Availability [availability]

Use the availability [availability] attribute to tell users and Google whether you have a product in stock.

When to use

Required for all products.

These are the supported values that you can choose from:

• In stock [in_stock]
  • You're currently accepting orders for this product and can fulfil the purchase request. You're certain that the product will be dispatched (or be in transit to the customer) in a timely manner because it's available for sale. You can deliver the product to all of the locations that you support in your product data and account delivery settings.
• Out of stock [out_of_stock]
  • You’re not currently accepting orders for this product, or the product is not available for purchase or needs to be backordered.
• Preorder [preorder]
  • You're currently taking orders for this product, but it's not yet been released for sale. You're required to provide the availability date [availability_date] attribute to indicate the day that the product becomes available for delivery.
• Backorder [backorder]
  • The product is not available at the moment, but you're accepting orders and it'll be dispatched as soon as it becomes available again. You're required to provide the availability date [availability_date] attribute to indicate the day that the product becomes available for delivery.

Note:

• The pre-order [preorder] value should only be used for new products that haven't been released yet. Existing products that are out of stock and will be back in stock at a later date that you're accepting orders for should use backorder [backorder] instead.

• The pre-order [preorder] and backorder [backorder] values are not supported for Buy on Google listings.

Format

Follow these formatting guidelines to make sure that Google understands the data that you're submitting.

For details on when and how to submit values in English, learn more about submitting your product data.

Supported values	in_stock out_of_stock preorder [preorder] backorder [backorder]
Repeated field	No
Schema.org property (What's this?)	Offer.availability, Type: ItemAvailability How to map to Merchant Center values: in_stock [in_stock]: InStock, LimitedAvailability, OnlineOnly out_of_stock [out_of_stock]: Discontinued, InStoreOnly, OutOfStock, SoldOut preorder [preorder]: PreOrder, PreSale backorder [backorder]: BackOrder

File format	Example value
Text feeds	in_stock
XML feeds	<g:availability>in_stock</g:availability>

To format your data for Content API, have a look at the Content API for Shopping.

Guidelines

Follow these guidelines to make sure that you submit high quality data for your products.

Minimum requirements

These are the requirements that you'll need to meet to show your product. If you don't follow these requirements, we'll disapprove your product and let you know on the Diagnostics page of your Merchant Center account.

• Show product availability on your landing page. Learn more about requirements for landing pages
• Match your product availability with your account delivery settings. Learn more about delivery settings
  • Deliver the product to all of the locations that you support in your product data and account delivery settings. This way, the availability that users see will match what you submit.
  • Match the availability listed in your product data with the availability listed on your landing page and checkout pages. When users come to your website, they expect to see the same availability on your landing page and during checkout, which is provided in your product data. One common availability mismatch is that your delivery settings don't reflect your delivery locations correctly. For example, make sure that you can physically deliver a product to the state of California through specifying the delivery costs to deliver to California. Learn more about delivery settings
  • Make sure that the product can be delivered, not just picked up in store. In-store pickup is not currently supported, with the exception of Argentina and Chile.
• Provide the most up-to-date data. Availability and prices of your products can change quite frequently. Learn more about maintaining high quality product data
• Provide the availability date [availability_date] attribute if you're submitting preorder or backorder as the availability value.

Note: The availability date should also be added to the product's landing page and be clear to your customers (for example, '6 May 2023'). If an exact date can't be provided, you can use an estimated date (for example, 'May 2023').

Best practices

These best practices can help you go beyond the basic requirements to optimise your product data for performance.

• When your product is temporarily unavailable in the target country and you're not accepting orders for it, set the availability [availability] attribute to out_of_stock. If we find that a product is out of stock on your landing page or during checkout, but the availability attribute is set to in_stock in your product data, we'll disapprove the product.
• Don't set the availability attribute to out_of_stock when you take your website down for maintenance or a holiday. Use the excluded destination [excluded_destination] attribute instead. By following this best practice, you'll prevent unnecessary disapprovals in your account and get your products running again more quickly than if they'd been disapproved. Learn more best practices for landing page maintenance or a site outage
• Don't use out_of_stock when you want to prevent your product from being shown. If the product is available for sale but you'd like to stop your product from showing in certain destinations, use the excluded destination [excluded_destination] attribute. For example, you can disable your product from showing on Shopping ads, but still show your products through other formats, such as free listings.
• Temporarily pause your product. If you'd like to stop your product from showing in ads for up to 14 days, with the option to quickly reactivate, use the pause [pause] attribute.
• Don't set the availability attribute to out_of_stock for products that you're no longer selling. Remove any discontinued products from your product data.
• Consider using automatic item updates to help you avoid availability mismatches. Automatic item updates is a feature that uses your landing page status to automatically update your product data, preventing disapprovals. Learn how to set up automatic item updates

Examples

Product is available for sale

Product data for an Android squishable available for sale
Attribute	Value
Availability [availability]	in_stock

Product inventory ran out

Product data for an Android squishable that is out-of-stock
Attribute	Value
Availability [availability]	out_of_stock

Product inventory on backorder

Product data for an Android squishable that is on backorder
Attribute	Value
Availability [availability]	backorder [backorder]
Availability date [availability_date]	2021-05-24T13:00-0800

Temporarily prevent a product from being shown on Google

If you'd like to temporarily stop displaying a product in certain locations on Google, but you still have it marked as being in stock on your landing page, you can use the excluded destination [excluded_destination] attribute. This allows you to control where your product is shown.

If you'd like to stop your product from showing in ads for up to 14 days, with the option to quickly reactivate, use the pause [pause] attribute.

Product data for an Android Squishable that is in stock and shown as in stock on the landing page
Attribute	Value
Availability [availability]	in_stock
Excluded destination [excluded_destination]	Shopping_ads*
Shown in Shopping ads?	No
Shown in free listings?	Yes
Product data for an Android Squishable that is in stock and shown as in stock on the landing page
Attribute	Value
Availability [availability]	in_stock
Excluded destination [excluded_destination]	Free_listings
Shown in Shopping ads?	Yes
Shown in free listings?	No
Product data for an Android Squishable that is in stock but paused for 14 days or less from showing in ads
Attribute	Value
Availability [availability]	in_stock
Pause [pause]	ads

*Note: Make sure that you exclude all destinations that you don't want to use. Learn more about the excluded destination [excluded_destination] product data attribute.

Variants

If your product comes in multiple colours or sizes, you might also have different availability for each of these variants. For example:

Product data for a small green Google T-shirt priced at £10.99 GBP
Attribute	Value
Title [title]	Google t-shirt – Green – Small
Price [price]	10.99 USD
Availability [availability]	in_stock
Colour [color]	Green
Size [size]	S
ID [id]	9876-S-GRN
Item group ID [item_group_id]	9876
Product data for a small blue Google T-shirt priced at $10.99 USD
Attribute	Value
Title [title]	Google t-shirt – Blue – Small
Price [price]	10.99 USD
Availability [availability]	in_stock
Colour [color]	Blue
Size [size]	S
ID [id]	9876-S-BLU
Item group ID [item_group_id]	9876
Product data for a small yellow Google T-shirt priced at $10.99 USD
Attribute	Value
Title [title]	Google t-shirt – Yellow – Small
Price [price]	10.99 USD
Availability [availability]	out_of_stock
Colour [color]	Yellow
Size [size]	S
ID [id]	9876-S-YELLOW
Item group ID [item_group_id]	9876