IndexNow: what it is, which engines use it, and how to set it up

How IndexNow works

1. Create a key. Generate a key; it links your domain ownership to the URLs you submit.
2. Prove you own the host. Put a UTF-8 text file named after the key (for example /a1b2c3d4.txt) at your site root, containing the key itself. You can host it elsewhere and pass its path as keyLocation, but a key file only covers URLs under its own folder.
3. Ping when something changes. Send the changed URL to any participating engine's /indexnow endpoint. Participants share submissions, so one ping is enough.

Example requests

A single URL by GET:

https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow?url=https://www.example.com/grinder-g2&key=a1b2c3d4

Many URLs by POST, up to 10,000 per request:

POST /indexnow HTTP/1.1
Host: api.indexnow.org
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8

{
  "host": "www.example.com",
  "key": "a1b2c3d4",
  "urlList": [
    "https://www.example.com/grinder-g2",
    "https://www.example.com/pricing"
  ]
}

The response code tells you what happened:

Code	Meaning
200	Submitted
202	Received, key validation pending
400	Bad request format
403	Key not valid (file missing or wrong)
422	URLs do not belong to the host, or the key does not match
429	Too many requests

Who receives it

The participant list at indexnow.org names Bing, Yandex, Seznam, Naver, Yep, the Internet Archive and Amazonbot. Google is not on it. That shapes how to use it: IndexNow for fast change notices to Bing and the others, an XML sitemap for full discovery by everyone including Google.

IndexNow and sitemaps together

IndexNow is not a replacement for a sitemap. A sitemap is a complete list that crawlers check on their own schedule; IndexNow is a short message that says "this changed, come back". Sites that use both get full discovery from the sitemap and faster recrawls of edited pages from IndexNow, on the engines that support it.

When to send a ping

Send one when a page's facts change: a price, stock status, a new product, a policy, a deleted page. Do not resubmit unchanged URLs on a timer; the 429 code exists for senders that overdo it. Ping only the canonical URL, not parameter variants.

Most sites can turn it on rather than build it. Bing lists IndexNow support in Shopify, Wix Studio and GoDaddy, in WordPress plugins such as Yoast SEO and Rank Math, and in Cloudflare through crawler hints. For why speed of updates matters to AI answers, see content freshness.