--- title: "IndexNow keeps growing, but Google stays out" url: https://surfil.com/news/indexnow-adoption-google-holdout section: news language: en published: 2026-06-16T00:00:00.000Z modified: 2026-06-16T00:00:00.000Z author: Adam Hafez topics: ["Technical SEO"] --- # IndexNow keeps growing, but Google stays out ## 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. Amazon, 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. - That grew to 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 Amazon, Bing, Naver, Seznam.cz, Yandex and Yep as the participating endpoints that receive its pings. - Google has never joined IndexNow and has published no roadmap to do so; the one Google reaction we found is a light-hearted 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. We found no newer aggregate submission count from Bing since that December 2024 post. Its May 2025 post, on shopping and ads, names Shopify's integration 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 lists six participating endpoints: Amazon, Bing, Naver, Seznam.cz, Yandex and Yep. A site that pings the IndexNow API reaches all of them with one submission, which is the entire point of the protocol: no more filing separate URLs with each engine's own tool. Amazon is the least familiar name on that list. The FAQ gives it its own endpoint, run by Amazonbot, next to the search engines. ## Where Google stands Google is absent from IndexNow's own list of participating engines, and we found no mention of the protocol in its Search Central documentation, nor any Google roadmap, beta or stated intention to adopt it. The closest thing to a Google reaction is a quip from Search Advocate John Mueller when IndexNow launched in October 2021, as PPC Land reports it: "we too, would like to be crawled less often." We found nothing since that moves Google's 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 engines it does reach. ## Why we care The honest framing is adoption by Bing, Yandex and four others, 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. ## Common questions ### Does Google support IndexNow? No. IndexNow's own FAQ lists Amazon, Bing, Naver, Seznam.cz, Yandex and Yep as the participating endpoints that receive submissions. Google is not among them, and we found no Google documentation or public commitment to join. ### 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's May 2025 post on shopping and ads names Shopify's integration, but we found 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