The URL Inspection tool is the part of Google Search Console that tells you what Google knows about one page of your site: whether the URL is on Google, how Google found it, when Googlebot last crawled it, whether crawling and indexing are allowed, and which canonical URL Google chose. It can also test the live page and ask Google to crawl it again. It is free for every site you have verified in Search Console. To use it, paste the full URL into the search bar at the top of any Search Console screen and press Enter.
What is the purpose of the URL Inspection tool?
The purpose of the URL Inspection tool is to show Google's view of a single URL, so you can find out why a page is or is not in Google Search and fix it. According to Google's help page for the tool, it lets you:
- See whether a URL is indexed, plus the details of the indexed version: how Google discovered it, the last crawl and the canonical Google selected.
- Test the live URL to see whether the current version of the page could be indexed.
- Ask Google to crawl the URL.
- View the rendered HTML, a screenshot (live test only), the HTTP response and the resources the page loaded.
- See the rich results and videos Google found on the page.
It works one URL at a time. For patterns across the whole site you use the Page indexing report; URL Inspection is for the one page that matters right now.
How to use the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console
- Open the right property. Sign in to Google Search Console and pick the property in the selector at the top left. The URL must belong to the open property:
https://www.example.com/pageneeds thehttps://www.example.com/property or a Domain property forexample.com. - Paste the full URL. Click the search bar at the top of the screen (or URL inspection in the left menu), paste the complete URL including
https://and press Enter. In most reports you can also click the inspect icon next to a URL. - Read the headline. After a few seconds you get one of four results: URL is on Google, URL is on Google, but has issues, URL is not on Google or URL is an alternate version.
- Open Page indexing. Expand the Page indexing card to see the Discovery, Crawl and Indexing details. If the page is not indexed, the card names the reason, for example "Crawled - currently not indexed".
- Run a live test. Click Test live URL to fetch the page as it is right now. Do this after every fix: the first result describes the version Google crawled last time, not your current page.
- Look at what Google saw. Click View crawled page (indexed result) or View tested page (live test) for the rendered HTML, the screenshot (live test only) and More info: the HTTP response, the page resources and the JavaScript console messages.
- Ask for a crawl when the page is new or changed. If the live test passes, click Request indexing. Search Console shows "Testing if live URL can be indexed", then "Indexing requested" with the note that the URL was added to a priority crawl queue. You need owner or full user permission for this button, and there is a daily quota: once you reach it, the dialog says "Quota exceeded".
What do the URL Inspection results mean?
Each headline result means one thing about the indexed version of the page and calls for one action.
| Result | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| URL is on Google | The page is indexed and can appear in Google Search. | Nothing for indexing. If the page still gets no traffic, that is a ranking question, not an indexing one. |
| URL is on Google, but has issues | The page is indexed, but an enhancement on it, such as structured data, has problems. | Open the enhancement cards under Page indexing and fix the items marked invalid. |
| URL is not on Google | The page is not in the index. The Page indexing card gives the reason. | Read the reason, fix what it points to, run Test live URL, then ask for a crawl. |
| URL is an alternate version | Google treats this URL as an alternate of another page and indexes that page instead. | Fine if you intended it (an AMP or mobile version, for example). If not, check your canonical and hreflang tags. |
Every field in the Page indexing section, explained
The Page indexing card is where the answers are. Read it top to bottom: Discovery tells you how Google found the URL, Crawl tells you what happened when Googlebot fetched it, and Indexing tells you which URL Google keeps.
