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Merchant API

Merchant API is Google's programming interface for reading and managing Merchant Center data, and the successor to the Content API for Shopping.

How it works

Merchant API lets software do what a person does in Merchant Center. It adds and updates products, manages inventories, data sources and promotions, and reads account issues. It also pulls performance reports by marketing method: ads or organic. Our guide explains where to see free listings performance.

It is a redesign of the Content API for Shopping, split into sub-APIs, each with its version in the address, such as products/v1. To call it, a developer links a Google Cloud project to the Merchant Center account and signs in with OAuth or a service account.

The Content API for Shopping reached its sunset date on 18 August 2026. From 1 September 2026, requests to it without an active extension fail now and then with an HTTP 410 error. Google plans to switch it off completely in early 2027. Our guide to the move to Merchant API covers what this breaks in feed tools.

Where you see it

  • Portal: the Feed and Merchant Center section reads the catalogue and reports through Merchant API v1 and changes nothing in the feed.

Example

Example store, not client data.

The tableware shop’s own script updates the price of a dinner set, offer ID ds-24, in its German feed. In the Content API, the product ID was online:de:DE:ds-24. In Merchant API it is de~DE~ds-24: the channel part (online) is gone and tildes replace the colons.

A price of 600 now goes out as amountMicros: 600000000, because Merchant API expects amounts in millionths. A script that still builds the old ID or sends a plain 600 needs rewriting.

Not to be confused with

  • Google Ads API — the interface to campaigns, bids and ad reports. Merchant API covers product data and the Merchant Center account.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “We sync products with the Google & YouTube app on Shopify, so we have to migrate.” Right: Google says that if a technology partner syncs your data, the partner handles the move and you need to do nothing. Check scripts and integrations you built yourself.

Sources