How many URLs can one sitemap contain?

A single sitemap may hold up to 50,000 URLs and must stay under 50MB uncompressed. Beyond that, split it into several sitemaps and reference them from a sitemap index file. Most sites never come close to the limit.

Free Tool

XML Sitemap Generator

Q: What is an XML sitemap?

An XML sitemap is a file listing the URLs you want search engines to crawl, along with optional details such as when each page was last modified. It helps engines discover pages that internal links might not reach easily. It does not force indexing — it only makes discovery reliable.

Q: Does priority in a sitemap affect rankings?

No. Google has stated it ignores the priority and changefreq values. They remain valid XML and other crawlers may read them, but setting everything to 1.0 achieves nothing. The genuinely useful field is lastmod, provided it reflects real content changes.

Q: Which URLs should I leave out?

Leave out anything you would not want as a search result: noindexed pages, redirects, 404s, canonicalised duplicates, and parameter variants such as filtered or UTM-tagged URLs. A sitemap full of URLs that resolve elsewhere wastes crawl budget and dilutes the signal.

Paste your URLs, get a valid sitemap.xml. No crawl limits, no signup, no waiting — it runs in your browser, so a 5,000-URL list is as fast as five.

Your URLs — one per line

Last modified

Custom date

Change frequency

Priority

Remove duplicates and trailing whitespace

Valid URLs

Skipped

0 KB

File size

Your sitemap.xml

<!-- Paste URLs to generate -->

Two Things Most Generators Get Wrong

Priority and Changefreq Do Nothing

Google has said outright that it ignores <priority> and <changefreq>. Setting every page to 1.0 doesn't help, and neither does claiming daily updates on a page you last touched in 2023.

That's why both default to "omit" here. The field that genuinely matters is <lastmod> — if it reflects real content changes. An inaccurate lastmod is worse than none, because crawlers learn to distrust it.

What to leave out

Only include URLs you'd be happy to see as a search result. Exclude noindexed pages, redirects, 404s, canonicalised duplicates, and parameter variants like filtered or UTM-tagged URLs.

A sitemap full of URLs that resolve elsewhere wastes crawl budget and teaches Google your file is unreliable. More technical checks →

FAQ

Sitemap Questions

What is an XML sitemap?

A file listing the URLs you want crawled, with optional details like last-modified dates. It helps engines discover pages internal links might not reach easily. It doesn't force indexing — it makes discovery reliable.

Does priority affect rankings?

No. Google ignores priority and changefreq. They're valid XML and other crawlers may read them, but setting everything to 1.0 achieves nothing. The useful field is lastmod, if it's accurate.

How many URLs can one sitemap hold?

Up to 50,000 URLs and under 50MB uncompressed. Beyond that, split into several sitemaps referenced from a sitemap index. Most sites never approach the limit.

Which URLs should I leave out?

Anything you wouldn't want as a search result: noindexed pages, redirects, 404s, canonicalised duplicates, and parameter variants. URLs that resolve elsewhere waste crawl budget and dilute the signal.

Sitemap Submitted, Pages Still Not Indexed?

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