Definition Crawl budget combines crawl rate limit and crawl demand. Crawl rate limit reflects server capacity. Crawl demand reflects page freshness and popularity.
How it works Googlebot adjusts crawl rate automatically based on server response time and error rate. Low-value pages (filter URLs, session IDs, faceted navigation) consume budget. robots.txt, noindex, and canonical signals channel budget to strategic pages. XML sitemap freshness data supports crawl demand.
Where you see it in Scope Trends The **Crawl Report** > **Crawl Efficiency** tab shows daily request distribution. The **Site Structure** report flags templates that drain budget and suggests robots.txt edits.
Frequently asked questions **Does crawl budget matter on small sites?** Usually not. Sites under 10,000 URLs typically get the coverage they need.
**How do I grow crawl budget?** Reduce server response time, eliminate 5xx errors, keep the sitemap fresh, close off low-value pages.