Google removes the Indexing API approval form, locking the 200 publish cap

Anyone who was going to apply to Google for a higher Indexing API quota should stop looking for the form, because it is gone. Google's Search Central changelog entry on 2026-10-16 said the team "updated the Indexing API quota page to reflect the current quota limits and process" and removed what it called an "outdated form". The page now lists the limits with no sentence about raising them.

The limits are the same ones the page had before: 200 publish requests a day for URL_UPDATED and URL_DELETED, 180 read-only getMetadata calls a minute, and 380 total calls a minute. Google resets the daily counter at midnight Pacific time. The scope of the API has not moved either: it still accepts only pages that carry JobPosting or BroadcastEvent structured data, and the spam policy that threatens to revoke access for misuse is still on the page.

What came out of the docs

The removed section was called "Request quota and approval". It explained how to request a quota beyond the default, pointed at a form, and warned that the default was "for testing". Search Engine Journal's Matt G. Southern read the three affected pages and listed what Google took out: the request-and-approval block, the form link, the "To request quota beyond the initial default quota" sentence, and three notes on each page describing the 200 figure as a starting allowance. The quickstart no longer has a "Request approval and quota" step either.

The quota page's current text does not say the 200 figure is a cap. It also does not say it can be raised. Both earlier readings were explicit; this one is silent.

What a site using the API should do

Treat 200 publishes a day as the number you build the integration around. A hiring site with 400 new jobs a day can only tell Google about half of them through the API, and the rest still need a sitemap and the time it takes Google to crawl it. A broadcaster running a live stream can send one URL_UPDATED when the event goes up and one URL_DELETED when it ends, so two calls per event, which is 100 events a day inside the cap.

Google's own guidance has long said the Indexing API is for JobPosting and BroadcastEvent only, and that submitting other content types counts as abuse. The one line that used to tell publishers to use the API instead of sitemaps for job pages is also gone, so there is now no documented preference between the two for a site that could in principle use either. Sitemaps have no cap and no application process.

If the default was ever lifted for a specific project, that project's quota should still be visible under Google API Console. There is no indication Google is lowering an existing allowance, only that it is not accepting new ones through a documented route.

Source

Google Search Central changelog. The current Indexing API quota page. Search Engine Journal, Matt G. Southern, who first read the diff.