cache: search operator

The cache: operator is a search operator that you can use to find the cached version of a page. Google generates a cached version so that users can still access the web page, for example, if the site isn't available.

The cache: operator is only available on web search.

While the target audience of the Google cache is Search users, it may be also useful for web creators and developers to get an idea how Google might have seen a page when it indexed it. This might be useful for debugging purposes; for example, to identify if injected content was cloaked for Googlebot when the cached version was generated.

To debug the live version of a page, use the URL Inspection tool.

Find the cached version of a page

There are two ways to find the cached version of a page:

1. Search for cache: followed by the URL of the page, for example:

   cache:example.com/your/page.html

2. Search for the URL, then click the 3 dots or arrow in the corner of the result to access a link to the cached version of the page.

How Google generates the cached version of a page

During indexing, Google generates the cached version of a page by using the first available version of the HTML: raw (as fetched) or rendered version of the HTML. This happens for most pages that get indexed, but it's not guaranteed. If you don't have a cached version of a page, it doesn't mean that the page or the content is bad, and it doesn't affect your page's performance in Google's search results.

The actual cached version might look incomplete or even empty in certain cases. This might be because JavaScript operations on your page that are responsible for creating the actual layout of the page were blocked by your browser's same-origin policies. This is normal and not something that has to be fixed. To see if a JavaScript operation was blocked by the browser, look for errors in your browser's developer console.

Enable a cached version of your pages

Most pages that Google indexed have a cached version, too. When a page doesn't have a cached version, the previously mentioned methods for finding the cached version will fail (for example, irrelevant or no results when searching for the URL, or the cache page displays a "not found" message).

If a page on your site doesn't have a cached version, ensure the page can be indexed, that it follows the Search Essentials, and that the content is high quality. Alternatively, you can do nothing and wait for Google to eventually generate a cached version of your page.

Refresh the cached version of a page

Google refreshes the cached version of a page during indexing. To refresh the cached version of a page, request a reindexing of a page through Search Console.

It's more likely that the page's cached version will be refreshed if the content of the page changed considerably.