--- title: "What happened to the Indeed Publisher API" description: "The Indeed Publisher API is gone: sign-ups closed at the end of 2020, the documentation marked it deprecated in 2023 and the endpoint stopped answering in 2024." canonical: https://jobspipe.dev/blog/indeed-publisher-api date_published: 2026-07-24 date_modified: 2026-09-30 author: Dvir Atias --- # What happened to the Indeed Publisher API The Indeed Publisher API is gone: sign-ups closed at the end of 2020, the documentation marked it deprecated in 2023 and the endpoint stopped answering in 2024. It was a free XML job-search API for members of the Indeed Publisher Program, called with a numeric publisher ID. Nothing replaced it for reading jobs; Indeed's remaining APIs move employer data into Indeed, not out. For about fifteen years the Indeed Publisher API was every developer's first stop for jobs data - free, public, XML. Indeed closed sign-ups in 2020, marked it deprecated in 2023 and switched it off in 2024. What it was, why the strategic logic reversed, what exists instead, and what former users read Indeed postings with now. For about fifteen years, the Indeed Publisher API was the default answer to “how do I get job postings data.” It was free, public, and required nothing but a registration form. Indeed closed sign-ups at the end of 2020, marked it deprecated in 2023 and let the endpoint go dark in 2024, and the void it left is why so many searches for an [Indeed API key](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/indeed-api-key) still land on instructions that no longer work. This is the record of what the Publisher API was, what the Publisher Program around it did, why Indeed retired it, what replaced it, and what the people who relied on it use now. The dated timeline of every Indeed developer API, with its sources, is in the [Indeed API guide](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/indeed-api-guide). ## What the Indeed Publisher API was The Publisher API was an XML job-search feed for affiliates. You joined the Indeed Publisher Program, received a numeric `publisher` ID, and made GET requests to an ads search endpoint with your ID, a query, a location, and paging parameters. Indeed returned a list of jobs as XML, and publishers displayed those jobs on their own sites, earning revenue when users clicked through. It was built for the affiliate economics of the time: Indeed wanted its listings syndicated across the web, and the Publisher Program paid site owners to do it. The API was the technical half of that deal. Because the incentive was distribution, access was open, and that openness is what made it every developer’s first stop for jobs data. ## The Publisher Program vs the Publisher API The two names cause confusion, so it is worth separating them. The **Publisher Program** was the affiliate relationship: the account, the publisher ID, the revenue share. The **Publisher API** was the XML endpoint that program members called. You needed the program to use the API, and the ID that identified you to the API was your publisher number from the program. When people search for the Indeed publisher program, publisher ID, or publisher portal today, they are almost always trying to reconstruct that pairing. The pairing no longer exists in a form that returns data. ## Why Indeed shut it down The strategic logic reversed. Open syndication made sense when Indeed was building an audience. Once Indeed was the destination, an open feed of its listings mostly helped competitors and aggregators build products on Indeed’s inventory without sending traffic back. Retiring the API let Indeed reassert control over where its listings appear and how its data is used. This is the same pattern LinkedIn and Google Jobs follow: a platform opens data to grow, then closes it once the data itself is the moat. We traced the identical arc for the other two in [the LinkedIn Jobs API guide](https://jobspipe.dev/guides/linkedin-jobs-api) and [the Google Jobs API guide](https://jobspipe.dev/guides/google-jobs-api). ## What replaced it Nothing like-for-like. What exists instead: - **Partner APIs that run the other way**. Job Sync, Indeed Apply and Disposition Sync move jobs, applications and outcomes into Indeed for employers and applicant tracking systems. None of them returns search results. - **Case-by-case commercial arrangements**. Indeed documents no self-serve data product, so any access to its postings beyond the partner APIs is negotiated with Indeed. That is a route for large data buyers, not for the affiliates and developers the Publisher API served. For the individual developer or small product team who used the Publisher API, both are a dead end. The partner APIs do not give you data, and a negotiated arrangement is not built for a small team. ## The employer-side APIs are a different thing Indeed still ships APIs, but they run the opposite direction from the Publisher API. The Job Sync API, Indeed Apply, and the Disposition Sync API move data _into_ Indeed from an employer or