Google Search Console URL Inspection tool: a complete guide

It's the closest thing to asking Google directly why a page is or isn't in its index, which is the first step for search and for the AI answers built on it. This guide covers the indexed result, the live test, rendered HTML and screenshots, the canonical fields, Request indexing and its quota, and what the URL Inspection API can and can't do.

What does the URL Inspection tool show?

The URL Inspection tool shows Google's stored record of one URL, built from the last time Google crawled it. As of October 2026, Google's help page says it "provides information about Google's indexed version of a specific page, and also allows you to test whether a URL might be indexable" (URL Inspection tool help). You open it by typing a full URL into the search bar at the top of Search Console, or by clicking Inspect next to a URL in most reports. The URL must belong to the property you have open.

The verdict at the top is one of four values:

Under the verdict, the Page indexing section breaks the record into fields:

One field misleads people. Google warns: "If your page is blocked by robots.txt (see Crawl allowed?), then Indexing allowed? will always be "Yes" because Google can't see and respect any noindex directives." Our guides to what "Blocked by robots.txt" means and how to fix "Excluded by noindex tag" cover both fields in depth.

What's the difference between the indexed result and the live test?

The indexed result is what Google stored from its last crawl; the live test fetches the page now. Google's help says of the indexed view: "This is not a live test. The results shown are from most recently indexed version of a page, not the live version on the web." Click Test live URL to check the current version, and toggle between Google Index and Live Test to compare them.

The live test's gaps matter. Google says it "does not test for all possible indexing issues, including whether this is a duplicate or alternate page", and it doesn't check quality, manual actions, removals or temporarily blocked URLs. Statuses it can't detect include "Crawled - currently not indexed", "Discovered - currently not indexed" and all the canonical statuses. Google is direct about what a pass means: "There is no definitive test that can guarantee whether your page will be included in the Google index."

So a page can pass the live test and still sit as crawled - currently not indexed. That's a quality judgment, not a technical block.

How do you see the rendered HTML, screenshot and page resources?

You see what Google rendered by clicking View crawled page (indexed result) or View tested page (live test). Google's help says these panels show "the raw HTML returned, the HTTP headers, JavaScript console output, and any page resources loaded", and the live test adds a screenshot.

• Screenshot: "A screenshot is available only in a live test with a successful test result." Google says differences from what you see "might be the result of resources that are blocked to the Google-InspectionTool."
• Rendered HTML: check that content added by JavaScript, internal links and the <link rel="canonical"> tag are present after rendering, not just in your source.
• More info: lists the page resources Google loaded and JavaScript console messages. A blocked script or stylesheet can change what Google renders.
• Availability: extra response data appears only when the verdict is "URL is on Google" (indexed) or "URL is available to Google" (live), with or without issues.

The live test uses Google-InspectionTool, not Googlebot itself, and it follows redirects without saying so. Google says the test "does not indicate that it has followed a redirect, nor will it display the final URL that was tested." Inspect the final URL directly if you suspect a redirect.

How do the canonical fields work?

The canonical fields show the URL you declared and the URL Google picked, and they're only reliable in the indexed result. Google says: "You can determine the canonical version only in the indexed data; the live test cannot predict whether or not the tested version will be considered canonical." It also notes the Google-selected value "can be a few hours out of date from our index value."

Canonical details show only "if the canonical version is in a property that you own."

How does Request indexing work, and what's the quota?

Request indexing asks Google to recrawl one URL, and it's limited per property per day. To use it, inspect the URL and click Request indexing. Google says "If the page passes a quick check to test for immediate indexing errors, it will be submitted to the indexing queue," and "You cannot request indexing if the page is considered to be non-indexable in the live test."

What to expect, as of October 2026:

• Access: you must be "an owner or full user of the Search Console property" (Ask Google to recrawl).
• Quota: "There is a daily limit to how many index requests you can submit." Google doesn't publish the number. Live tests and inspections have their own per-property daily limits.
• Timing: "Indexing typically takes only a day or so, but can take much longer in some cases."
• No guarantee: "Submitting a request does not guarantee that the page will appear in the Google Index."
• Repeating doesn't help: "requesting a recrawl multiple times for the same URL won't get it crawled any faster."

