Getting 'Permission denied by Google (403)' in the Indexing API tool - how do I fix this?

Question

@dev_sanjay · Answer 1

I can guarantee what happened here: you added the service account email to Google Search Console as a Full user instead of an Owner.
Google’s Indexing API will reject any request with a 403 error unless the service account email has full Owner permissions inside your Search Console property.

Here is how to fix it in 2 minutes:

1. Open your Google Search Console dashboard.
2. Go to Settings at the bottom of the left menu.
3. Click on Users and permissions.
4. Look for your service account email (the one ending in @your-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com).
5. Click the three dots next to its permission status, switch it from Full to Owner, and save.

Once you do that, go back to the workspace Indexing tool and try submitting again. It will go through instantly.

@rahul_coder · Answer 2

@rahul_coder • September 08, 2026

In addition to what Sanjay said, double check that you actually enabled the Web Search Indexing API in your Google Cloud project.
Sometimes people accidentally enable the "Google Search Console API" instead of the "Indexing API". They are two completely different services in Google Cloud.

2

Delete

@neha_blog • September 08, 2026

@rahul_coder Where do we check that inside Google Cloud Console? The dashboard is so confusing for non-coders.

1

Delete

@neha_blog • September 08, 2026

@neha_blog Very easy: Go to Google Cloud Console, select your project from the top bar, open the navigation menu on the left, click APIs & Services > Library. Type Indexing API in the search bar. When it shows up, click on it. If the blue button says Enable, click it. If it already says API Enabled, then you are good to go.

1

Delete

@manoj_digital · Answer 3

Make sure your site URL format matches your Search Console property exactly.
If your Search Console property was verified as a URL Prefix with https://www.yourdomain.com, but you submit a link without the www (or with http instead of https), Google returns a 403 permission error because it considers it an unverified property.

Does this Indexing API tool work on free .blogspot.com subdomains or does it require a custom .com domain?
@kavita_writes It works on both! Free blogspot subdomains work fine. Just open your published post in your browser, copy the full URL from the address bar, and paste it directly into the tool.

@pooja_travels · Answer 4

@pooja_travels • September 08, 2026

For those who have this working: how fast does Googlebot actually visit the URL after submitting? And is there a daily limit?

1

Delete

@vikram_vlogs • September 08, 2026

@pooja_travels Google gives every service account a quota of 200 requests per day, which is plenty for any blogger. In terms of speed, I usually see Googlebot hit my updated links within 2 to 10 minutes. You can check Search Console URL inspection an hour later and you will see the updated crawl timestamp.

1

Delete

Getting 'Permission denied by Google (403)' in the Indexing API tool - how do I fix this?

Related Questions

Comments (9)

Getting 'Permission denied by Google (403)' in the Indexing API tool - how do I fix this?