--- title: "IndexNow adoption grows in 2026, but not at Google" url: https://seomadman.com/news/indexnow-adoption-google-holdout section: news published: 2026-06-16T00:00:00.000Z modified: 2026-06-16T00:00:00.000Z author: Adam Hafez topics: ["Technical SEO"] --- # IndexNow adoption grows in 2026, but not at Google ## The short answer IndexNow, the instant-indexing protocol Bing and Yandex launched in October 2021, has grown from 16 million sites submitting 1.2 billion URLs daily in 2022 to 3.5 billion URLs daily by December 2024, per Bing's own numbers. Naver, Seznam.cz and Yep also receive pings. Google still does not participate and has issued no roadmap to do so. ## Key takeaways - Bing reported more than 16 million websites submitting over 1.2 billion URLs per day to IndexNow in August 2022, its first public adoption figure. - That grew to more than 60 million websites and 1.4 billion URLs submitted daily by Bing's two-year update in October 2023. - Bing's most recently published figure, from December 2024, puts submissions at more than 3.5 billion URLs per day. - IndexNow's own FAQ lists Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam.cz and Yep as the search engines that receive its pings, and Amazon began adopting it as a submitter in 2025. - Google has never joined IndexNow and has published no roadmap to do so; the only on-record Google reaction remains a skeptical 2021 remark from John Mueller. IndexNow has kept growing since Bing and Yandex opened it in October 2021: Bing's own published figures put daily submissions at 3.5 billion URLs by the end of 2024, up from 1.2 billion when the company first shared a number in 2022. What has not changed is which engine receives those pings. Google is not one of them, and nothing it has published says that will change. ## The growth, by Bing's own numbers Bing has reported IndexNow's scale three times on its webmaster blog, each figure larger than the last: - **August 2022:** "more than 16 million web sites are publishing over 1.2 billion URLs per day to the IndexNow API." - **October 2023:** "60 million websites joining us daily and 1.4 billion URLs submitted each day." - **December 2024:** more than 3.5 billion URLs submitted per day, alongside a claim that 18% of all new URLs clicked in Bing's web search results arrived through IndexNow. Bing has not published a newer aggregate submission count since that December 2024 post. Its 2025 posts name individual adopters, including Amazon, Shopify and Milestone, rather than a fresh total. Treat 3.5 billion as the most recent verified figure, not a 2026 one. ## Who actually receives the pings IndexNow's own FAQ names five search engines as participants: Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam.cz and Yep. A site that pings the IndexNow API reaches all five with one submission, which is the entire point of the protocol: no more filing separate URLs with each engine's own tool. Amazon is a more recent name in IndexNow's story, but as a submitter rather than a receiving engine. Bing's May 2025 post describes Amazon adopting IndexNow to push its own product and listing URLs, alongside Shopify and Milestone doing the same for merchant sites. ## Where Google stands Google is absent from IndexNow's own list of participating engines, and its Search Central documentation makes no mention of the protocol. There is no Google roadmap, beta or stated intention to adopt it. The closest thing to an on-record Google reaction is a quip from Search Advocate John Mueller when IndexNow launched in 2021, describing Google's crawlers as content to "be crawled less often" rather than pushed to. Nothing since has moved that position onto paper. Google instead directs sites toward sitemaps, regular crawling and the Search Console URL Inspection tool, with the separate [Indexing API](/topics/technical-seo) reserved for job postings and livestream pages. None of those give a site the instant, multi-engine push that IndexNow offers for the five engines it does reach. ## Why we care The honest framing is adoption by Bing, Yandex and three smaller engines, not universal adoption. Google still sends the majority of organic search traffic for most sites, so a protocol it does not receive cannot replace sitemaps or crawl-budget work, whatever its growth curve looks like elsewhere. Add IndexNow for the engines it reaches; keep everything else aimed at Google unchanged. ## Frequently asked questions ### Does Google support IndexNow? No. IndexNow's own FAQ lists Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam.cz and Yep as the search engines that receive submissions. Google is not among them, has published no Search Central documentation about the protocol, and has given no public commitment to join it. ### What is the most recent adoption figure Bing has published? More than 3.5 billion URLs submitted per day, from a Bing Webmaster Blog post dated 12 December 2024. Bing has published adopter names since, including Amazon, Shopify and Milestone in 2025, but no newer aggregate submission count. ### Should a site stop using sitemaps and XML pings if it adopts IndexNow? No. IndexNow is a push notification to the engines that support it; it does not reach Google, which still relies on sitemaps, crawling and the Search Console URL Inspection tool. The two mechanisms are complementary, not substitutes for each other. ## Sources 1. [Look How Far We've Come: IndexNow Expands Adoption Across Industries](https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/December-2024/Look-How-Far-We-ve-Come-IIndexNow-Expands-Adoption-Across-Industries) - Bing Webmaster Blog (primary) 2. [IndexNow - Celebrating two years of growth!](https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/october-2023/IndexNow-Celebrating-two-years-of-growth) - Bing Webmaster Blog (primary) 3. [IndexNow adoption gains momentum](https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/august-2022/IndexNow-adoption-gains-momentum) - Bing Webmaster Blog (primary) 4. [IndexNow FAQ](https://www.indexnow.org/faq) - IndexNow (primary) 5. [IndexNow Enables Faster and More Reliable Updates for Shopping and Ads](https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/May-2025/IndexNow-Enables-Faster-and-More-Reliable-Updates-for-Shopping-and-Ads) - Bing Webmaster Blog 6. [Google's absence from IndexNow raises questions about web indexing standards](https://ppc.land/googles-absence-from-indexnow-raises-questions-about-web-indexing-standards/) - PPC Land