Search Console data older than 16 months can be kept only by saving it while it is still inside the window Search Console keeps. Export the Performance report every few months and merge the files into one daily series, or start Google's bulk export to BigQuery, which does not go back before set-up.
- Search Console keeps data for the last 16 months (Google, Analytics Help, read 30 October 2026).
- Google's bulk data export accumulates data forever unless you set an expiration time, but it holds nothing from before you set it up (Google, Search Console Help, read 30 October 2026).
- The 1,000-row limit Google documents for tables does not bind the Dates table, which has at most about 490 daily rows (Penlid, Search Console anomaly check, read 30 October 2026).
- Penlid's history merger takes at most 40 files at once and lists a day no export holds as a gap, never filling it (Penlid, Search Console history merger, read 30 October 2026).
How far back does Search Console go?
Search Console keeps up to 16 months of performance data. Google's Analytics help page says Search Console keeps data for the last 16 months.
The same page adds that reports in Analytics also include a maximum of 16 months of data, so linking the two products does not lengthen the history.
Google's January 2018 post introducing the new Performance report promised 16 months of data to make analyzing longer-term trends easier and enable year-over-year comparisons
. No Google page we read says what happens to older days, so we say only that they are out of reach unless you saved them.
Sixteen months allows a year-over-year comparison of the last four months and no more: comparing the last N months with the same N months a year earlier reaches back 12 + N months, and 12 + 4 = 16. Google's traffic-drop guide suggests Compare last 3 months year over year
, which needs 12 + 3 = 15 months and fits; a full year against the year before needs 12 + 12 = 24. That is our arithmetic, not a Google rule. See seasonality in SEO data for telling a season from a real change.
What are the ways to keep older data?
Google's own tools give three routes for keeping Search Console data past 16 months: exporting the reports by hand, pulling the data with the Search Analytics API (part of the Search Console API), or starting Google's bulk data export to BigQuery. Google's traffic-drop guide names the last two as the way to pull data and store it in your systems
.
| Route | What it saves | Reaches past 16 months? | Main limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Export button | The data the report is showing now, chart and tables, as Google Sheets, Excel or CSV | No, only what Search Console still shows | Tables over 1,000 rows are truncated; you repeat it by hand |
| Search Analytics API | Whatever your own code requests and stores | Not stated on the pages we read | You supply the code |
| Bulk data export | Performance data in your BigQuery project, kept until you set an expiration time | No, it holds nothing from before set-up | First export up to 48 hours after set-up; Google Cloud costs, with a free usage level |
In our view the bulk export suits anyone who can set up a Google Cloud project and the manual export suits everyone else. The guide to why a Search Console export stops at 1,000 rows covers getting past that cap.
How do you keep the data by hand with the Export button?
Open Performance, then Search results, choose the longest date range on offer, and use Export, then Download CSV; repeat it every few months and keep every ZIP, because an original may be the only copy of days that have left the window. Google also offers Sheets and Excel, but our history tool reads the ZIP or CSV.
- Keep the filters the same. An export carries the filters you had applied, and the merger refuses exports taken under a different search type or filter.
- Take the daily table. Our history tool's page says the ZIP holds it as Dates.csv, or Chart.csv in newer exports. Google says
Data is truncated to 1,000 rows of representative examples of your data.
The daily table escapes that cap: 16 × 30.44 = 487.04 days, far fewer than 1,000 rows. - Put the export date in the file name. A file does not record when it was exported, so the name tells you later which of its newest days were still preliminary.
What does Google's bulk data export keep, and what does it miss?
Google's bulk data export keeps your Search Console performance data in a BigQuery project from its first export onward, and it misses the history that precedes set-up. Google says Data will be accumulated forever for your project, unless you set an expiration time
, and its table reference says tables are retained forever by default, subject to any defaults your Google Cloud project or organization sets.
The first export arrives up to 48 hours after set-up and includes data for the day of the export; for historical data that precedes set-up, Google's page points to the Search Console API or the reports. Google's overview says the export holds the available performance data with the exception of anonymized queries, which the guide to hidden (anonymized) queries looks at.
Because it does not go back, we suggest doing both: start the bulk export now so everything from its first export onward is saved without further effort, and take one manual export today so the 16 months behind you are saved too. That is our reasoning, not a Google recommendation.
How does the Search Console history merger combine exports?
The Search Console history merger reads all the daily exports you give it and returns one deduplicated daily CSV, showing each choice it made. It runs in your browser, so nothing is uploaded.
| Rule | What the merger does |
|---|---|
| Files at once | At most 40; more is refused, with advice to merge in two rounds |
| Which export wins a day | First, an export in which the day is not among its last 3 days; then the export whose range ends latest; then the file chosen first |
| A conflict | Any difference in clicks or impressions; CTR beyond 0.05 percentage points; position beyond 0.05 |
| A gap | Every run of days no export holds is listed, never filled |
| Nothing merged | Different filters, or at least 7 settled shared days (not among the last 3 of any export holding them) with more than 25% showing different clicks |
| Months label | The span of days divided by 30.44, a label and not a calendar count |
The 3-day rule follows the warning in Google's Performance report overview that The newest data can be preliminary
, and a note on its troubleshooting page that collected data is usually available in 2–3 days. Google says preliminary data might change within a few hours but gives no time after which a day is final, so the 3 days are the merger's own margin, not a Google figure. The guide to why the last few days in Search Console change goes further.
How often do you need to export?
