After a Google Ads API release, check the version your reporting calls

Jun 2026: Two changes landed in your reporting in June, and neither was a release

You opened the dashboard after the 14 October release, a row went blank or a number moved, and the board report goes out this week. The release is unlikely to be the cause. A new major version leaves the older ones running: Google's versioning page says API calls to deprecated versions continue to succeed until their sunset date, while Google's sunset page states the other half: requests to a sunset version fail on or after its sunset date. Two questions are worth your week. Which API version does your reporting call, and when does that version stop accepting calls?

The first changes that altered what a grant report can contain took effect in June, and neither was a release. Since 1 June 2026, hourly, daily and weekly Google Ads reporting data for periods shorter than one month is available for 37 months. Monthly, quarterly and annual data is available for 11 years, and reach and frequency metrics for 3 years. Pull an hourly or weekly breakdown that reaches back more than 37 months and the older part comes back empty. For the GA4 side of a board answer, see what to check before a GA4 answer goes in the board pack.

The second June change affects what you can send rather than what you can read. Google's offline conversion import documentation warns that starting 15 June 2026, UploadClickConversions requests fail if the developer token had not previously sent offline conversion or enhanced-conversions-for-leads uploads, and Google directs that work to the Data Manager API. A new offline donation feed set up after that date will fail that way, with no release anywhere near it, unless it goes through the Data Manager API.

No note in the account. The retention change arrived as a Google Ads help-page data-retention policy rather than as an API release note, so nothing inside the account announced it. Your long-range numbers move, and the report does not say why.

Sep 2026: Developer tokens stopped governing access on 9 September

Google's developer-token guide says developer tokens were sunset on 9 September 2026. Token headers are now optional and ignored, the Google Cloud project determines access, and applications from API Center are no longer processed.

For an account like yours, that moves what grants or loses reporting access. It is no longer a token string someone pasted into a connector years ago. It is the Cloud project behind the connection. If a volunteer, a former agency or a staff member who has since left created that project, your reporting runs through a project nobody at your organization has opened.

Ask now, rather than during the week a report fails: which Google Cloud project does your reporting connection run through, and can someone still at your organization administer it? Whoever set the connection up usually knows. API Center is not a fallback, since the guide says applications from that page are no longer processed.

Oct 2026: On 7 October, calls to v22 began failing

Something did break in October, and the release was not it. Google's v22 sunset reminder, published 2 September 2026, said v22 requests would begin failing on 7 October 2026. The same reminder repeated Google's recommended way to check which API versions an account has recently called, in Google Cloud Console.

Google draws a line between two states. A deprecated version is no longer the latest, but calls to it still work until its sunset date. A sunset version can no longer be used, and requests to it fail on or after that date. A release only makes a version no longer the latest. The sunset date stops the calls.

On a grant account, the version is usually pinned in one place, by hand. Google's AdsApp reference includes an apiVersion parameter for reports, and Google's mutate documentation says scripts can specify a custom API version such as V26 when using mutate features. A script a volunteer or a previous provider wrote for you, with a version typed into it, is the likeliest thing in your reporting to stop on a sunset date rather than a release date.

If a weekly email report stopped arriving around the start of October, read the script before the dashboard and find the version it names. If Google has already sunset that version, you have the cause and the date it took effect.

Oct 2026: The cadence doubled on 12 October, and minor releases still do not break code

On 12 October 2026, Google announced that starting with v26 the Google Ads API moves to two releases per month. Google said it will still ship four major releases per year, that minor releases remain non-breaking, and that each minor release sunsets with its parent major version.

Twice the releases is not twice the risk. Google's versioning page states that minor releases introduce only backward-compatible changes, so the dates on your reporting calendar stay what they were before the announcement: four major versions a year, and the sunset that follows each one.

Major releases are a different matter, and v26 shows what one can take away. The field ConversionTrackingSetting.enhanced_conversions_for_leads_enabled was removed in v26, and Google says to use ConversionTrackingSetting.enablement_setting instead to inspect the account-level Enhanced Conversions setting. If a tile in your report is named after enhanced conversions for leads, check it against the replacement field before you conclude the data stopped.

Now: What your reporting calls today, and the one thing to check this month

v26 was released on 14 October 2026, and Google's sunset schedule lists a projected sunset of November 2027. A connection built against it has a stated end date and keeps accepting calls until that date arrives.

The check worth your time this month sits in the account rather than in the dashboard. Google says the Conversions column shows the number of conversions received across primary conversion actions, and that it is generally used for bidding optimization. For which action to mark Primary, see marking one action Primary and keeping the rest Secondary.

A conversion count is also a compliance item on a grant account. Google's Ad Grants account management policy requires accounts created on or after 22 April 2019 to have at least one meaningful conversion type set up and accruing at least one conversion per month. For accounts created on or after 1 January 2018, or any account using conversion-based Smart Bidding, valid conversion tracking must be set up and accrue at least one conversion per month. A blank dashboard row and a month without a recorded conversion are different problems, and only one of them is in that policy.

1. The Conversions column, in the account Open it in Google Ads rather than in the dashboard that reads it, and confirm conversions are still being recorded this month against the thresholds above. Another article covers reading the Search terms and ad combinations view on a grant account.
2. The versions recently called, in Google Cloud Console Google's v22 sunset reminder points to that view for checking which API versions an account has recently called. Match what you find against the sunset dates for those versions.

Two checks, and one date for the calendar

Your reporting calls a version, that version has a sunset date, and Google publishes the date ahead of it. Until the v26 sunset, the release notes matter less than two views: the Conversions column in the account, and the list of API versions your connection has recently called in Google Cloud Console.

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