API Documentation — InstantIndexNow

The key check

Every submission endpoint fetches https://<host>/<key>.txt and confirms it contains your key before sending anything. If it does not, the response is 422 with submitted: false and nothing is sent.

This exists because Bing, Yandex and the global endpoint return 202 for any well-formed key and validate it later, discarding the submission silently if it fails. Pass "skipVerification": true to bypass the check — useful right after a deploy when a CDN has not yet served the new file.

Public endpoints

No authentication. Rate limited by IP: 20 requests per minute and 200 URLs per day.

POST /api/indexnow

Verify the key file, then submit a batch of URLs.

curl -X POST https://instantindexnow.com/api/indexnow \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "domain": "example.com",
    "apiKey": "your-indexnow-key",
    "urls": ["https://example.com/a", "https://example.com/b"],
    "engines": ["indexnow"]
  }'

# 200 response
{
  "success": true,
  "submitted": true,
  "host": "example.com",
  "keyVerification": {
    "verdict": "verified",
    "ok": true,
    "keyUrl": "https://example.com/your-indexnow-key.txt",
    "message": "Key file verified at https://example.com/your-indexnow-key.txt.",
    "warnings": []
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "engine": "indexnow",
      "engineName": "IndexNow (Global)",
      "success": true,
      "status": 202,
      "message": "IndexNow (Global) accepted the submission and will validate the key asynchronously.",
      "keyConfirmedByEngine": false,
      "durationMs": 412
    }
  ],
  "urls": { "accepted": 2, "rejected": 0, "duplicatesRemoved": 0, "truncated": 0 },
  "quota": { "remaining": 198, "limit": 200, "resetAt": "..." }
}

POST /api/verify-key

Check the key file without submitting anything.

curl -X POST https://instantindexnow.com/api/verify-key \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"domain":"example.com","apiKey":"your-indexnow-key"}'

# verdict is one of: verified | not_found | mismatch | unreachable | bad_status

GET /api/indexnow?url=…&key=…

Single-URL submission, mirroring the protocol’s own GET form. The host is taken from the URL.

curl 'https://instantindexnow.com/api/indexnow?url=https://example.com/a&key=your-indexnow-key'

GET /api/engines

Machine-readable engine list, including which ones validate keys synchronously.

GET /api/generate-key

Returns a spec-compliant IndexNow key and the filename to publish it under.

Engine identifiers

id	Engine	Validates key in-request
indexnow	IndexNow (Global)	no
bing	Bing	no
yandex	Yandex	no
naver	Naver	yes
seznam	Seznam.cz	yes
yep	Yep	yes
amazon	Amazon	yes

Pass "engines": "all" to submit to every engine directly instead of through the global endpoint. Unrecognised values return 400 rather than falling back silently — "google" is not a valid engine because Google does not participate in IndexNow.

Authenticated endpoints

Requires an API key, sent as Authorization: Bearer <key> or X-Api-Key: <key>. Quotas are charged in URLs, per account, per day.

Keys are issued at checkout, so the free tier has no key and uses the public endpoints above. If a subscription lapses, the key keeps working for reads — GET /me, /projects, /submissions, /submissions.csv, /keys — so you can always retrieve and export your delivery history. Anything that submits or creates state returns 403 with readOnly: true until the subscription is active again.

GET /api/v1/me

Account, plan and today’s usage.

POST /api/v1/projects

Register a host. The key is verified and the sitemap auto-detected unless you supply one.

curl -X POST https://instantindexnow.com/api/v1/projects \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $IIN_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "host": "example.com",
    "indexnowKey": "your-indexnow-key",
    "sitemapUrl": "https://example.com/sitemap.xml",
    "engines": ["indexnow"],
    "autoSubmit": true
  }'

GET /api/v1/projects

List projects with their key verdict, watch state and last error.

PATCH /api/v1/projects/:id

Update the key, key location, sitemap, engines or autoSubmit flag.

DELETE /api/v1/projects/:id

Remove a project. Submission history is retained.

POST /api/v1/projects/:id/verify

Re-check the key file now and store the verdict.

POST /api/v1/projects/:id/sync

Run the sitemap watch immediately instead of waiting for the schedule. Still charged against your daily quota.

POST /api/v1/submit

Submit URLs against your account quota. Reference a project to avoid repeating the key.

curl -X POST https://instantindexnow.com/api/v1/submit \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $IIN_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"projectId":"<project-id>","urls":["https://example.com/new-post"]}'

GET /api/v1/submissions

Delivery history, newest first. Supports limit and offset.

GET /api/v1/submissions/:id

One submission including the full URL list.

GET /api/v1/submissions.csv

The same history as CSV, one row per engine per submission.

GET /api/v1/keys

List active API keys.

POST /api/v1/keys

Create another key. The plaintext is returned once and never again.

DELETE /api/v1/keys/:id

Revoke a key. You cannot revoke your only remaining key.

Deploy-hook example

Submitting changed URLs from CI after a deploy:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

# Let the watcher find what changed, rather than maintaining a URL list in CI.
curl -fsS -X POST "https://instantindexnow.com/api/v1/projects/$IIN_PROJECT_ID/sync" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $IIN_KEY" | jq -r '.detail'

Errors

Status	Meaning
400	Malformed body, invalid host or key, or an unknown engine id.
401	Missing, invalid or revoked API key.
403	Plan does not permit this — a lapsed subscription (`readOnly: true`), or a project/key limit reached. Read endpoints stay available.
409	Conflict, e.g. a project for that host already exists.
422	Key file verification failed. Nothing was submitted.
429	Rate limit or daily URL quota exceeded. Check `Retry-After`.
502	Every targeted engine rejected or could not be reached. Per-engine detail is in `results`.