Google’s October 6, 2026 update clarifies how to ask crawlers to retry later during a short server emergency: sites can return 503 or 429 responses with a Retry-After header. The header support is not new; Google says the examples are now easier to find in its crawl-rate reduction guidance. This is a temporary mitigation, not a routine way to throttle Googlebot.
What changed in Google’s crawl-rate guidance?
Google reorganized its emergency crawl-reduction instructions and added examples showing Retry-After alongside 503 and 429 responses. In its October 6, 2026 changelog entry, Google says support for the header was already documented in its guidance for temporarily pausing or disabling a website. The change makes the existing advice easier to find; it does not announce new crawler behavior.
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The updated crawl-rate reduction guide describes this as an emergency option when crawling is creating critical infrastructure load or unwanted outage costs.
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For a short-lived problem—such as a few hours or one to two days—Google says a site can respond to crawl requests with 500, 503, or 429 instead of 200. When returning 503 or 429, you can also send Retry-After to indicate when the crawler may retry.
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Google’s guide gives these examples:
Retry-After: 120— the crawler should wait 120 seconds after the response.Retry-After: Wed, 21 Oct 2026 07:28:00 GMT— the crawler should wait until that HTTP date and time in UTC.
These are examples of the two supported value formats, not recommended fixed settings. RFC 9110 defines the field value as either an HTTP date or a number of seconds to delay after receiving the response; see the HTTP Semantics specification.
What happens to crawling across your site?
A significant number of 500, 503, or 429 responses can reduce crawling across the hostname, including URLs that continue to serve content. Google says the crawl rate begins to increase automatically as the errors decline.
That hostname-wide effect can also reduce discovery of new pages and the frequency with which Google refreshes existing pages. Changes such as prices or availability may take longer to appear in Search, and removed pages may remain indexed longer. For Google Ads, campaigns may be canceled or paused, and ads may not serve.
Can returning 503 or 429 remove pages from Google Search?
Yes, if the errors persist. Google warns that when Googlebot sees these responses on the same URL for multiple days, that URL may be dropped from Search’s index. Its crawling errors troubleshooting guide says Googlebot retries affected URLs for about two days and that returning 503 or 429 for more than two days will cause URLs to be dropped. Restore normal responses as soon as the emergency has passed; do not use these codes as an ongoing throttle.
What to do if crawling is overloading your server
Find the cause before throttling
Google recommends checking recent server access logs and investigating why crawling increased. Its guide points to inefficient URL structures, including faceted navigation and calendar URLs, as common causes; Dynamic Search Ad targets can also contribute. Check with your hosting provider about capacity and review whether the server can handle the current request volume.
Quick Recap
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Choose the mitigation that fits the problem
- Use temporary error responses when an urgent, short-lived reduction is needed and errors can be served safely. Keep the intervention brief and monitor the host as responses return to normal.
- Request a reduction from Google if serving errors are infeasible. Google describes an exceptional request in its crawl-rate guide; include the site’s optimal rate. Google says evaluation and fulfillment may take several days, and site owners cannot request a crawl-rate increase.
- Address the underlying capacity or URL issue so the emergency response does not become a recurring substitute for fixing the source of excess load. If serving capacity is the constraint, Google notes that increasing resources may help.
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