Google Merchant Center 2026 Changes: What You Must Do Before March
Google has announced three changes to Merchant Center that will break product feeds for merchants who are not prepared. Two deadlines land in the next seven months, and one is just weeks away. Here is what is changing, who is affected, and exactly how to fix it on every major platform.
Two Deadlines You Cannot Ignore
Google quietly announced three interconnected changes to Merchant Center that affect every e-commerce merchant who uses product feeds. Most merchants have not heard about them yet. That is a problem, because the first deadline is weeks away.
Here are the three changes, in order of urgency:
- February 28, 2026 — Merchant API v1beta discontinued. All API calls must use v1 or v1alpha after this date. If your integrations still reference v1beta endpoints, they will stop working.
- March 2026 — Product ID split. If you sell the same product online and in physical stores with different prices, availability, or condition, you now need separate product IDs for each channel. Online attributes become the default. Google announced this change on January 6, 2026.
- August 18, 2026 — Content API for Shopping fully shut down. The Content API is being replaced by the new Merchant API. Every script, plugin, and integration connected to the Content API stops working on this date.
These are firm deadlines. Google has stated no individual extensions will be granted. The policy applies to all merchants regardless of size or vertical.
Check If Your Product Feed Is Ready for 2026
Our free Agent Ready Score scans your product pages for feed compatibility, schema markup, structured data, and 20+ other signals that Google AI Mode and AI shopping agents evaluate before recommending your products.