| Field | What it tells you | Act on it when |
|---|---|---|
| Sitemaps | Which of your submitted sitemaps list this URL. | An important page is in none of them. |
| Referring page | A page Google saw linking to this URL. | None is shown: the page may have no internal links. |
| Last crawl | When Googlebot last fetched the page. | The date is older than your last edit, or there is no crawl at all. |
| Crawled as | Which Googlebot fetched it, almost always Googlebot smartphone. | Rarely. Mobile and desktop should serve the same content. |
| Crawl allowed? | Whether robots.txt lets Googlebot fetch the URL. | It says No: a robots.txt rule blocks the page. |
| Page fetch | Whether the fetch worked (Successful) or how it failed. | It shows a failure such as Soft 404, Not found (404) or a server error. |
| Indexing allowed? | Whether a noindex rule in a meta robots tag or an X-Robots-Tag header blocks indexing. | It says No on a page you want in search. |
| User-declared canonical | The canonical URL your page declares. | It is missing or points to another page by mistake. |
| Google-selected canonical | The URL Google actually chose to index. | It differs from yours: Google treats this page as a duplicate of that URL. |
Two fields cause most of the confusion. Last crawl is the date of the crawl the whole indexed result is based on, so a page you rewrote last week but Google last crawled in August is still judged on the August version. And when Google-selected canonical shows a different URL than yours, Google has indexed that other URL, which is why the page you inspected is reported as not on Google even though nothing on it is broken.
Indexed result or live test: which one to trust?
They answer two different questions. The indexed result answers "is this page in Google's index, and why or why not?" using data from the last crawl. The live test answers "could the current version of this page be indexed?" using a fetch made right now.
That is why a live test can say URL is available to Google while the indexed result still says URL is not on Google. The live test only checks for technical blocks: robots.txt, noindex, fetch errors, a login wall. It cannot show reasons like "Crawled - currently not indexed" or "Discovered - currently not indexed", because those are Google's decisions about crawl priority and value, not errors in the page. A passed live test means nothing is stopping Google. It does not mean Google will index the page.
One more rule, straight from Google: when URL Inspection and the Page indexing report disagree about a URL, trust URL Inspection. The report is refreshed more slowly, so it can show a state the page has already left.
What URL Inspection says about 1.17 million sitemap pages
We looked at the sites connected to IndexMachine: on October 31, 2026, about 1.17 million sitemap URLs on 1,513 sites, each with its latest URL Inspection state. Most of these sites are on free accounts, where IndexMachine has not requested anything yet, so the numbers show where sites stand before indexing is turned on. Aggregate counts only, no site or URL is named; each count is the state from the page's most recent inspection, so some are days old and some older.
| Coverage state in URL Inspection | Sitemap URLs | Share |
|---|---|---|
| URL is unknown to Google | 479,943 | 41.1% |
| Submitted and indexed | 329,563 | 28.2% |
| Discovered - currently not indexed | 206,378 | 17.7% |
| Crawled - currently not indexed | 67,744 | 5.8% |
| No result stored yet | 33,004 | 2.8% |
| Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user | 13,741 | 1.2% |
| Excluded by 'noindex' tag | 11,843 | 1.0% |
| Page with redirect | 9,273 | 0.8% |
| Alternate page with proper canonical tag | 5,838 | 0.5% |
| Blocked by robots.txt | 5,241 | 0.4% |
| Not found (404) | 2,919 | 0.2% |
| Soft 404 | 1,250 | 0.1% |
| 6 other states (5xx, 403, redirect error and more) | 1,952 | 0.2% |
What stands out:
- Fewer than 3 in 10 sitemap URLs were indexed. "Submitted and indexed" covers 28.2% of them.
- The largest group is not an error at all. 41.1% of URLs were "URL is unknown to Google": Google had no record of them, even though a sitemap lists every one. A sitemap is a hint, not a guarantee of discovery.
- Almost a quarter are known but waiting. "Discovered - currently not indexed" and "Crawled - currently not indexed" together cover 23.5%. Our guides on Discovered - currently not indexed and Crawled - currently not indexed cover the fixes for each.
- Technical blocks are rare. Every state from canonical duplicates and noindex to 404s and server errors adds up to 4.5%.
So for most unindexed pages, the URL Inspection tool will not show you a broken tag to fix. The page is fine, and the work is getting Google to crawl it and decide it is worth keeping: internal links, content that earns its place, and asking Google to crawl the page. Clicking twice the same day does nothing; a page still missing a week later is worth asking for again.
