Is there a maximum size for sitemap files?

Asked 27/1, 2011 at 16:52 Answered 11/10, 2013 at 6:59

I was wondering: Is there a maximum size for sitemap files? I'm trying to build a shopping site and I don't know if it's going to support constant size increasing dynamicaly. I don't even know if it is the correct way to put the products to be find by the search engines.

Nikos answered 27/1, 2011 at 16:52 Comment(1)

A detail well-explained answer for a similar question can be found here #2887858 – Neigh 10/9, 2016 at 17:5

The limits are:

maximum 50000 urls
max 10MB file size (after un-gzipping).

Both limis apply.

Taken from here

Dhiman answered 27/1, 2011 at 16:56 Comment(5)

Max file size was increased to 50MB since this answer was posted sitemaps.org/faq.html#faq_sitemap_size – Kacey 4/2, 2017 at 9:46

It still looks like the numbers in the answer are correct per support.google.com/webmasters/answer/… – Dhiman 5/2, 2017 at 16:11

On that support site for google above it's been changed to 50MB as of this comment. – Bobbie 27/9, 2017 at 19:2

@Dhiman Hi, I don't think so, but I would like to confirm. Does <xhtml:link href="alternateURL" rel="alternate" hreflang="en"/> count as a URL ? I have 15000 <url>'s and each one has 4 <xhtml:link ../> inside because of alternate langs. Can i use a single Sitemap? Thanks – Hyperemia 18/4, 2020 at 17:57

Google now also has increased the size limit to 50 MB: developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/sitemaps/… – Barolet 19/11, 2020 at 10:42

Quote from the sitemaps.org FAQ:

Sitemaps should be no larger than 50MB (52,428,800 bytes) and can contain a maximum of 50,000 URLs. These limits help to ensure that your web server does not get bogged down serving very large files. This means that if your site contains more than 50,000 URLs or your Sitemap is bigger than 50MB, you must create multiple Sitemap files and use a Sitemap index file. You should use a Sitemap index file even if you have a small site but plan on growing beyond 50,000 URLs or a file size of 50MB. A Sitemap index file can include up to 50,000 Sitemaps and must not exceed 50MB (52,428,800 bytes). You can also use gzip to compress your Sitemaps.

The above answer can be considered authoritative. According to sitemaps.org's terms of service, as of May 2017, sitemaps.org is sponsored by: Google, Inc., Yahoo, Inc., and Microsoft Corporation

Nagel answered 30/10, 2012 at 17:26 Comment(0)

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/webmasters/nd5RDhMMfhk

I've read the FAQs and searched the help center.

This URL indicates the max sitemap file size is 50 MB, uncompressed: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=183668#1

This URL indicates the max sitemap file size is 10 MB, uncompressed: http://www.sitemaps.org/faq.html#faq_sitemap_size

Both are correct! How?

On sitemaps.org the 10MB figure is the standard figure in the standard protocol.

Google later decided to INCREASE the upper limit to 50MB for people submitting to Google, so that's why it says 50MB on the google help notes.

If you want your XML Sitemaps to be compatible not only with google but others that accept XML Sitemaps, you might still want to limit each to a maximum filesize of 10MB (i.e. regardless of compressed or uncompressed should never exceed 10MB).

Wendling answered 11/10, 2013 at 6:59 Comment(1)

ya, it's somehow confusing, please also see a similar answer at #2887858 – Neigh 10/9, 2016 at 17:8

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