Indeed free job posting limit: how the 3 free jobs a month really work (2026)

Indeed's free allowance for US employers is three jobs each calendar month, with every free listing searchable for a maximum of 30 days. That headline number is well known. The fine print is where hiring plans go wrong:

• Closing or pausing a job won't refund it. Once a free job goes up, it's used for the month, whatever happens to it afterward.
• A copy is a new job. Duplicating an existing listing spends one more of your three.
• One company, one allowance. When Indeed ties several location or brand accounts to the same parent company, all of them draw from the same three.
• Paid listings are separate. Sponsoring a job leaves your free allowance untouched.
• Hiring software sits outside the cap. Indeed applies the limit to jobs created on Indeed itself, not to jobs that arrive from an applicant tracking system (ATS).
• A fresh month, a fresh three. Your allowance renews at 12:00 a.m. local time on the 1st.

Below: how Indeed tallies your jobs, your options once the three are gone, and ways to keep hiring through the month. To skip the tally altogether, see how AvaHR works.

How Indeed counts your 3 free jobs

Every new job you list directly on Indeed uses one free spot the moment it goes up. What you do with it afterward doesn't give the spot back. Here's a month as Indeed's own examples describe it:

A few more rules from Indeed's policy:

• A paused job is still a used job. It keeps its place in your count, and its 30 days of visibility tick down even while it's on hold.
• Reopened jobs run on the original clock. Reopening keeps a job free only until 30 days have passed since you first listed it. Past that point, it has to be sponsored to appear.
• Copies count separately. A job created by duplicating another one takes its own spot.
• Indeed warns you at the limit. The message appears while you're creating a job, once all three are used.

Indeed introduced the monthly limit in the US in late 2025, according to industry reporting. Older advice online may predate it, so it may not match what you see now.

What happens when you hit the limit

Once your 3 free jobs are used, new jobs won't show in search unless you sponsor them. You have three options:

• Pay to sponsor it. Sponsored listings sit outside the free allowance, and you control the spend. For how budgets and caps work, read our breakdown of Indeed's job posting costs.
• Hold it until the 1st. A new month brings three new free jobs. That works when the role can wait, less so when it can't.
• Route it through hiring software. Indeed's limit covers jobs created on Indeed. Jobs delivered by an applicant tracking system fall outside it.

Lost track of a listing you already published? It may have reached its 30-day mark, or been held back for another reason. Our checklist for finding a missing Indeed job covers the usual causes.

Multiple locations and brands share one limit

Businesses that run separate Indeed accounts for each store, brand, or franchise can find those accounts tied to one parent company. When that happens, every account pulls from the same three free jobs.

Picture five locations, each with its own login. Together they still get three free jobs a month, not fifteen. If the first manager to hire uses all three in week one, the other four are left sponsoring or waiting.

That's a real risk for growing multi-site businesses. One dealership group we worked with operated two stores under different names, each with its own Indeed account, and had three roles open at the same time. Had those jobs gone straight onto Indeed with linked accounts, one round of hiring would have spent the entire month's allowance.

Indeed doesn't publish how it decides which accounts belong together, and employers can't view or edit the grouping. The safe assumption is that your accounts share one allowance, so plan for it:

• Decide up front which location gets each free job, before the month starts.
• Give free spots to roles that usually attract applicants on their own, and plan to sponsor hard-to-fill roles, which Indeed may require anyway.
• Avoid identical jobs across locations. Indeed can ask you to sponsor a role that's repeated word for word in several cities, free spots or not.

How to make your free jobs go further

• Edit, don't copy. A duplicate spends a fresh spot, so make changes to the title, pay, or description on the listing you already have.
• Don't close and relist. Bringing a role back as a brand-new listing costs another spot. Reopening the old listing doesn't, though its free window still ends 30 days after it first went up.
• Get the job right the first time. A clear title, pay, location, and hours help a free job do its work in 30 days, so you're less likely to need a second listing.
• Plan around the reset. If a role can wait a few days, list it on the first of the month rather than the last week.
• Keep track yourself. Indeed only flags the limit once you reach it and doesn't publish a running tally, so a quick note of what you've used each month saves surprises.

Jobs from an ATS don't count toward the limit

Indeed's policy is clear: "This policy applies to jobs posted directly on Indeed. Jobs posted through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) are not affected."

This is where steady hiring and the free cap collide. A practice owner we spoke with brings on new clinicians whenever his calendar fills. At that pace, three free jobs disappear fast, and paying to sponsor each extra opening becomes a monthly line item.

AvaHR delivers jobs to Indeed through its Indeed Platinum ATS partnership, which keeps them outside your three-job cap. Each job also reaches 100+ other job boards, and applicants from all of them are collected in a single list.

There's no monthly tally to manage either. AvaHR plans are measured in live jobs at any one time. Fill a role, close the job, and it stops counting toward your plan.

Two things to know before you rely on it:

• Indeed still decides on visibility. Its quality checks cover every job, wherever it comes from, and some kinds of jobs, like staffing agency roles, must be sponsored.
• Don't run both routes at once. Under Indeed's terms, direct Indeed listings need sponsorship when your other jobs already come through an ATS. Keep all your jobs on one route.

Curious how the two divide the work? Our comparison of ATS and job boards explains it.

Indeed's free job limit in other countries

The limit depends on where you're hiring.

In every country, Indeed's quality standards still apply, and jobs that don't meet them may get limited or no visibility.

Stop counting free jobs

Three free jobs a month can cover the odd hire.

Steady hiring, several locations, or a handful of open roles turn it into one more thing to track. With AvaHR, jobs go to Indeed and 100+ other job boards outside the free cap, applicants gather in one list, and your team gets what it needs to make the call.

You'll never hire alone.

Get started with AvaHR

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