Google Stops Cached AMP Pages in 2026

No. Google stopped sending people to cached AMP pages in July 2026. Now when you click on an AMP result in Google Search, you go straight to the publisher's website instead of to a Google-hosted version.

What Changed With Publisher-Hosted AMP Pages

For years, Google stored copies of AMP pages on its own servers. When you clicked an AMP result in search, Google would show you their cached version through something called an AMP viewer.

Starting in July 2026, Google changed this. Now when you click an AMP result, you go directly to the publisher-hosted AMP pages on the original website. The pages still use the AMP format, but Google no longer serves them from its cache.

This matters because publishers get direct traffic to their sites again. Before, visitors technically landed on Google's servers first, which complicated analytics tracking and made it harder to understand where your traffic came from.

Why Google Made the Switch to Publisher-Hosted AMP Pages

Google says this change makes life easier for publishers in two main ways.

First, analytics management becomes simpler. When visitors landed on Google's cached version, tracking their behavior required special setup. Now that visitors go straight to publisher-hosted AMP pages, your analytics tools work the same way they do for regular pages.

Second, maintaining AMP pages requires less work. Publishers no longer need to update the AMP cache or configure signed exchanges. You create the AMP page, host it on your site, and you're done.

Google told Search Engine Land that this "will reduce maintenance efforts for publishers creating AMP content."

AMP Rankings Stay the Same

Your AMP pages will rank exactly the same as before. Google confirmed that nothing changed in how they evaluate or rank AMP content in Search or Discover.

The company stated clearly: "AMP content will continue to rank just like any other webpage."

If your AMP pages ranked well before, they should rank the same now. If they ranked poorly, this change won't help them. The update affects how visitors reach your pages, not how Google evaluates them.

What This Means for Your AMP Strategy

AMP hasn't received special treatment in Google rankings for several years now. Many publishers turned off AMP completely. Search Engine Land disabled their AMP pages back in 2021.

You need to decide if AMP still makes sense for your site. The switch to publisher-hosted AMP pages removes some technical headaches, but it doesn't change the core question: does AMP provide enough value to justify maintaining two versions of your content?

Some publishers keep AMP because they already built the infrastructure. Others prefer to focus on making their regular pages fast instead of maintaining separate AMP versions.

Google continues to support the open-source AMPhtml format, so the technology isn't going away. But you no longer get a ranking boost from using it.

How the Technical Implementation Works Now

When Google indexes your site, it still recognizes AMP pages through the standard markup. Your AMP pages still need the required AMP HTML tags and validation.

The difference happens at the moment someone clicks. Instead of Google intercepting that click and serving their cached copy, they send the visitor straight to your server.

This means your hosting needs to handle the traffic directly. For most sites this won't create problems, but if you relied on Google's cache to handle traffic spikes, you might need to review your server capacity.

Your AMP pages also need proper canonical tags pointing back to your regular pages. This hasn't changed. Google still uses these tags to understand the relationship between your AMP and non-AMP versions.

Tracking the Impact on Your Site Performance

The shift to direct hosting means you need to watch several metrics to understand how the change affects your site.

First, check your server load. You're now handling traffic that Google's cache used to absorb. Most sites won't see issues, but high-traffic publishers should monitor this.

Second, verify your analytics are working correctly. The good news is that tracking should be simpler now. The bad news is you need to confirm everything connects properly since the traffic flow changed.

Third, watch your page speed metrics. Google's cache was fast. Your hosting needs to deliver AMP pages quickly or you lose the main benefit of using the format. Core Web Vitals matter more than ever when you're serving pages directly.

Fourth, monitor your search rankings during the transition. Google says rankings shouldn't change, but real-world updates sometimes produce unexpected results. Keep an eye on your positions for a few weeks after the change.

Should You Keep Your AMP Pages or Turn Them Off?

This depends on your specific situation. The move to publisher-hosted AMP pages makes the format easier to maintain, but it doesn't solve the fundamental question about whether you need AMP at all.

Keep AMP if your regular pages are slow and you need a lightweight version for mobile users. Keep it if you've already invested heavily in the infrastructure and it works well for you.

Consider turning off AMP if you can make your regular pages fast enough without it. Modern web development gives you tools to build fast pages without maintaining two separate versions. If your standard pages score well on Core Web Vitals, you might not need AMP anymore.

Test before you decide. Many publishers saw no traffic drop when they disabled AMP because their regular pages performed well enough. Others found that AMP still drove meaningful traffic from specific sources.

The simplified maintenance Google introduced helps, but it doesn't eliminate the core workload of maintaining duplicate content.

Google's Long-Term Commitment to AMP

Google confirmed they will continue supporting the open-source AMPhtml format. The technology isn't being deprecated or phased out.

That said, AMP's prominence has clearly decreased since its peak. You rarely see AMP pages in search results these days compared to a few years ago. Google removed AMP as a requirement for appearing in Top Stories. The format lost its special badge in search results.

The switch to publisher-hosted AMP pages fits this pattern. Google is making AMP behave more like regular web pages while keeping the format available for publishers who want to use it.

If you're starting a new site today, you probably don't need to build AMP pages unless you have a specific reason. If you have existing AMP pages, this update makes them slightly easier to maintain but doesn't dramatically change their value proposition.

Verifying Your AMP Setup After the Change

If you're keeping your AMP pages, you should verify a few technical points after Google's update.

Check that your canonical tags still point correctly from AMP pages to regular pages. Run your AMP pages through Google's AMP validator to confirm they still meet the technical requirements. Test the user experience by clicking through from search results to make sure visitors land on the right pages.

Review your analytics setup to confirm you're tracking visitors properly now that they're coming directly to your server instead of through Google's cache. Look for any gaps in your data that might have appeared during the transition.

Monitor your Google Search Console for any AMP-related errors or warnings. Google should flag technical issues if your pages stop validating correctly.

Test your page speed to ensure your hosting delivers AMP pages fast enough to provide value. If your directly-hosted AMP pages load slowly, they're not serving their purpose.

When you're managing this kind of technical transition across your site, you need clear visibility into what's working and what needs attention. SiteGuru helps you track these changes with automated weekly crawls and plain-English explanations of technical issues, so you can quickly identify problems with your AMP implementation or confirm everything is working correctly. The platform monitors your Core Web Vitals and shows you exactly which pages need optimization, making it much easier to manage the performance aspects that matter most after this change. If you're looking for a straightforward way to keep your site healthy during technical updates like this, SiteGuru offers the kind of practical monitoring you need.