This article explains the different types of quotas, limits, and enforcement rules within Google Merchant Center to help you manage your account effectively.
To ensure system stability and fair usage for all merchants, Google Merchant Center implements quotas, which are the maximum amount of data you can upload or manage. These limits apply to various aspects of your account, including the number of products you can submit, the number of sub-accounts under a multi-client account (MCA), the number of data sources you can register, and the volume of calls you can make to our APIs. Understanding these quotas is key to managing your product data and scaling your business on Google.
1. Product quotas
Product quotas limit the number of products you can have in your account at any given time. These quotas are applied per "scope," which determines how your products are used across Google.
Key Product Data Quota Scopes:
- Ads EEA: For products advertised via Shopping ads in Comparison Shopping Service (CSS) program countries.
- Ads Non-EEA: For products advertised via Shopping ads in countries outside the CSS program.
- Free Listings (Organic): For products shown in unpaid product listings across Google surfaces.
Default product quota limits:
| Account/Sub-account type | Default product limits |
| Standalone Account & Standard Sub-account | 150,000 quota per scope |
| Standard Multi-Client Account (MCA) | 150,000 quota (at MCA level) |
| eCommerce Platform MCA | 50 million quota (at MCA level) |
| Marketplace MCA | 150,000 quota (at MCA level) |
| ∟ Marketplace-owned Seller (1P) | 150,000 quota |
| ∟ Single-seller (3P) | 150,000 quota |
| ∟ Multi-seller | 40 million quota* |
Enforcement: Quotas are enforced at both the sub-account and the MCA level. Even if a sub-account has available quota, it cannot add new products if its parent MCA has reached its own quota limit.
2. Sub-account limits
This quota applies only to MCAs and limits the number of sub-accounts that can be created under them.
| MCA type | Default sub-account quota |
| Standard MCA | 50 sub-accounts |
| eCommerce Platform MCA | 50,000 (can be increased to 500,000) |
| Marketplace MCA | 5,000 (maximum of 800,000) |
3. API quotas
The Content API for Shopping and Merchant API have their own quotas to manage call volume.
4. Data source quotas
These quotas apply to product data sources (formerly known as feeds) that you register in Merchant Center.
- Number of data sources: You can register up to 200 data sources per standalone account or sub-account, and up to 1,000 at the MCA level.
- Items per Feed File: Each data source file has a hard limit of 5 million items per country/language combination. This limit cannot be increased.
- Uploads per day: You can perform up to 100 uploads per day for primary product data sources and 500 uploads per day for supplemental or inventory update data sources.
5. Other notable quotas
- Custom labels: There is a limit of 1,000 unique values for each of the five custom label attributes (custom_label_0 to custom_label_4). This limit cannot be increased.
- Local Inventory: Each product has a default limit of 1,000 local inventory entries. Increases to this specific limit require manual escalation and are handled on a case-by-case basis.
6. What happens when a limit is reached
When you reach a quota limit, any additional items, sub-accounts, or other entities that exceed the cap will not be processed. You will typically see a notification in your Merchant Center account on the "Needs attention" page. To add new items, you may need to remove old or underperforming products to free up space.
7. How to request quota increases
If you consistently need more quota, you can request an increase.
- How to Request: The primary method for requesting an increase for items, data sources, or sub-accounts is by using the Request for additional quota of items, data sources or sub-accounts form available in the Merchant Center Help Center.
- Eligibility criteria: Approval for an increase is not guaranteed. Requests are typically evaluated based on several factors:
- Quota usage: You should be using at least 80% of your current quota.
- Account health: Your account should have a low percentage of disapproved or pending products (generally under 20%).
- Policy compliance: Your account must not have any active suspensions for data quality or policy violations.
- Performance: For some increases, particularly for ads, sufficient traffic and performance may be reviewed.