IndexNow: how it works, who uses it and how to set it up

IndexNow matters for AI answers because Microsoft says freshness signals affect how quickly updates reach "search results and AI generated answers," and Bing's index is what Copilot cites from. This guide covers how IndexNow works, who receives it, the key file, the API, response codes, limits, and what it can and can't do.

What is IndexNow?

IndexNow is a ping: a short message from your site to a search engine that says "this URL changed, come and look." The IndexNow site describes it as "a simple ping so that search engines know that a URL and its content has been added, updated, or deleted." Bing calls it "a free, open-source protocol" (Bing).

Without it, search engines find changes by recrawling on their own schedule. IndexNow's site says that without the protocol "it can take days to weeks for search engines to discover that the content has changed, as search engines don't crawl every URL often." With it, the engine learns about the change straight away and can decide whether to prioritize a crawl.

IndexNow works in three steps:

1. Create a key and host it in a text file on your site, which proves you control the host.
2. Send the changed URL and your key to any participating endpoint when a page is added, updated or deleted.
3. The receiving engine shares the submission with the other participating engines, then each one decides for itself whether and when to crawl.

IndexNow is a signal, not a command. The IndexNow FAQ says that after you submit, "the search engine evaluates whether it should crawl the URL based on its crawl quota, scheduling logic, and quality signals," and that submitting "does not guarantee immediate indexing."

Which search engines use IndexNow, and which don't

As of October 2026, the IndexNow homepage lists support from Microsoft Bing, Naver, Seznam.cz, Yandex and Yep. Its machine-readable list of participants, searchengines.json, also includes endpoints for Internet Archive and Amazon (Amazonbot). Participating engines agree that "submitted URLs will be automatically shared with all other participating search engines" (IndexNow documentation), so a submission to one reaches them all.

How the IndexNow key file works

The key file is how you prove that you, not someone else, are notifying search engines about your URLs. According to the IndexNow documentation, "search engines will crawl the key file to verify ownership and use the key until you change the key."

The rules:

• The key must be 8 to 128 characters long and use only lowercase letters (a–z), uppercase letters (A–Z), numbers (0–9) and dashes. A random hex string or a UUID works.
• The file is a UTF-8 text file named {your-key}.txt that contains only the key.
• The location is ideally the root of the host, for example https://www.example.com/{your-key}.txt. You can host it elsewhere on the same host and point to it with a keyLocation parameter, but then the key only covers URLs under that folder. The documentation says "it is strongly recommended" to use the root.
• Each subdomain is a separate host. The FAQ says each one needs its own key file and its own key.
• The file must be public. It has to load without a login, firewall or IP restriction, and display only the key as plain text.

To generate a key on the command line:

openssl rand -hex 16

That prints a 32-character key such as 3f9c2a7e5b1d4c8fa06e2b9d7c4f1a35.

Save that string in 3f9c2a7e5b1d4c8fa06e2b9d7c4f1a35.txt at your site root, then open the file's URL in a browser to check it shows the key and nothing else. To rotate a key, replace the file with a new one and start submitting with the new key; the FAQ says engines "will automatically re-verify ownership when the updated key is detected."

Many platforms handle the key for you. The FAQ says to check whether your CMS, hosting provider or SEO plugin already supports IndexNow before setting it up by hand, and notes that Cloudflare offers native IndexNow integration. To automate submissions through FreshlyCited, see the IndexNow API docs. Before your first submission, test your IndexNow key file: our guide lists the exact error each mistake returns.

How to submit URLs: one URL (GET) or up to 10,000 (POST)

You submit to one endpoint only. The shared endpoint is api.indexnow.org, and each participating engine also has its own (listed in the IndexNow FAQ). The submission is shared either way.

One URL with GET. URL-encode the page address (RFC 3986) and add your key:

curl "https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2Fpricing&key=3f9c2a7e5b1d4c8fa06e2b9d7c4f1a35"

Many URLs with POST. Send JSON with the header Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8. The documentation says "you can submit up to 10,000 URLs per post, mixing http and https URLs if needed." Every URL must belong to the host you name:

curl -X POST "https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow" -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" -d '{"host":"www.example.com","key":"3f9c2a7e5b1d4c8fa06e2b9d7c4f1a35","keyLocation":"https://www.example.com/3f9c2a7e5b1d4c8fa06e2b9d7c4f1a35.txt","urlList":["https://www.example.com/pricing","https://www.example.com/compare/example-vs-competitor"]}'

The JSON body has four fields:

keyLocation is optional when the key file sits at the root.

IndexNow response codes and what to do

IndexNow response codes tell you whether the submission was received, not whether the page will be indexed. The documentation is explicit: "The HTTP 200 response code only indicates that the search engine has received your URL."

