Deductions from earnings FAQs

Your earnings may include deductions for various reasons. Google may adjust your earnings if it detects invalid click activity in your account or ad implementations that are not in compliance with AdSense policy. We encourage you to review the policy and traffic quality guidelines to learn more.

Google may also adjust your earnings if it cannot collect payments from advertisers whose ads were displayed on your AdSense content, including but not limited to sites, mobile apps, etc. These advertisers may have used stolen credit cards or otherwise defaulted on payments. Google works diligently to ensure that these instances are rare in order to maintain a safe ecosystem for users, publishers, and advertisers.

Frequently asked questions

Here are some answers to questions you may have about the deductions you notice in your account:

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Why were my earnings deducted?

Your earnings were deducted either for invalid click activity or for activity that was not in compliance with Google policies. Google periodically reviews publisher accounts for such activity. When we find such activity in your account, we adjust your earnings and reimburse the advertisers who paid for these clicks.

In rare cases, your earnings were deducted because we could not collect payments from certain advertisers. These advertisers may have used stolen credit cards or otherwise defaulted on payments. When this happens, we have to deduct the related revenue from publishers on whose content those advertisers’ ads appeared.

I’d like to appeal the deduction. Can I do so?

Unfortunately you can't appeal the deduction. Please be assured that we have applied due diligence in reviewing the traffic in your account. As mentioned, a deduction is issued when we find invalid clicks in your account, when we find activity that's not in compliance with Google policy, or when advertisers who default on payments to Google have served ads on your AdSense content.

Please note, fraudulent advertiser accounts that we catch are suspended indefinitely and are no longer permitted to run ads on Google's network.

I noticed that my finalized earnings are different from my estimated earnings. Why would I receive an additional deduction?

The estimated earnings you see in your account give you a close estimate of recent account activity as and when traffic is accrued in your account. The finalized earnings on the other hand include all revenue you'll be paid for validated clicks and impressions minus revenue from advertisers who default on payments to Google and whose ads were served on your AdSense content.

On some occasions, Google may notice that activity you've already been paid for is invalid or not in compliance with Google policy. In such cases, Google posts an adjustment to your account in the form of a deduction. Find out more about understanding your AdSense earnings better or the difference between estimated and finalized earnings.

What was the date range for this deduction?

We're unable to provide the date range for which your adjustment was issued. Note that per our Terms and Conditions, we credit advertisers for invalid traffic accrued 60 days prior to the date of invoice. Once we complete our investigation and begin processing the credits, it may take up to 30 days for the credits to appear in your account.

Can I get more details on the deduction? Which are the channels and domains that resulted in this deduction?

To maintain the integrity of our invalid activity detection system and to prevent users from circumventing the system, we aren’t able to provide details on what activity we noticed in your account. We suggest you review the AdSense policy FAQs to learn more.

How can I prevent this from happening again?

We encourage publishers to continuously monitor their AdSense accounts for potential signs of invalid click activity. It's important for you to know where your traffic comes from. We understand the need to have ad campaigns to promote your website, but it's equally important to monitor what kind of traffic these promotions generate. To do this successfully we recommend monitoring the traffic driven to your site using a web analytics tool like Google Analytics. You can also try segmenting your traffic into channels and monitoring the traffic from these channels.

Please note that Google works diligently to ensure that deductions due to advertiser payment fraud are rare in order to maintain a safe ecosystem for users, publishers, and advertisers. Fraudulent advertiser accounts that are caught are suspended indefinitely and are no longer permitted to run ads on Google's network.

What should I do if I suspect invalid activity?

If you notice any suspicious activity in your account, you can notify us using our online form. Please share as detailed information as possible via the form. Note that we'll keep this information in our records, but we may not respond unless we find a significant issue with your account.