For more than a handful of pages, Google's advice is: "To request indexing of many new or updated pages, your best choice is to submit a sitemap, with the updated pages marked by <lastmod>" (URL Inspection tool help). If yours shows errors, see how to fix "Sitemap could not be read". Our comparison of every way to submit a URL to Google covers the other routes.

If the daily limit is what's holding you back, or the URLs are on sites you don't own, check which of your URLs Google sees, free.

What can the URL Inspection API do, and what can't it?

The URL Inspection API returns the same indexed record as the tool, for URLs in properties you can access, and nothing else. Google's reference says it lets you "View the indexed, or indexable, status of the provided URL", adding: "Presently only the status of the version in the Google index is available; you cannot test the indexability of a live URL" (urlInspection.index.inspect).

As of October 2026, the limits are:

Source: Search Console API usage limits.

Each response has an indexStatusResult with the same fields as the tool: verdict, coverageState, robotsTxtState, indexingState, pageFetchState, lastCrawlTime, googleCanonical, userCanonical, crawledAs, plus sitemap and referringUrls (UrlInspectionResult). It accepts the webmasters.readonly scope.

It can't request indexing. On October 17, 2026, we listed every method in Google's machine-readable description of the Search Console API:

curl -s 'https://searchconsole.googleapis.com/$discovery/rest?version=v1' \
  | jq -r '.. | objects | select(has("httpMethod") and has("id")) | "\(.httpMethod) \(.id)"' \
  | sort

DELETE webmasters.sitemaps.delete
DELETE webmasters.sites.delete
GET webmasters.sitemaps.get
GET webmasters.sitemaps.list
GET webmasters.sites.get
GET webmasters.sites.list
POST searchconsole.urlInspection.index.inspect
POST searchconsole.urlTestingTools.mobileFriendlyTest.run
POST webmasters.searchanalytics.query
PUT webmasters.sitemaps.submit
PUT webmasters.sites.add

The only write actions are adding or removing sites and submitting or deleting sitemaps. Request indexing exists only in the Search Console interface. The separate Indexing API is not a substitute: Google limits it to job posting and livestream pages, as our guide to the Google Indexing API explains. If you want an AI assistant to run inspections for you, our review of Google Search Console MCP servers compares the options and their limits.

How do you troubleshoot a page that isn't indexed?

Troubleshoot an unindexed page by reading the indexed result first, then using the live test to check your fix. This follows Google's own troubleshooting order:

1. Inspect the URL and read the verdict. If it's "URL is on Google" but the page doesn't show, check the Manual actions and Security issues reports.
2. If it's "URL is not on Google", read the reason in the Page indexing section heading.
3. If the reason is "URL is unknown to Google", Google hasn't seen it. Link to it, list it in your sitemap, and request indexing.
4. If Crawl allowed? is "No", fix robots.txt. If Indexing allowed? is "No", remove the noindex tag or header.
5. If Page fetch failed, fix the server error or broken URL. A page that loads but looks empty or "not found" to Google is a soft 404.
6. Run Test live URL after the fix. If it passes, request indexing once.
7. Check the Page indexing report for the same reason across other URLs; our Page indexing report guide maps every status to a fix.

Bing has its own version: Microsoft introduced a URL Inspection tool in Bing Webmaster Tools in September 2020 to check "crawling, indexing, SEO and MarkUp details and errors" (Bing Webmaster Blog).

Where does URL Inspection stop being enough?

URL Inspection stops being enough when you have more URLs than the daily limits allow, or the URLs are on sites you don't own, such as client sites or backlinks. It inspects one URL at a time, only in verified properties. To see indexed status across a whole list, you can check many URLs' Google index status at once, and FreshlyCited can push only the URLs Google hasn't indexed, then re-check them on days 1, 3 and 7. An index credit is used only if the link gets indexed, and comes back after the day-7 re-check if it isn't (exclusions apply, such as pages that return an error or carry noindex). Google still decides what it indexes. For the broader picture, see how Google crawls and indexes pages.

Inspected your key pages? Check the rest of your URLs free to see which ones are seen by Google, push only the invisible ones, and get them re-checked.