Brief
Google Ads API v22 sunset: what stops on October 7, 2026
Yes. Version v22 of the Google Ads API stops on October 7, 2026, and every request it receives after that day will fail. The API is the programming interface that outside tools use to read your account. This news does not concern every Google advertiser. It concerns anyone who reads their numbers through an external dashboard or an automated report. In Saudi Arabia, that group is larger than it looks, because most stores pull all their channels into one dashboard.
What stops on October 7, 2026?
One version of the Google Ads API stops. That is one version of the pipe that outside tools use to pull your account numbers. Google announced the date on its Ads Developer Blog on September 2, 2026. It wrote that every request to v22 will start failing on that day. The version itself was released on October 15, 2025. It will be less than a year old when it is switched off.
v22 is not alone on the schedule. Newer versions already have published sunset dates on the official deprecation page. v23 stops in February 2027 and v24 in May 2027. v25, released on July 22, 2026, stops in August 2027. In practice, a tool that works today will break about once a year unless its provider updates it.
The failure is silent, and that is the real problem. The campaign keeps running. The spend keeps going. What breaks is the pipe that carries the numbers to the place where you read them. You see a zero where there is no zero. Then you make a decision on a number that never happened.
How is a Saudi account affected differently?
Most Saudi accounts are not read inside Google Ads. They are read in one dashboard that combines Snapchat, Meta, TikTok and Google. That dashboard is what breaks, not the account. The store owner here often never opens Google Ads at all. So there is no second reference to show that the number is missing, not zero.
There is a second difference specific to this market. Many Saudi stores spend most of their budget on Snapchat, and Google is a small second channel. When a zero appears next to the Google line, it looks plausible, because the real number was small anyway. Small channels also get checked less often than big ones. I wrote about Snapchat's weight in the Saudi market in an earlier piece.
A third difference: the tools Saudi stores use, from store platforms to reporting agencies, update on their provider's schedule, not Google's. The 34 days you see from today may be much shorter at your tool's provider. Or the window may already have closed on a version that has not been updated since 2025.
When does this sunset not affect you?
It does not affect you if you read your numbers inside the Google Ads interface itself. The interface you open in your browser does not go through this API version. Nothing changes for you on October 7. The same applies if you rely on Google's built-in reports. It also applies if you connect Google Ads to Looker Studio through the official connector that Google maintains itself.
There is a limit I should state plainly. The update is usually not your job. It is the tool provider's job. Chasing an API version when you do not own the code is time spent with no result. You own two things here. One is a single question you send to the provider. The other is a backup way to read your numbers, ready for the day the link breaks.
A second limit matters more. A zero in the dashboard does not prove the API version is the cause. On September 2, 2026, Search Engine Land reported widespread complaints of zero traffic in Google Analytics for September 1. Google had not confirmed a cause when the story was published. A zero has more than one cause. Do not blame v22 before you check two places.
The test I run
When an account owner reads numbers from an external dashboard, I do not wait for October 7. I open the tool and ask its provider which API version it pulls with. That is the channel that carries Google's numbers into the tool. I ask for the answer in writing, not on a call.
Then I record yesterday's spend and yesterday's sales count in a side sheet. I read both from inside Google Ads itself. I repeat that on the morning of October 8. If both numbers match the dashboard, the dashboard is fine. If they do not, I know the pipe broke while the campaign kept running.
I read from two places because a dashboard does not tell you it lost its connection. It shows a zero the same way it shows a number. Anyone who relies on it alone will pause a profitable campaign, thinking it died.
Frequently asked questions
Will my Google campaigns stop on October 7, 2026?
No. The sunset applies to one API version, not to campaigns. Your campaigns keep running and spending as usual. What stops is data retrieval in tools that still use v22. Those tools lose their reports. Your campaign does not.
How do I know if my tool uses v22?
Ask the tool's provider directly, because the version usually does not appear in their interface. If you own a Google Cloud project, you can see the version on the APIs & Services page in the console. The version name is written inside the name of every request sent.
What should I do if my dashboard shows zero after October 7?
Open Google Ads directly and compare the previous day's spend. If you see spend there and a zero in the dashboard, the problem is the data transfer, not the campaign. Tell the tool provider, and read from Google until the connection is back. Details of the accounts I manage are on the work page.