Google edited three Indexing API documentation pages on October 16. The quota page no longer links the quota-request form, and the “initial … for testing” framing and the approval requirement are gone from its text. The default of 200 publish requests per day per project is unchanged.
What Google Changed on the Quota Page
The Search Central changelog lists one entry for October 16, “Updating the Indexing API quota page”. Its “What” line says Google “Updated the Indexing API quota page to reflect the current quota limits and process.” Its “Why” line says the aim was “To document the current quota limits for the Indexing API and remove an outdated form.” The entry names only the quota page. The Quickstart and the usage page also show “Last updated 2026-10-16 UTC” and changed too, without a mention.
The Wayback Machine capture of October 5 opens with: “The Indexing API provides initial default quota for testing, and it requires additional approval for usage and resource provisioning.” It also has a section called “Request quota and approval” that sends readers to a form. None of that is on the live quota page.
What does the Indexing API quota page say now?
The live quota page lists DefaultPublishRequestsPerDayPerProject and says: “The default value is set to 200.” That covers both URL_UPDATED and URL_DELETED requests, and the daily quota resets at midnight Pacific Time. Two per-minute limits sit beside it: 180 for getMetadata requests and 380 for all endpoints.
Before and After, Line by Line
| Oct 5 capture | Live Oct 16 |
|---|---|
| “Initial default quota” for testing | Section removed; table still headed “Default quota” |
| Additional approval required | No approval step described |
| Link to a request form | No link |
| 200 publish requests per day | 200 publish requests per day |
| 180 getMetadata, 380 total per minute | 180 getMetadata, 380 total per minute |
| JobPosting or BroadcastEvent only | Not on this page; still on Quickstart and usage page |
What the Other Two Pages Lost
The Quickstart, against a capture from October 12, lost its step “Request approval and quota” and a paragraph about sitemaps and the API. It still says the API “can only be used to crawl pages with either JobPosting or BroadcastEvent embedded in a VideoObject”. It also still warns that abuse, “including the use of multiple accounts or other means to exceed usage quotas, may result in access being revoked”. The sitemap advice survives elsewhere: Google’s job posting structured data guide, last updated September 8, still recommends the API for job posting URLs plus a sitemap for the whole site.
The usage page, against a capture from October 6, dropped the lines “The Indexing API provides a default quota for testing. To use the API, request approval and quota.” They appeared three times, under the update, remove and status sections. A batching note now links “the default quota” instead of a request-quota section, and still says a batch of 10 “counts as 10 requests for your quota”.
Where Search Engine Roundtable Read It Differently
Search Engine Roundtable (SER) covered the change on October 16. Barry Schwartz wrote: “Google removed the details about the ‘default quota’ – I guess there is no more a default quota for the Indexing API.” SER read it as the default quota being removed; the live page still titles its quota table “Default quota” and still says the default is set to 200. What the diff shows removed is the testing framing and the approval route.
What the Docs Do Not Say
The docs give no new way to ask for more quota. The quota page says you can view yours in the Google API Console; it does not say whether you can change it there. Nothing explains what happened to requests already submitted. In September we covered operators whose getMetadata calls returned 404 and job boards whose approval requests went unanswered for months. No page tells those operators whether anything changed for them. The form itself still loaded on October 16, but none of the Indexing API pages we checked links to it any more. We are not linking it either.
We found no Google comment beyond the changelog’s own lines. On October 8, the same changelog added a page for the UGC Fresh Data Program, a separate Google program for forum and social posts.
What to Plan Around
Budget for 200 publish requests per project per day, and count each call in a batch. Check your actual figure in the API Console quotas page. Keep the API for job posting and livestream pages, which is all the Quickstart and usage page document, and keep submitting a sitemap for the whole site.
