Free XML Sitemap
Validator
Find your sitemap, confirm the XML is valid, count your URLs, and catch the issues that stop Google and AI crawlers from discovering your pages.
Know exactly what your sitemap hands to crawlers.
Enter your domain and see whether your sitemap is valid XML, what type it is, and how many URLs it really lists, followed through every nested sitemap. Fetched and parsed live, no signup.
Crawlers can only reach pages they discover.
A sitemap is how search engines and AI crawlers learn about pages that links alone would miss: deep pages, brand-new pages, and large sites. When the file is broken or oversized, that help quietly disappears. Crawlers can still follow links, but the pages your sitemap was meant to surface stop being surfaced, and you rarely find out until traffic dips.
One domain in. A clear verdict out.
Enter your domain
No login. We check the common sitemap locations for you, so you do not need the exact URL.
We fetch and parse it live
We read the live XML, detect whether it is a single sitemap or an index, and follow an index into each child file.
See structure and issues
Valid XML, the type, total URLs across the whole tree, and the issues, with critical faults called out first.
What these words mean
XML sitemap
A file, usually at /sitemap.xml, that lists the URLs you want crawlers to know about. It aids discovery, it is not a ranking factor.
lives at yoursite.com/sitemap.xmlurlset vs sitemapindex
The two valid root elements. A urlset lists pages directly. A sitemapindex points to other sitemaps for large sites.
index means a sitemap of sitemapsValid XML
Whether the file is well-formed and uses the right root, so crawlers can actually read it. One broken tag makes the whole file unreadable.
should always come back Yeslastmod
The optional date on each URL saying when the page last changed, so crawlers know what is worth re-checking sooner.
2026-08-01 on a product URLThe 50,000 / 50MB limit
The protocol cap on a single sitemap. Past either, engines stop reading the rest of the file.
split into an index above 50,000Nested (child) sitemap
A sitemap listed inside an index. This tool follows each one, counts its URLs, and reports its status.
sitemap-products.xml, 11,940 URLsIt finds your sitemap and checks it's readable.
We check the common sitemap locations, fetch the live file, and confirm it is well-formed XML with a urlset or sitemapindex root, the gate every crawler applies before it reads a single URL.
- Auto-checks /sitemap.xml, /sitemap_index.xml, and /sitemap-index.xml
- Confirms a valid XML declaration and the right root element
- Flags a broken or empty file as critical, before anything else
Why it works: if the XML does not parse, a crawler discards the whole file, so every URL inside loses the discovery help the sitemap was meant to give. Valid XML is the gate everything else depends on.
It follows an index into every child file.
A large site splits its URLs across several sitemaps and lists them in an index. This tool detects the index, follows each nested sitemap, counts its URLs, and reports its status, so you see the full tree instead of just the root.
- Detects a sitemapindex and follows each child sitemap
- Totals every URL across the tree, not just the root file
- Shows each child's URL count and HTTP status side by side
Rule of thumb: one sitemap tops out at 50,000 URLs. Past that, split into a sitemap index, exactly the structure this tool follows and totals for you.
It flags what breaks discovery, worst first.
Every result runs the same protocol checks and sorts the findings so the critical faults sit on top. Errors are faults that stop the file being read. Warnings do not break it, but they cost you coverage and slow indexing.
- Critical: broken XML, wrong root, or a urlset with no pages
- Warning: over 50,000 URLs or over 50MB in a single file
- Warning: over half of the URLs are missing a lastmod date
Pro tip: fix critical issues first. Until the file is valid XML, engines may ignore it entirely, so a lastmod warning can wait behind a broken root element.
Checks it runs on every sitemap
Everything else the result shows you.
URL sample
Up to 20 example URLs pulled straight from the file, each with its lastmod date if present.
Per-child status
Every nested sitemap's HTTP status, so a child returning 404 or 500 is visible at a glance.
File size
The uncompressed size, measured against the 50MB ceiling so an oversized file is not silently truncated.
lastmod coverage
On a single sitemap, how many URLs carry a lastmod date, flagged when over half are missing.
Type detection
Whether the file is a urlset or a sitemapindex, so you read the counts and structure the right way.
Total across the tree
URLs summed from every child sitemap, so the total reflects the whole site, not one file.
How to read a result to a decision.
A result is only useful if you know what to do with it. Here is the exact read on our example domain, "acmestore.com," the way a technical SEO would think it through.
Built for anyone who needs pages found.
Confirm Google can find you
Enter your domain and get a plain answer on whether your sitemap is valid and how many pages it hands to crawlers, no XML reading required.
Audit the whole tree in seconds
Follow a sitemap index into every child, check counts against the limits, and spot the stray URLs and missing lastmod that waste crawl budget.
Verify the generator output
Shipped a new sitemap or changed how it is built? Validate the live file, confirm it is well-formed and within limits, and catch a broken deploy before crawlers do.
Watch the count as you scale
See when you are approaching the 50,000-URL limit and it is time to split a single sitemap into an index the engines can still read in full.
Questions, answered.
We fetch your live sitemap over HTTP the moment you run the check, at the common locations, then parse it and follow any nested sitemaps. Nothing cached, nothing guessed.
No. Crawlers can still find pages by following links. A broken sitemap stops those pages being discovered through the sitemap, which matters most for large, new, or deeply buried pages that links alone may miss.
Not directly. A sitemap helps pages get discovered and indexed, which is a prerequisite for ranking, but it is not a ranking factor on its own. Its real value is speeding up indexing and making sure crawlers do not miss pages.
50,000 URLs and 50MB uncompressed per file. Past either, engines stop reading the rest. Above that, split into several files and list them in a sitemap index, which this tool follows and totals automatically.
Yes. Enter your domain and read the four headline numbers: Valid XML, type, total URLs, and issues. Green means healthy, red means act, and each number has a tooltip explaining it.
This validator is free. Metric Vault re-checks your sitemap on a schedule and runs the full technical site audit, rank tracking, and AI-search visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, so you catch a broken sitemap and much more before it costs you traffic.
Google does not publish a standalone one. The closest thing is the Sitemaps report in Search Console, which shows what Google made of a sitemap you submitted for a property you own and have verified, and it only updates after Google next fetches the file. So a google sitemap validator in the sense most people mean -- paste a URL, get an answer now -- does not exist from Google itself. This one parses the live file immediately, on any domain, and checks the things that actually break indexing: malformed XML, URLs on a different host, entries over the 50,000 limit, files over 50MB uncompressed, and index files pointing at sitemaps that do not resolve.
See exactly what your sitemap hands to crawlers.
It takes one domain. You'll get valid-XML confirmation, the sitemap type, every URL counted through the whole tree, and the issues ranked worst first, in one live check.
See if AI actually recommends you
The checker tells you if AI can read your site. Metric Vault tracks whether ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude actually mention you, how you stack up against competitors, and how it trends over time, plus the rest of the platform's 60+ SEO and AI tools.