Anthony McGrath

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Google core and spam update rollout times, 2024 to 2026

Google confirmed 17 core and spam ranking updates on its Search Status Dashboard between March 2024 and September 2026. Rollouts ranged from under a day to 45 days, with core updates generally taking longer than spam updates.

Compiled by Anthony McGrath from Google Search Status Dashboard · Updated · March 2024 core update (5 Mar 2024) to September 2026 spam update (24 Sep 2026)

Excel (.xlsx)PDFCSVChart (PNG)
Google core and spam update rollout times, 2024 to 2026: chart of the data in the table below

Key findings

  • The March 2024 core update was the slowest rollout of the period at 45 days.
  • The March 2026 spam update was the fastest, completing in 0.8 days (19 hours 30 minutes).
  • Every core update since March 2024 has taken at least six days to roll out, ranging from 6.2 days (December 2024) to 45 days (March 2024).

The data

Update (start date)Days to roll out
March 2024 core update (5 Mar 2024)45
March 2024 spam update (5 Mar 2024)14.9
June 2024 spam update (20 Jun 2024)7
August 2024 core update (15 Aug 2024)19.2
November 2024 core update (11 Nov 2024)23.5
December 2024 core update (12 Dec 2024)6.2
December 2024 spam update (19 Dec 2024)7.1
March 2025 core update (13 Mar 2025)13.9
June 2025 core update (30 Jun 2025)16.8
August 2025 spam update (26 Aug 2025)26.6
December 2025 core update (11 Dec 2025)18.1
March 2026 spam update (24 Mar 2026)0.8
March 2026 core update (27 Mar 2026)12.2
May 2026 core update (21 May 2026)11.9
June 2026 spam update (24 Jun 2026)2
August 2026 spam update (18 Aug 2026)2.7
September 2026 spam update (24 Sep 2026)13.7

Use this data

Free to use in articles, reports and presentations, with credit and a link to this page. Please also credit the original source.

Sources and method

All updates named as core or spam updates in the Ranking history of Google's Search Status Dashboard with a start date from January 2024 to October 2026 were included. The dashboard's listed duration (days and hours) was converted to days and rounded to one decimal place.

Other ranking events in the period (the February 2026 Discover update and ranking or serving issues) are excluded. Duration runs from the dashboard's start time to the time Google marked the rollout complete. No core or spam update had started in October 2026 at the time of writing.

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I have 22 years in Google Ads, Meta, tracking and ecommerce, and I am happy to give an expert comment or explain what the numbers mean for businesses.

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