Crawl rate limiter tool removed from Search Console

What changed

Google deprecated the crawl rate limiter, saying Googlebot had become good enough at responding to server signals that manual limits were rarely needed and were often set and then forgotten. It advised site owners to return HTTP 500, 503 or 429 responses to signal that crawling should slow down, and said Googlebot reacts within minutes. The tool was withdrawn on 8 January 2024. Only the month of the announcement is documented here.

Timing

Announced on 1 November 2023, with rollout beginning 8 January 2024. No completion date was announced. Rankings typically remain unstable for the whole rollout window, so measurements taken inside it are not a reliable read on the outcome.

What it affected