<b>GSC URL Inspection API vs the UI button</b>

<b>GSC URL Inspection API vs the UI button</b>

The Inspection API is the same data as the live UI panel, scriptable. Worth knowing the limits before you build on it.

Setup: enable Search Console API in Google Cloud, service account, add it as a full user in GSC. Quota: <code>2,000 calls/day</code>, 600/min per property.

What it does well:
— Pulls coverageState, lastCrawlTime, googleCanonical, referringUrls in JSON
— Lets you batch-audit 2k URLs/day for indexed vs not

Where it falls short:
— It does NOT trigger 'Request Indexing' — read-only, full stop
— 2k/day cap kills it for big sites without rotating properties
— Data can lag the UI by hours

Pros: scriptable coverage truth, free.
Cons: no submit, hard quota, per-property only.

Best for: weekly indexed-ratio monitoring across a few hundred priority URLs.

Not for: anyone wanting bulk indexing — the API can't request it, despite what blog spam claims.