Can you still post a job on Indeed for free?

The rule is short, the small print less so. Indeed counts per calendar month, and the counter resets to zero at midnight on the first day of each month in your time zone. What catches employers out is in the details Indeed spells out in its own help centre.

Closing a job does not give the slot back. Post three jobs, close one after a week, and you have still used all three free posts for that month.

A copy is a new post. Indeed treats a copied job as a fresh posting, so it counts towards your three.

Reopening does not reset the clock. A reopened job stays free only until thirty days after it was first posted. After that it needs sponsoring to remain in search results.

The limit applies to the whole company. If your sites or brands sit under one parent company, they share the same three free jobs a month. Five accounts for five locations do not add up to fifteen free posts. Agree internally who uses the free slots in which month.

Indeed also lists situations where payment may be needed even within the limit: when your jobs already reach Indeed through a data feed, careers page or applicant tracking system and you also post directly, when a role requires the candidate to relocate, and for confidential jobs that do not name the company. A free job also slides down the results as newer ones are added, even within its thirty days.

Many employers never post on Indeed by hand. Their applicant tracking system or advertising agency pushes jobs automatically through an XML feed, and that is exactly where Indeed has stepped in this year.

Since 31 March 2026, jobs from such a feed no longer appear for free if they could be sent through an applicant tracking system that integrates with Indeed Apply; they are visible only when sponsored. For advertising agencies it went further on 30 June: their own feeds carrying such jobs, by then visible only when sponsored, disappeared altogether. The last step lands on 31 December 2026: jobs from integrated systems that arrive through an agency's multisource feed will no longer be visible either, nor will agency feeds caught by the March rule. Agencies can then only manage those jobs through Indeed's Job Update API.

If your system has no Indeed integration, Indeed says the change does not apply to you. If you are unsure, look your system up in Indeed's Integrations Hub or ask your vendor or agency. Do it now rather than in late December: switching to an integration takes time, and a job that quietly drops out of search results only shows up as fewer applications.

There is no fixed price. You set a budget, Indeed suggests one based on title, location and description, and you pay per click or per started application, depending on your account and market. You can pause or stop at any time. Indeed's Dutch pricing page adds that invoices go out on the first of the month, or earlier once the balance reaches 500 euros, and that first-time sponsors may get an invoice at 25 euros to verify their payment details.

Whether it pays off depends less on the price per click than on what happens next. A cheap application that never reaches an interview is expensive. What we see on this in our own campaigns is on our figures and research page. And sponsoring makes a weak job ad more visible, not better; how to strengthen it is covered in how to write a job advert that works.

Indeed mainly reaches people who are actively looking. If too few people respond, the issue is often the people who are not looking. Why that happens is set out in too few applicants. What hiring through us costs, and where the media budget goes, is explained in questions about costs.

Does the limit of three apply per location?

No, per company. All accounts under the same parent company share three free jobs per calendar month. If another location has already posted three that month, your job has to be sponsored to be visible. So agree beforehand which roles get the free slots, for example the ones that attract plenty of responses on their own.

Why is my job no longer showing in search results?

Usually for one of three reasons. The thirty days are up, the limit of three has already been used that month by you or another location, or the job comes in through a feed that since this year is only visible when sponsored. Indeed can also flag a job that does not meet its guidelines. Your employer dashboard shows which status applies.

Is free posting on Indeed still worth it?

For one or two roles a month without time pressure, yes: it costs nothing and reaches active jobseekers. For more roles, or for jobs few people are actively searching for, three free posts of thirty days will not take you far. Whether standalone posts still make sense or a structured approach does is worked out in the business case for RPO.

Does anything change if I post directly myself?

Not under the feed rules, which cover jobs pushed automatically by a system or agency. Direct posting falls under the limit of three per calendar month. One exception is often missed: if your jobs already reach Indeed through a feed or your tracking system and you also post them yourself, Indeed may require sponsoring. Pick one route and stick to it.

At SocialFind we choose the channel that reaches the people a role needs, and sometimes that includes Indeed. If you want articles like this in your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.