You can allow Google to update your products, images, and shipping estimates
automatically based on your website's landing page.

[Automatic improvements](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/3246284) are
turned off by default, but are available for Shopping ads, Buy on Google, and
free listings. This guide explains how you can enable automatic improvements for
your merchant account, and what's updated if you do.

You can view the automatic improvements settings for your account in the
[`AccountAutomaticImprovements`](https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/reference/rest/v2.1/accounts#accountautomaticimprovements)
resource.

## Item updates

Automatic item updates lead to an improved user experience, more traffic to your
products, and to higher conversion rates because customers see the correct price
and availability of your products in your ads or free listings. For behavior
specific to Buy on Google listings, see [About automatic item
updates](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/3246284).

Google uses the [structured data
markup](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6069143) we find on your website,
and advanced data extractors, to update the following attributes of your
products:

`price`

:   Google updates the active

    [`price`](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324371) for your Shopping
    products based on the prices found on your website.

`availability`

:   Google updates the

    [`availability`](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324448) of Shopping
    products to `out_of_stock` if an `out_of_stock` annotation is found on your
    website.

    If you want Google to update `out_of_stock` Shopping products to `in_stock`
    based on your website too, set `allowStrictAvailabilityUpdates` to `true`.

`strictAvailability`

:   Google updates the

    [`availability`](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324448) of
    `out_of_stock` Shopping products to `in_stock` if an `in_stock` annotation
    is found on your website. You must also enable `availability` updates.

    If you use `out_of_stock` to prevent traffic to specific in-stock items, for
    example, items with low stock, you may want to turn off strict availability
    updates by setting `allowStrictAvailabilityUpdates` to `false`.

`condition`

:   Google updates the

    [`condition`](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324469) of your
    Shopping products based on the information found on your website.

> [!IMPORTANT]
> **Important:** Before you enable automatic item updates, [set up structured
> data](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7331077) on your website.

Use the
[`accountItemUpdatesSettings`](https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/reference/rest/v2.1/accounts#AccountItemUpdatesSettings)
resource to manage automatic item updates for your account.

If automatic item update settings aren't provided for a sub-account, the
settings are inherited from the [advanced
account](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/188487). You can check the
current settings for your account in the fields that start with `effective` in
[`accountItemUpdates`](https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/reference/rest/v2.1/accounts#AccountItemUpdates). Fields that
start with `effective` are read-only, and show the current setting for your
account. If you change the `accountItemUpdatesSettings` for your sub-account,
the fields that start with `effective` reflect your changes instead of the
inherited settings.

Here's a sample
[`accountItemUpdates`](https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/reference/rest/v2.1/accounts#AccountItemUpdates) resource:

    {
      "accountItemUpdatesSettings": {
        "allowPriceUpdates": true,
        "allowAvailabilityUpdates": false,
        "allowStrictAvailabilityUpdates": false
        "allowConditionUpdates": true
    }
    ,
      "effectiveAllowPriceUpdates": true,
      "effectiveAllowAvailabilityUpdates": false,
      "effectiveAllowStrictAvailabilityUpdates": false
      "effectiveConditionUpdates": true
    }

## Images

Automatic image improvements update your product images to improve quality, and
ensure they [meet requirements](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324350).
Image improvements only apply to disapproved products. For example, Google can
automatically remove [image
overlays](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6101131). If successful, the
image is updated and approved.

Use the
[`accountImageImprovementSettings`](https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/reference/rest/v2.1/accounts#AccountImageImprovementsSettings)
resource to manage automatic image improvements for your account.

If automatic image improvement settings aren't provided for a sub-account, the
settings are inherited from the [advanced
account](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/188487). You can check the
current settings for your account in the
`effectiveAllowAutomaticImageImprovements` field of
[`accountImageImprovements`](https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/reference/rest/v2.1/accounts#accountimageimprovements).
If you change the settings for a sub-account,
`effectiveAllowAutomaticImageImprovements` reflects your changes instead of the
inherited settings.

For more information, see [About automatic image
improvements](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/9242973).

Here's a sample response where image improvements are enabled:

    {
      "accountImageImprovementsSettings": {
        "allowAutomaticImageImprovements": true
    }

      "effectiveAllowAutomaticImageImprovements": true
    }

## Shipping

Google can automatically update your [estimated delivery
time](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7409926) based on your historical
performance, rather than the estimates in your shipping settings. The
performance-based estimates show on ads and free listings.

Use the
[`accountShippingImprovements`](https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/reference/rest/v2.1/accounts#accountshippingimprovements)
field to manage automatic shipping improvements. Set `allowShippingImprovements`
to `true` to allow Google to automatically update your estimated delivery time.

Not available for [advanced
accounts](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/188487). This setting isn't
inherited. For more information about automatic shipping estimates and
information specific to Buy on Google listings, see [About letting Google
calculate your shipping speeds](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/10165931).

Here's an example:

    {
      "allowShippingImprovements": true
    }

There are no `effective` fields for [`accountShippingImprovements`](https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/reference/rest/v2.1/accounts#accountshippingimprovements) because shipping
improvements aren't inherited.