How to Check if a Page Is Indexed by Google (4 Methods)

The reliable way to check if a page is indexed is the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console: paste the URL, and "URL is on Google" means it is indexed. For pages you do not own, search site: followed by the exact URL, and treat a missing result as a hint, not proof. For hundreds or thousands of your own URLs, use the URL Inspection API, which returns the same data at up to 2,000 URLs per property per day.

Here are the four methods, what each one is good for, and where each one misleads.

Comparison at a glance

Method	Accuracy	Works for any site	Scale	Tells you why
site: operator	Rough	Yes	One at a time	No
URL Inspection tool	Authoritative	Own sites only	One at a time	Yes
URL Inspection API	Authoritative	Own sites only	2,000 per property per day	Yes
Page indexing report and Performance data	Authoritative but delayed and sampled	Own sites only	Whole site	Partly

Method 1: the site: operator

Type this into Google:

site:https://www.example.com/blog/my-post

or, for a whole site or folder:

site:example.com
site:example.com/blog/
site:example.com "exact phrase from the page"

If the page appears, it is indexed. That part is reliable.

The limits are on the negative side:

• Google states that the site: operator does not necessarily return all the URLs that are indexed. A missing result does not prove the page is absent.
• The "About 1,240 results" count is an estimate that can swing widely between searches. Never report it as "pages indexed".
• The result may show the canonical URL, not the one you typed. If ?ref=nav was folded into the clean URL, you will see the clean URL.
• It says nothing about why a page is missing.
• Running site: queries automatically at volume gets you CAPTCHAs, and automated querying is against Google's terms.

A second operator trick for pages you cannot inspect: search for a distinctive sentence from the page in double quotes. If another site shows up with your sentence and you do not, you have also learned something about duplication.

The cache: operator used to be a third option. Google retired cached pages in 2024, so ignore any guide that still recommends it.

Use it for: quick spot checks, competitor pages, a sanity check that a site is in Google at all.

Method 2: the URL Inspection tool

This is the reference method for your own pages.

1. Open Search Console and choose the property that contains the URL.
2. Paste the complete URL in the bar at the top ("Inspect any URL in...") and press Enter.
3. Read the verdict.

Headline	Meaning
URL is on Google	Indexed and eligible to appear in results
URL is on Google, but has issues	Indexed, with problems in an enhancement such as structured data
URL is not on Google	Not indexed. The reason is on the next line
URL is an alternate version	An alternate (for example AMP or a canonicalised duplicate) of another indexed page

Then expand Page indexing. The fields worth reading every time:

• Status line, for example "Crawled - currently not indexed" or "Page with redirect".
• Discovery: sitemaps and referring pages through which Google found the URL.
• Last crawl: date and time, and whether Googlebot smartphone or desktop did it.
• Crawl allowed? / Page fetch / Indexing allowed?
• User-declared canonical and Google-selected canonical. If these differ, the content may well be indexed, under the other URL.

Things that confuse people:

• Indexed result vs live test. The default view shows what Google has stored from its last crawl. Test live URL fetches the page now and tells you whether it can be indexed. A live test that passes does not mean the page is indexed.
• "URL is on Google" is not a ranking promise. Google notes that the page can still be absent from results because of a manual action, a removal request or a legal removal. And it can rank on page nine.
• Exact URL matters. Trailing slash, protocol, www and letter case all create distinct URLs.

Use it for: any individual page on a verified site, and always when you need the reason.

Method 3: the URL Inspection API

The API exposes the same indexed-version data as the tool. One request per URL:

POST https://searchconsole.googleapis.com/v1/urlInspection/index:inspect
Authorization: Bearer <access token>
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "inspectionUrl": "https://www.example.com/blog/my-post",
  "siteUrl": "sc-domain:example.com",
  "languageCode": "en-US"
}

The useful part of the response:

{
  "inspectionResult": {
    "indexStatusResult": {
      "verdict": "PASS",
      "coverageState": "Submitted and indexed",
      "robotsTxtState": "ALLOWED",
      "indexingState": "INDEXING_ALLOWED",
      "pageFetchState": "SUCCESSFUL",
      "lastCrawlTime": "2026-09-01T08:12:33Z",
      "googleCanonical": "https://www.example.com/blog/my-post",
      "userCanonical": "https://www.example.com/blog/my-post"
    }
  }
}

How to read it:

• verdict: PASS means indexed. NEUTRAL means not indexed (excluded). FAIL means an error prevented indexing.
• coverageState is the same text you see in the tool, for example "Discovered - currently not indexed". It is a localised string, so send languageCode: "en-US" if you match on it in code.
• lastCrawlTime is absent for URLs that were never crawled.

Practical constraints:

• Quota: 2,000 queries per day and 600 per minute per property, shared across all users and apps.
• Access: you need the webmasters.readonly scope and a verified permission on the property. siteUrl must be exactly as it appears in Search Console (https://www.example.com/ with the trailing slash, or sc-domain:example.com).
• No live test. The API only returns the indexed-version data.
• Separate properties have separate quotas. If you have verified URL-prefix properties for sub-folders alongside the main property, each has its own 2,000 per day.

Use it for: monitoring every sitemap URL, tracking status changes over time, catching pages that drop out.

Method 4: bulk checks without writing code

You have three options when you have a list of URLs and no wish to build an API client.

Page indexing report. Indexing > Pages shows totals for indexed and not indexed URLs and the reasons. Filter by a specific sitemap to check exactly the set you submitted. The limits: each reason shows at most 1,000 example URLs, the data lags behind reality by some days, and there is no way to paste in your own list.

Performance report as proof of indexing. Any page with at least one impression in Performance > Search results > Pages is indexed, because a page cannot be shown without being in the index. Export the page list and compare it with your sitemap. The pages with impressions are confirmed. The rest are "unknown", not "unindexed", since an indexed page with no impressions will not appear in the export. This trick costs no inspection quota, which is why good monitoring tools use it first.

A tool on top of the API. TurboIndex, free for one site, does this: it imports your Search Console properties, reads the sitemaps, runs URL Inspection on every URL within the daily quota and keeps the history, so you see which pages are indexed, which dropped out and when. For a quick pass over a short list, the Google index checker runs URL Inspection for each URL after a Google sign-in and shows Google's verdict, with the reason when a page is left out.

Keep in mind what any checker that works on any domain does: it runs site: style searches, so it inherits the false negatives of method 1. Treat its "not indexed" as a lead to confirm in URL Inspection, not as a verdict.

Which should you trust when they disagree?

Order of authority: URL Inspection (tool or API), then a Performance impression, then the Page indexing report, then site:.

Typical disagreements and what they mean:

You see	Explanation
Inspection says indexed, site: shows nothing	Normal. site: is incomplete.
site: shows the page, the Page indexing report lists it as not indexed	The report is lagging. Inspect the URL for the current state.
Inspection says "Alternate page with proper canonical tag", but the content shows in search	The content is indexed under the canonical URL. Inspect that one.
Live test passes, indexed result says not on Google	The page is indexable but not indexed yet, or was declined.
Inspection says indexed, the page never shows for any query	Ranking issue. See indexed but not ranking.

Before you check index status, check indexability

If a page is not indexed, the next question is whether it can be. A 60 second check of status code, robots.txt, meta robots, X-Robots-Tag and canonical answers that. The indexability checker runs all of them on any URL, including sites you do not own.

If the page is indexable and still not indexed, the status line from URL Inspection tells you which path to follow. The full flow is in why is my page not indexed, and the field-by-field reference for the tool is in the URL Inspection tool guide.