Straight answer
Does Google support IndexNow?
No. Google is not a participating engine, and submitting to IndexNow has no effect on Google Search. Here is what Google said, what it offers instead, and what that means for your setup.
Protocol facts last checked 2026-09-24.
The short answer
No. IndexNow was launched in 2021 by Microsoft Bing and Yandex and is used by Microsoft Bing, Yandex, Seznam.cz, Naver and Yep. Google has not adopted it. Any tool that claims to "index your pages in Google via IndexNow" is either confused or misleading.
What Google said about IndexNow
Shortly after the launch, Google publicly said it would test the protocol with a view to sustainability. As of the date at the top of this page, no participation has followed, and Google Search Central documentation does not list IndexNow as a supported mechanism. We will update this page if that changes.
What Google offers instead
- XML sitemaps with accurate
lastmodvalues. Google reads them regularly and uses reliable modification dates to prioritise recrawling. Inflated or constant dates get ignored. - Search Console URL Inspection. Manual "request indexing" for individual URLs, with a daily quota, intended for occasional use.
- Internal links and normal crawling. Still the main way Google discovers change.
Why the Google Indexing API is not a workaround
Google's Indexing API is officially limited to pages with JobPosting or livestream BroadcastEvent structured data. Using it for ordinary pages violates its terms and, in Google's own words, can lead to lower quality signals or loss of access. AutoIndexNow does not call it and will not add it.
What this means for your setup
Use IndexNow for the engines that participate: it is cheap, immediate and easy to automate. For Google, keep sitemap lastmod honest, which AutoIndexNow's change detection helps with indirectly by telling you which pages actually changed. Do not expect IndexNow submissions to show up in Google's index, and treat any product that promises otherwise with suspicion.