide. Earlier entries on the same changelog page removed the FAQ rich result documentation in June and cut references to the AMP Cache and signed exchanges in July.

The Indexing API entry fits that pattern. It is short, it states a reason in one line, and it leaves the practical consequence for developers to work out from the page itself. For the teams that run job feeds or livestream schedules through the API, the numbers they plan around are unchanged at 200, 180 and 380. The route to anything beyond those numbers is the part Google no longer writes down.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Google's Search Central documentation team, and the developers at job boards, recruitment platforms and livestream publishers who use the Indexing API.

What: Google rewrote the Indexing API quota and pricing page to list three default limits (200 publish requests per project per day, 180 getMetadata requests per minute and 380 requests per minute across all endpoints), a pointer to the Google API Console and free pricing. It removed what the changelog calls "an outdated form," which earlier versions of the page and the untranslated Italian copy show was the route to more quota and to approval for using the API.

When: The change is dated October 16, 2026 in the Search Central changelog and in the page footer. The English quickstart and "Using the API" pages were updated the same day.

Where: On developers.google.com, in the Indexing API section of the Google Search Central documentation, with the change logged on the "Latest documentation updates" page.

Why: According to Google, the update was made "to document the current quota limits for the Indexing API and remove an outdated form." Google did not explain what replaced the form or whether approval is still needed for use beyond the defaults, which leaves projects that need more than 200 daily notifications without a documented process.