Free tool
IndexNow key checker
Fetches your key file the way an IndexNow endpoint would and tells you exactly why it passes or fails.
Protocol facts last checked 2026-09-24.
Check a key file
What the checker verifies
- The key format: 8 to 128 characters of a-z, A-Z, 0-9 and dashes.
- The key location is a
.txtfile on the same host (www and non-www count as the same host). - The file answers HTTP 200 without redirecting to another host.
- The file body equals the key exactly, ignoring surrounding whitespace and a byte-order mark.
- The
Content-Type, with a note when it is nottext/plain.
Common failures and fixes
- 404 or another status. The file is not published where the key location says. Upload it to the web root, or set
keyLocationto where it actually lives. - Content mismatch. Usually an HTML page (a soft 404 or a redirect page), a trailing line of text, or a different key than the one you submit with.
- Redirect to another host. Serving the file from a CDN or a different domain does not prove ownership of this host.
- Unreachable. Bot protection, a firewall or a TLS problem. Search engines fetch the file with automated clients too.
What a passing check does not prove
A reachable key file only lets endpoints accept your submissions. It does not mean any URL was crawled or indexed, and it does not stay true forever: sites move, caches change, files get deleted.
A 200 or 202 from an IndexNow endpoint means the request was accepted, not that the URL is indexed. Google does not participate in IndexNow.
Automate key health checks
AutoIndexNow re-checks the key file before every batch and once a day, and sends an alert with the exact failure the moment it breaks. Monitoring plans start on the pricing page.