# Google Search Console review (2026): is it any good? > Free Google reports on a site's search traffic, indexing and issues Checked Oct 23, 2026 ยท graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA. Google Search Console is Google's free service for site owners to see how their site appears in Google Search. It reports clicks, impressions, average position and the queries behind them, shows which pages are indexed and why others are not, and sends email alerts about indexing, spam and security problems. Sitemaps and single URLs can be submitted for crawling, and an API and a daily BigQuery export give access to the data outside the browser. - **Category:** Technical SEO & Site Audits - **Made by:** Google - **Website:** https://search.google.com/search-console/about - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you need Bing, Yandex, Baidu or Naver data, as it covers Google Search only. - **Facts last checked:** Oct 23, 2026 ## Pricing As of Oct 23, 2026, Google Search Console is free to use. - **Pricing model:** Free - **Free plan:** Free with a Google account for any site whose ownership you verify: every report and tool, email alerts, the API and up to 100 non-owner users per property. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | Performance, indexing, Core Web Vitals and rich result reports, URL Inspection, sitemaps, alerts and the API. | Read from https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9128668?hl=en on Oct 23, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Google Search Console before buying. ## Key features - **Performance report:** Clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position, by query, page, country, device, search appearance and date, for web, image, video and news results. - **Indexing and URL Inspection:** Review which pages Google has indexed, submit sitemaps and single URLs, and inspect a URL for its crawl, index and serving details straight from the Google index. - **Issue alerts:** Email alerts when Google finds indexing, spam or other problems, with the affected URLs and a way to tell Google once they are fixed. - **Experience and enhancement reports:** Core Web Vitals on mobile and desktop, plus reports on rich results from structured data such as recipes and jobs, and on AMP pages. - **Links report:** Shows which other sites link to yours, as part of the same set of reports as search traffic and indexing. - **API and BigQuery export:** The Search Console API queries search data, lists sites and manages sitemaps; a scheduled daily export sends all performance data, except anonymized queries, to BigQuery. ## Good for - Any site owner who wants to know which Google searches bring visitors - Finding out why pages are missing from Google's index - SEO specialists and developers checking structured data and Core Web Vitals ## Worth knowing - Covers Google Search only; Bing, Yandex, Baidu and Naver each run their own webmaster tools. - You must prove you own or manage the site before you see any data, and a property allows at most 100 non-owner users. - The API exposes at most 50,000 rows a day per search type, at up to 25,000 rows per request. - The BigQuery export needs a Google Cloud project with billing; storage and queries beyond the free usage level are charged. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 3.0 out of 4**, graded Oct 23, 2026. Google Search Console shows the clicks, impressions and queries that bring people to your site from Google, which pages are indexed and why others aren't, and alerts you to problems, all for free. But it only covers Google, nothing shows until you verify the site, the API stops at 50,000 rows a day per search type, and the BigQuery export needs a billed Cloud project. - **Value for money: A.** Free, from Google, with every report, URL Inspection, email alerts, the API and up to 100 non-owner users per property. There is no paid plan. - **Free plan and trial: A.** Everything is free once you verify the site. The caps are on the API, 50,000 rows a day per search type, which most sites won't reach. - **Features: C.** Performance by query and page, indexing and URL Inspection, Core Web Vitals, rich result and links reports, alerts and a BigQuery export. The gap: it's Google's view only, with no crawl you run yourself, and Bing, Yandex, Baidu and Naver need their own tools. - **Ease of use: C.** No rating on record. You prove you own or manage the site before seeing anything, and the indexing and performance reports take some learning. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web only, with the Search Console API, a scheduled daily BigQuery export and Site Kit by Google. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Google's own pages on 23 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among technical SEO tools - Google Search Console's GPA of 3.0 is higher than 73 of the 83 other technical SEO tools we grade, and level with 7. - It stands best on free plan and trial (A, above 62 of 83) and worst on ease of use (C, above 7). - Google Search Console has no paid plan. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. Nothing scores higher for less, though at least one tool matches that score at a lower price. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/technical-seo ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** Google Search Console is free, so making your own would save you nothing. And it is not the kind of software a weekend replaces. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 3.0 is higher than 73 of the 83 other technical SEO tools we grade. - You could make: Schema markup: an app builder makes this well. - You could not: A crawler that checks every page of a site. - You could not: Speed tests run from real browsers on a schedule. - You could not: It plugs into other products, BigQuery and Site Kit by Google among them, and has an API. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with BigQuery, Site Kit by Google **Tags:** Site audit, Page speed, Schema markup, Public API ## Alternatives - [Bing Webmaster Tools](https://toolgpa.com/tools/bing-webmaster-tools): Free Bing reports on search traffic, indexing and AI answer citations. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bing-webmaster-tools-vs-google-search-console) - [Yandex Webmaster](https://toolgpa.com/tools/yandex-webmaster): Free Yandex reports on a site's indexing, errors and search queries. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/google-search-console-vs-yandex-webmaster) - [SEO Gets](https://toolgpa.com/tools/seogets): Search Console and GA4 analytics with SEO reports and client portals. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/google-search-console-vs-seogets) - [Search Analytics for Sheets](https://toolgpa.com/tools/search-analytics-for-sheets): Google Sheets add-on that pulls and backs up Search Console data. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/google-search-console-vs-search-analytics-for-sheets) - [Ahrefs](https://toolgpa.com/tools/ahrefs): SEO toolset for backlinks, keyword research, audits and rank tracking. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/ahrefs-vs-google-search-console) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 23, 2026: - https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9128668?hl=en - https://search.google.com/search-console/about - https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9128669?hl=en - https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7576553?hl=en - https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7687615?hl=en - https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/12918484?hl=en - https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/12917675?hl=en - https://developers.google.com/webmaster-tools - https://developers.google.com/webmaster-tools/v1/how-tos/all-your-data Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/google-search-console Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).