Log every submission with its response code, so failed or rate-limited batches don't go unnoticed. The FAQ recommends it.

IndexNow limits and good practice

IndexNow has few hard limits, and the ones that matter are about restraint. Most problems come from sending too much, not too little.

• 10,000 URLs per POST. The FAQ says larger batches may fail or return a 422.
• Rate limits aren't published. The FAQ says "each participating search engine sets its own daily submission thresholds per site."
• Submissions count toward crawl quota. The FAQ says "every URL submitted through IndexNow counts toward your site's crawl quota."
• Submit only real changes. New, updated, redirected or deleted URLs (including 404 and 410 pages) are all fair game. Cosmetic or layout-only changes aren't. The FAQ advises against submitting the same URL many times a day and suggests waiting at least 5 minutes between resubmissions of a frequently updated page.
• Don't submit your whole site. IndexNow "is not designed for submitting every URL on your site at once," except after a migration or redesign, and it isn't meant for changes made before you set it up.
• Keep your sitemap. The FAQ recommends using both: IndexNow for recent changes and an XML sitemap as "a complete inventory of all URLs on your website." Bing also asks for sitemap lastmod to reflect "the true last modification time of the page content" (Bing Webmaster Blog).

Even a perfect submission can end with the page not indexed. The FAQ lists the usual reasons: thin or duplicate content, technical blocks such as noindex or robots.txt, crawl scheduling, or the engine simply deciding not to index the URL. Each engine also decides on its own, so a page can be indexed on one and not another. To see what Bing did with a URL you submitted, look it up in Bing Webmaster Tools.

Does IndexNow help with AI answers?

IndexNow helps with AI answers only where the answer engine draws on a participating search engine's index, which in practice means Bing and Microsoft's AI surfaces. Microsoft's July 2025 guidance says "freshness signals directly influence how quickly updates are reflected in search results and AI generated answers," and tells site owners to "use IndexNow for real-time URL submission" (Bing Webmaster Blog).

• Copilot and Bing's AI summaries draw on Bing's index, so IndexNow reaches them through Bing.
• ChatGPT search uses unnamed third-party search providers (OpenAI). Bing was announced as its default search in 2023 (Microsoft), but that's a 2023 statement and OpenAI hasn't confirmed Bing's role today, so no effect on ChatGPT is confirmed.
• Google's AI features and Perplexity use their own indexes and don't take part.

The public evidence on IndexNow and AI citations is one small vendor test on Copilot. In MaxAEO's test on one site, 40 pages submitted through IndexNow reached a first Copilot citation in a median of 9 days, against 31 days for 40 sitemap-only pages (MaxAEO). It has no replication and covers one engine. Being crawled sooner makes your current version eligible sooner; whether it's cited is still each engine's call. Our guide to IndexNow, Bing and AI answers goes deeper.

IndexNow and Google: what to do instead

Google doesn't take part in IndexNow, so Google Search, AI Overviews, AI Mode and Gemini need a Google-side path. Google says crawling "can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks," and that requesting a recrawl of the same URL repeatedly "won't get it crawled any faster" (Google Search Central).

The Google-side options are an XML sitemap with honest lastmod, URL Inspection's "Request indexing" for a few URLs on a property you own, internal links from pages Google already crawls, and push services for larger lists. Google's Indexing API is documented only for pages with JobPosting or BroadcastEvent markup. The details are in how to submit a URL to Google and how to get Google to crawl your site, and our page on why Google doesn't support IndexNow shows how to verify that yourself.

How FreshlyCited sends IndexNow

FreshlyCited sends IndexNow automatically alongside its Google push, for sites you verify. Here is how it works:

• Verification: FreshlyCited generates a key file for your site; you host it at the site root, which proves you control the host.
• Automatic: once a site is verified, every push of URLs on that site also goes to IndexNow. There's a per-site off switch.
• No extra credits: the IndexNow submission costs nothing on top of the push.
• Verified host only: only URLs on the verified host are submitted, because IndexNow requires host ownership. Backlinks on other people's sites go to Google only.
• Google side: the same push checks which URLs Google already sees and pushes only the invisible ones, then re-checks. Google is the main job: its AI Overviews and AI Mode only link to pages in its index. FreshlyCited's index checks cover Google only.
• Not ChatGPT or Perplexity: they use their own crawlers and search partners. We don't submit to them, and we don't claim to.

FreshlyCited submits what you push, so the same rule applies: push pages that really changed. You can push updated pages to Google and send IndexNow in the same step. For pages Google already has, choose Refresh anyway for the Google side: it uses 1 index credit, with no credit back; the IndexNow notification stays free. AI answers cite what's been crawled, and they lean toward pages that are kept current. Check your own links free.