ATS. None returns job-search results. If you find those while hunting for the Publisher API’s replacement, they are not it. The full map is in the [Indeed API guide](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/indeed-api-guide). ## What former Publisher API users do now The developers who relied on the Publisher API for jobs data moved to one of three places: scraping Indeed directly, buying from a scraping marketplace, or using a jobs API that carries Indeed postings. The first two carry the terms-of-service and maintenance costs compared in the [Indeed scraper vs API section of the guide](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/indeed-api-guide#should-you-scrape-indeed-yourself-or-use-an-api). The closest thing to the old Publisher API experience - a key, a query, a normalized response, no scraping infrastructure - is a unified jobs API. JobsPipe carries Indeed postings as one of 30+ sources under one schema, self-serve, with a free tier. It is not an Indeed partner product. ## Sources - [Indeed Publisher Program page, archived November 2020](https://web.archive.org/web/20201111095504/https://www.indeed.com/publisher) - [Indeed Job Search docs marked deprecated, archived April 2023](https://web.archive.org/web/20230422183614/https://developer.indeed.com/docs/publisher-jobs/job-search) - [Indeed Job Sync API documentation](https://docs.indeed.com/job-sync-api) - [Indeed Apply documentation](https://docs.indeed.com/indeed-apply) - [Indeed Disposition Sync API documentation](https://docs.indeed.com/disposition-sync-api) ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What was the Indeed Publisher API? It was Indeed's free XML job-search API for publishers. Members of the Indeed Publisher Program received a numeric publisher ID and sent search requests with a query and location, receiving Indeed jobs back as XML to show on their own sites. An earlier version, offered with a free API key, was already live by January 2005. ### When did Indeed shut down the Publisher API? In stages. The Publisher Program sign-up page is gone by December 2020, the free publisher account step disappears from the documentation by May 2021, the documentation labels Job Search deprecated by April 2023, and the endpoint stops answering during 2024. Those dates come from archived copies of Indeed's own pages; Indeed published no announcement we could find. ### What replaced the Indeed Publisher API? Nothing for reading jobs. Indeed's current APIs are partner APIs that move jobs, applications and hiring outcomes into Indeed. Any access to Indeed's postings beyond those is a commercial arrangement negotiated with Indeed, with no public product or price. ### What is the difference between the Indeed Publisher Program and Publisher API? The Publisher Program was the affiliate relationship: the account, the publisher ID and the revenue share. The Publisher API was the XML endpoint that programme members called, identified by their publisher number. You needed the programme to use the API, and both are gone. ### How do I get Indeed jobs data now that the Publisher API is gone? Former Publisher API users moved to scraping Indeed directly, buying from a scraping marketplace, or using a jobs API that carries Indeed postings. The closest match to the old experience - a key, a query and a structured response - is a jobs API. JobsPipe carries Indeed postings as one of 30+ sources under one schema, self-serve, with a free tier; it is not an Indeed partner product. Related ## Keep reading - [Guide · Jul 13, 2026Indeed API: what Indeed offered, what it retired, and how to read Indeed jobs now](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/indeed-api-guide) - [Guide · Jul 24, 2026Indeed API key: why there isn't one, and what to use instead](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/indeed-api-key) - [Reference · Jul 24, 2026The four Indeed partner APIs, explained](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/indeed-partner-apis) - [Reference · Jul 24, 2026Indeed API pricing: what it costs, and what's actually free](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/indeed-api-pricing) - [Comparison · Jan 30, 2026JSearch API: what it returns, what it costs, and the alternative](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/jsearch-api-direct) ## Further reading - [Indeed API](https://jobspipe.dev/sources/indeed) - [Does Indeed have an API?](https://jobspipe.dev/answers/does-indeed-have-an-api) - [Reed API: the UK jobs API you can actually get a key for](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/reed-api) - [Indeed scraper in Python: how it works and where it breaks](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/indeed-scraper) --- Try it with no key: `curl -d '{"limit":3}' https://api.jobspipe.dev/v1/sandbox/jobs/search`. AI agents: the full machine-readable index of this site is https://jobspipe.dev/llms.txt?src=md-twin - API quickstart, MCP server, pricing. Free key (1,000 jobs to start): https://jobspipe.dev/signup