[NewSearch millions of jobs from your AI agent with MCP→](/blog/jobspipe-mcp-server) [All posts](/blog) Reference·Jul 24, 2026·7 min read # What happened to the Indeed Publisher API For a decade the Indeed Publisher API was every developer's first stop for jobs data - free, public, XML. Indeed shut it down in 2023. What it was, why the strategic logic reversed, what replaced it (a display widget and a six-figure enterprise program), and what former users read Indeed postings with now. ![Dvir Atias](/authors/dvir-atias.jpg) Dvir Atias Founder, JobsPipe For about a decade, 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 shut it down in 2023, and the void it left is why so many searches for an [Indeed API key](/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. ## 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](/guides/linkedin-jobs-api) and [the Google Jobs API post](/blog/google-jobs-api). ## What replaced it Two things, neither a like-for-like substitute: - **A hosted-search widget** at publisher.indeed.com. It renders Indeed results inside an iframe on your site. It is a display product, not a data product: you cannot read the postings out of it, only show them. - **An enterprise data partnership**. NDA-gated, sales-led, priced per agreement with reported six-figure minimums. It exists 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 replacements are a dead end. The widget does not give you data; the partnership does not give you the time of day at that scale. ## 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](/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 indexes Indeed’s public listings. The first two carry the terms-of-service and maintenance costs we detailed in [Indeed scraper vs Indeed API](/blog/indeed-scraper-vs-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 indexes Indeed alongside 30+ other sources under one schema, self-serve, with a free tier the Publisher API never charged for either. The Publisher API without the shutdown - Indeed data through one key. ## Frequently asked questions ### What was the Indeed Publisher API? It was Indeed's free public XML job-search feed for affiliates. Members of the Indeed Publisher Program received a numeric publisher ID and made GET requests to an ads search endpoint with a query and location, receiving jobs back as XML to display on their own sites. It was open, required no approval, and for roughly a decade was the default way developers got Indeed jobs data. ### When did Indeed shut down the Publisher API? In 2023. Existing publisher keys stopped returning data, and Indeed did not offer a self-serve replacement. The strategic logic had reversed: open syndication helped Indeed grow an audience early on, but once Indeed was the destination, an open feed mainly helped competitors and aggregators build on its inventory without sending traffic back. ### What replaced the Indeed Publisher API? Two things, neither a direct substitute. A hosted-search widget at publisher.indeed.com renders Indeed results in an iframe but exposes no data. A separate enterprise data partnership licenses postings, but it is NDA-gated, sales-led, and priced per agreement with reported six-figure minimums. The individual developers the Publisher API served fit neither replacement. ### What is the difference between the Indeed Publisher Program and Publisher API? 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, identified by their publisher number. You needed the program to use the API. Both were retired for data purposes in 2023. ### 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 indexes Indeed's public listings. The closest match to the old experience - a key, a query, a normalized response, no scraping infrastructure - is a unified jobs API. JobsPipe indexes Indeed with 30+ other sources under one schema, self-serve, with a free tier. [ ← Previous Posting jobs to LinkedIn via API: what access actually requires in 2026 ](/blog/linkedin-api-post-job)[ Next → The four Indeed partner APIs, explained ](/blog/indeed-partner-apis) --- Canonical URL: https://jobspipe.dev/blog/indeed-publisher-api Title: What happened to the Indeed Publisher API Description: For a decade the Indeed Publisher API was every developer's first stop for jobs data - free, public, XML. Indeed shut it down in 2023. What it was, why the strategic logic reversed, what replaced it (a display widget and a six-figure enterprise program), and what former users read Indeed postings with now.