How do I enable automatic product updates in Merchant Center?

Definition: Automatic product updates let Google use information from product landing pages to correct Merchant Center data for Shopping ads and free listings. As of 17 October 2026, Google documents controls for price, availability and condition, with sale price also supported.

Key facts

• Google's automatic updates documentation states that automations are enabled by default and can be configured for price, availability and condition independently or in combination.
• Google's structured data setup guide requires markup to match the values shown to visitors and to appear in the HTML returned by the server.
• Google's sale price specification requires the regular price to remain submitted alongside sale_price.

Where are the automatic update controls?

Google's setup instructions give this route through Merchant Center:

Products > Automations > select an automation > View details

The merchant selects Products, opens the Automations tab, chooses the relevant automation, then selects View details and turns its update toggle on or off. Price, availability and condition can each be selected. Multi-client accounts have automations enabled for each sub-account, and sub-accounts can specify their own settings.

The supported product attributes are price, sale_price, availability and condition. Price updates can also affect strikethrough prices. Google advises against enabling price updates when a product page displays multiple strikethrough prices, because the system may identify the wrong reference price.

What needs to be present on the website?

Structured data is markup that labels product information for automated reading. Google's setup guide describes a Product object with a nested Offer that contains the selling terms. The markup must be present in server-returned HTML; the guide excludes markup generated with JavaScript after the page loads.

Google's automatic updates guide maps the feed attributes to price, priceCurrency, availability and itemCondition. This excerpt from its HTML example shows those offer properties:

<meta itemprop="price" content="899.99">
<meta itemprop="priceCurrency" content="USD">
<link itemprop="availability" href="https://schema.org/InStock" />In stock
<link itemprop="itemCondition" href="https://schema.org/NewCondition" />New

The excerpt belongs inside an Offer within a Product. The condition mappings are new to NewCondition, refurbished to RefurbishedCondition, and used to UsedCondition. The setup guide recommends testing the markup with Search Console or the Rich Results Test.

How do sale prices and mismatches affect updates?

Google's sale price specification requires the submitted sale price to match the landing page and checkout. The sale_price_effective_date attribute specifies the sale period; without it, the submitted sale price applies immediately.

Google's automatic updates documentation also calls for the correct sale timezone. It describes relaxed availability matching: a submitted in_stock value remains in_stock when the website shows preorder or backorder.

Frequent changes can exceed the feature's capabilities. Google gives changes more than once per day as an example and says a mismatch can lead to disapproval instead of an update. Updates can also stop when too many mismatches occur.

Related terms

• Google Merchant Center
• Product structured data
• Product feed freshness
• Can automatic product updates replace a Merchant Center feed?

FAQ

Do I still need to update my product data?

Yes. Google's automatic updates documentation describes the feature as a way to fix sporadic accuracy problems affecting a small percentage of products. You should continue submitting accurate product data frequently.

Can updates work without structured data?

Google says its advanced data extractors can use landing pages with missing, incomplete or incorrect markup. The same documentation recommends structured data and says extractor coverage may be unavailable for some domains.

Sources

1. Google Merchant Center Help, "Allow Merchant Center to update product information automatically", undated
2. Google Merchant Center Help, "Set up structured data for Merchant Center", undated
3. Google Merchant Center Help, "Sale price [sale_price]", undated

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