When the URL Inspection tool is not working
Most "URL Inspection tool not working" problems come down to six causes:
- The URL is not in the property. Search Console only inspects URLs inside the open property. Check
httpvshttps,wwwvs nowww, and whether you picked the right site in the selector. A Domain property covers every version of the domain at once. - You reached the daily limit. Each property has a daily limit on inspections and on live tests, and a separate quota for indexing requests ("Quota exceeded"). Wait until the next day.
- "Something went wrong". That is a Search Console problem, not your page. Try again later.
- The live test fails, but the page loads in your browser. A firewall, bot protection, a login wall or a slow server is stopping Googlebot. The free Google index checker fetches the page from outside and checks the status code, robots.txt, noindex rules and canonical in one pass.
- The result looks out of date. The indexed result reflects the last crawl. Run Test live URL to see the current page.
- You are signed in to the wrong Google account. URL Inspection only shows properties the signed-in account can access.
How do you inspect hundreds of URLs, not one?
In the Search Console interface, URL Inspection handles one URL at a time, with daily limits per property. That is fine for spot checks and useless for a weekly check of a 500-page site. The Page indexing report helps with patterns (filter it by sitemap to see only the URLs you care about), but it shows example URLs, not every URL with its last crawl and canonical.
This is the job IndexMachine does for you. It shows the coverage state, last Google crawl, clicks and impressions of every page in your sitemap in one table, and tracks every requested page until it is on Google. Then its Chrome extension presses Google's own Request indexing button in your Search Console, on autopilot, every day, using your full daily Google quota on every site. Pages Google already shows as indexed are skipped, so no quota is wasted. Every other engine (Bing, Yandex, Seznam, Naver) gets unlimited IndexNow. If you are deciding between this and doing it by hand, here is how IndexMachine compares with Search Console alone.
See every page's URL Inspection result in one table
Create a free IndexMachine account: it imports all your Search Console sites and shows which pages Google has not indexed, with the coverage state and last crawl for each one. When you are ready, turn on daily Request Indexing in your own Search Console plus unlimited IndexNow.
Is there a free URL inspection tool for any page?
URL Inspection in Search Console is free, but it only inspects pages on sites you have verified. For anything else:
- Bing has its own. Bing Webmaster Tools includes a URL Inspection tool for sites verified there.
- Check if any page can be indexed. The free Google index checker works on any public URL and tells you whether something blocks indexing (status code, robots.txt, noindex, canonical). It does not read Google's index, so for your own pages, URL Inspection stays the source of truth.
- A quick look at the index. Search
site:plus the page URL on Google. A result means the page is indexed; no result proves nothing, sincesite:does not list everything.
If a page you own turns out not to be on Google, our list of reasons a URL is not on Google and what to do walks through each cause in order.
FAQs
What is the function of the URL Inspection tool?
It shows Google's indexed version of one URL (index status, how Google found it, last crawl, crawl and indexing permissions, canonical), tests the live page, and lets you ask Google to crawl the URL. Use it to find out why a specific page is or is not in Google Search.
Where is the URL Inspection tool in Search Console?
In the search bar at the top of every Search Console screen, and as URL inspection in the left menu.
Is the URL Inspection tool free?
Yes. It is part of Google Search Console, which is free. You need to verify that you own the site, and requesting a crawl needs owner or full user permission on the property.
Why does URL Inspection say "URL is on Google" but I can't find the page?
Indexed is not the same as ranking. "URL is on Google" means the page can be shown; where it shows depends on the query and the competition. Search for an exact sentence from the page in quotes, or use site: with the full URL, to see it.
How long does URL Inspection take to show a fix?
The indexed result changes only after Google crawls the page again, which can take days or weeks. The live test shows your fix immediately. Google's own guidance is that crawling can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Clicking twice the same day does nothing; a page still missing a week later is worth asking for again.