FAQ schema no longer earns rich results in Google. Google deprecated the FAQ rich result and stopped showing it in Search starting May 7, 2026, then removed the FAQ structured data documentation in June (Google Search Central updates). Adding FAQPage markup won’t get you expandable questions under your listing anymore.
It isn’t useless, though. FAQPage is still a valid schema.org type, Bing still reads JSON-LD, and Microsoft’s guidance for AI search answers recommends structured data and clear Q&A. If your page already has a real FAQ section, keeping accurate markup on it is cheap and harmless. Adding FAQ blocks to pages purely to get markup on them is no longer worth the effort. Last checked: October 29, 2026.
What Happened to FAQ Rich Results
FAQ rich results were wound down in two stages.
| Date | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|
| September 2023 | Google limited FAQ rich results to well-known, authoritative government and health websites, and removed How-to rich results entirely | Search Central updates |
| May 8, 2026 | Google added a deprecation notice: the FAQ rich result “will no longer appear in Google Search starting May 7, 2026” | Search Central updates |
| June 2026 | Google removed the FAQ rich result documentation because the feature “is no longer shown in Google Search results” | Search Central updates |
For most commercial sites, the 2023 change was the one that mattered. After it, a SaaS company or an agency was no longer eligible for FAQ snippets at all. The 2026 deprecation just closed the door for the government and health sites that were still eligible.
FAQ is also gone from Google’s current search gallery of supported structured data. If you see older tutorials promising FAQ dropdowns in the search results, they’re out of date.
Is FAQPage the same as QAPage?
No, and the difference matters now. FAQPage is for a page where the site itself provides the questions and answers. QAPage is for a page where one question gets answers from users, like a forum thread. Q&A is still in Google’s search gallery, so community and support forums with user-submitted answers should keep using it. Don’t switch your own FAQ section to QAPage to get around the deprecation. It describes a different kind of content.
Does FAQ Schema Help in AI Search?
This is where the answer gets more nuanced.
Google says no special markup is needed. Its AI features documentation states that there are “no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode,” and that “there’s also no special schema.org structured data that you need to add.” Among its best practices, it lists making sure structured data matches the visible text on the page. So FAQ schema isn’t a ticket into AI Overviews.
Microsoft leans the other way. Its October 2025 post on optimizing content for AI search answers describes schema as code that helps search engines and AI systems understand your content, mentions FAQ among the content types schema can label, and recommends “concise, self-contained phrasing in lists, Q&As, and tables.” Bing’s structured data help page confirms it supports JSON-LD, Microdata, RDFa and Open Graph.
The common thread is the visible content. A clearly written FAQ section, with each question as a heading and a direct answer under it, is easy for any crawler or language model to extract, with or without markup. The schema is a machine-readable label on top of that. If the questions themselves are vague or padded, the markup won’t rescue them.
There’s no public evidence that ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity give FAQPage markup special weight. What they need first is access. If your robots.txt blocks their crawlers, nothing on the page gets read. Our AI crawler list and the guides to OpenAI’s crawlers and ClaudeBot cover what to allow.
Should You Keep or Remove FAQ Schema?
| Situation | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Page has a real, visible FAQ section and accurate FAQPage markup | Keep it. It’s harmless and it describes the content correctly for Bing and other systems. |
| FAQPage markup lists questions that aren’t visible on the page | Remove it or add the questions to the page. Google’s guidelines say not to mark up content readers can’t see. |
| Plugin adds FAQ markup to every page, or duplicates markup added elsewhere | Clean it up. Keep one source of markup per page. |
| You were planning to add FAQs to pages only to get rich results | Skip it. That benefit is gone in Google. Add FAQs only where readers actually have those questions. |
| Community page with user-submitted answers to one question | Use QAPage instead, which Google still supports. |
Removing markup that’s accurate won’t hurt rankings, and neither will keeping it. Google’s structured data guidelines say a structured data manual action affects rich result eligibility, not how a page ranks in web search. The practical risk is wasted maintenance time, not a penalty.
FAQPage JSON-LD Example
If you keep FAQ schema, keep it simple and make it match the page word for word. Here’s a minimal FAQPage block in JSON-LD:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "FAQPage",
"mainEntity": [
{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Do you offer a free trial?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "Yes. Every plan includes a 14-day free trial with no credit card required."
}
},
{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Can I cancel anytime?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "Yes. You can cancel from your account settings, and you keep access until the end of your billing period."
}
}
]
}
</script>The answers above are example placeholders. Replace them with your own visible copy. A few rules keep the markup honest:
- Mirror the visible text. Each
nameshould match the question shown on the page, and eachtextshould match the answer. - One FAQPage block per page. If your SEO plugin generates it from an FAQ block, don’t add a second one by hand.
- Basic HTML in answers is fine. Links and lists inside
textare valid, but plain sentences are easiest to maintain. - Validate after changes. Use the Schema Markup Validator to check syntax. The Rich Results Test no longer reports FAQ eligibility, so it isn’t useful for this type. Our schema validator guide covers both tools.
How to Write FAQ Sections That AI Engines Can Use
Since the visible section does most of the work, it’s worth getting right:
- Use the questions people actually ask. Pull them from sales calls, support tickets, People Also Ask boxes and the follow-up prompts AI assistants suggest. Generic questions like “Why choose us?” rarely get quoted.
- Answer in the first sentence. Lead with yes, no, a number or a definition, then add context. That’s the “self-contained” phrasing Microsoft’s guidance describes.
- Make each question a heading. An H3 per question gives crawlers a clean boundary between one answer and the next.
- Keep answers short. Two to four sentences is usually enough. Link out to a full guide when a topic needs more.
- Keep facts current. An outdated price or policy in an FAQ is exactly the kind of line an AI answer might repeat.
If you want to see how your pages look to AI crawlers, the AI visibility tools we’ve reviewed track whether your brand shows up in AI answers at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Google still show FAQ rich results?
No. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results in Search starting May 7, 2026, and removed the related documentation in June 2026.
Is FAQ schema bad for SEO now?
No. Accurate FAQPage markup doesn’t hurt rankings. It just no longer produces a rich result in Google. Markup that describes questions not visible on the page is a different matter, because it violates Google’s structured data guidelines.
Should I remove FAQ schema from my site?
Only if it’s inaccurate, duplicated or describes content that isn’t on the page. If it correctly marks up a real FAQ section, leaving it in place costs nothing.
Does FAQ schema help you show up in AI Overviews?
Google says no special structured data is needed for AI Overviews or AI Mode. What helps is clear, visible content that answers the question directly, plus a page Google can crawl and index.
Does Bing still use FAQ schema?
Bing supports JSON-LD structured data, and Microsoft’s 2025 guidance on AI search answers recommends schema and Q&A-style content. Treat FAQ markup there as a way to help Bing understand the page, not as a guaranteed display feature.
What’s the difference between FAQPage and QAPage schema?
FAQPage is for questions and answers the site writes itself. QAPage is for a single question with answers from users, like a forum thread. Google still supports Q&A rich results, but not FAQ.
Do I need FAQ schema for every page with questions?
No. Add it only where there’s a genuine FAQ section. The visible questions and answers are what readers and AI engines use.
Can AI engines read your site?
Check any page for free: crawler access for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews, plus the fixes that matter most.