Export well inside every 16 months, and about every 91 days (13 weeks) is a better rhythm; both are our reasoning, not a Google rule. An export reaches back about 487 days, so exports more than about 487 days apart leave the days between them in neither file. At 91 days apart, each file overlaps the last by about 396 days (487 − 91), enough to cross-check and to survive a missed export.
Example (illustrative numbers)
These dates are invented to show the arithmetic; they are not data from any site. Assume an export reaches back to the same date 16 months earlier and ends the day before it was taken.
| Export | Taken | Oldest day | Newest day | Days held |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 7 Jan 2027 | 7 Sep 2025 | 6 Jan 2027 | 487 |
| B | 8 Apr 2027 | 8 Dec 2025 | 7 Apr 2027 | 486 |
| Held by both | n/a | 8 Dec 2025 | 6 Jan 2027 | 395 |
| Merged | n/a | 7 Sep 2025 | 7 Apr 2027 | 578 |
Calendar months differ in length, so the exports hold 487 and 486 days, against 16 × 30.44 = 487.04. The merged series holds 487 + 486 − 395 = 578 days, and 578 ÷ 30.44 = 19.0, so the merger would label it about 19 months.
The last 3 days of export A (4, 5 and 6 January 2027) may be preliminary, so export B's values win for them. That leaves 395 − 3 = 392 settled shared days, far above the minimum of 7. The merger refuses to merge if more than 25% of them differ in clicks: 0.25 × 392 = 98, so 99 or more differing days stop it.
Had B been taken 520 days after A (10 June 2028) instead of 91, it would reach back only to 10 February 2027 and hold 486 days, so 520 − 486 = 34 days (7 January to 9 February 2027) would sit in neither file; the merger lists them as a gap.
What this cannot tell you
- It cannot bring back a lost day. Our history tool's page says
It cannot recover a day you never exported.
and our methodology page says Penlid cannot recover data older than Search Console keeps. - Exports taken at different times can disagree. Google says impressions were not accurately reported from 13 May 2025 until 27 April 2026, and that clicks were not affected by that error. Our anomaly check's page notes
Google does not say whether an export you download today still carries the old figures
, so exports on either side of 27 April 2026 can disagree on impressions (our inference). The guide to Search Console data anomalies covers them. - A merged series holds site totals only. It has daily clicks, impressions, CTR and position for the whole site, not pages or queries, so it cannot say which page lost clicks a year ago. Each query or page table in a manual export stops at 1,000 rows.
- It cannot check the property. An export does not say which property it came from, so confirm that yourself.
- Penlid's own archive needs a connection. Penlid's plans are built to archive your Search Console data past the 16 months Search Console shows, once you connect it, but the connection only starts once Google sign-in has been configured on the deployment, so check what each plan includes before relying on it.
Questions people also ask
How long does Google Search Console keep your data?
Google says it keeps the last 16 months. The pages we read do not say what becomes of days older than that, so treat them as out of reach unless you made a copy while they were still in range.
Can you get Search Console data older than 16 months?
Only from copies you made earlier. The Export button saves what the report shows today, and the bulk export does not go back before set-up, so neither reaches further back. Start now and keep going: exporting today and every few months afterward gives you 16 months plus each month since, so 16 + 12 = 28 months a year from now.
Does the Search Console bulk export include data from before you turned it on?
No. Google says the first export happens up to 48 hours after set-up and includes data for the day of the export, and it sends you to the Search Console API or the reports for anything older. Turn it on soon, and take a manual export alongside it to cover the months already behind you.
Does linking Google Analytics keep Search Console data longer?
No. Google's help page for the connection says Analytics reports also include at most 16 months of Search Console data. The link puts the same window inside Analytics reports and does not lengthen it. Saving the data yourself, by export or by the bulk export, is what extends it.
How often should you export Search Console data?
The Google pages we read set no schedule, so this is our reasoning. Leave well under 16 months between two exports, because each reaches back roughly that far; every three months is a comfortable rhythm, since consecutive files then share more than a year of days to cross-check. Put the date in each file name.
Sources
- Connect Search Console to Google Analytics, Google, Analytics Help, read 30 October 2026.
Search Console keeps data for the last 16 months.
- Introducing the new Search Console, Google, Search Central Blog, 8 January 2018, read 30 October 2026.
to make analyzing longer-term trends easier and enable year-over-year comparisons
- Debugging drops in Google Search traffic, Google, Search Central, read 30 October 2026.
to pull data and store it in your systems
Compare last 3 months year over year
- Search Analytics: query, Google, Search Console API reference, read 30 October 2026.
- Export data directly from a Search Console report, Google, Search Console Help, read 30 October 2026.
Data is truncated to 1,000 rows of representative examples of your data.
- Start a new bulk data export, Google, Search Console Help, read 30 October 2026.
Data will be accumulated forever for your project, unless you set an expiration time
- Table guidelines and reference (bulk data export), Google, Search Console Help, read 30 October 2026.
- About bulk data export of Search Console data to BigQuery, Google, Search Console Help, read 30 October 2026.
- Performance report (Search results): Overview and basic setup, Google, Search Console Help, read 30 October 2026.
The newest data can be preliminary
- Performance report (Search results): Troubleshooting data discrepancies, Google, Search Console Help, read 30 October 2026.
- Data anomalies in Search Console, Google, Search Console Help, read 30 October 2026.
- Search Console history merger: keep more than 16 months of daily data, Penlid, read 30 October 2026.
It cannot recover a day you never exported.
- Is this drop real? Search Console anomaly check, Penlid, read 30 October 2026.
Google does not say whether an export you download today still carries the old figures
- Methodology: how we measure, and what we can't, Penlid, read 30 October 2026.