Does Google work in China?

Most answers to this question are written for travelers, and most of them end by selling a VPN. If you run a business, you’re asking something else: can your Google work reach people in China?

The short version is no on the mainland, yes in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Here’s the evidence, including where it runs out.

This guide is part of our look at which Chinese search engines a foreign company should target.

Is Google blocked in China?

Yes, on the mainland. GreatFire, which tests addresses from mainland China, recorded failures in all 10 conclusive tests of http://www.google.com over the last 90 days. The latest was on October 24, 2026.¹

Google has three addresses that matter here, and they don’t behave the same way.

Address (http)	GreatFire result	Tests, last 90 days	Last test
www.google.com	Blocked 1	10 of 10 failed	Oct 24, 2026
www.google.com.hk	Blocked 2	2 of 2 failed	Sep 30, 2026
www.google.cn	Not blocked 3	4 of 4 connected	Oct 19, 2026

That last row isn’t good news. We opened www.google.cn on November 1, 2026, from outside China. It showed a logo and a link to google.com.hk, and we saw no search box.⁴

So, at least as read from abroad, the one address that connects points to one GreatFire reports as blocked.

Search isn’t the only product affected. Our guide to which Google services fail in China covers YouTube, Maps, Analytics and the rest, including why results for Fonts conflict.

If you want the mechanism, see what the Great Firewall means for your website.

When did Google stop working in China?

Google left mainland search in 2010. Beyond that, sources disagree on when the block became complete, and we found no primary source that settles it.

1. March 22, 2010Google stops filtering on Google.cn and redirects to Hong Kong.
2. June 29, 2010The automatic redirect is replaced by a link.
3. March 20, 2011First interference recorded by GreatFire on www.google.com.hk.
4. December 2018Sundar Pichai says "no plans to launch search in China".
5. October 2026http://www.google.com fails 10 tests out of 10.

On March 22, 2010, Google said it had stopped censoring Search, News and Images on Google.cn.⁵

In June 2010, it replaced the automatic redirect with a link to the Hong Kong site.⁶

GreatFire dates interference with www.google.com.hk from March 20, 2011.² In December 2018, CEO Sundar Pichai told a US House committee there were “no plans to launch search in China.”⁷

The date of the block itself varies by source:

Source	Says Google was blocked
Comparitech 8	March 2010
Travel China Cheaper 9	Early 2011
EXPERTE 10	“Completely” since 2014
AppInChina 11	December 2014

We found no primary record behind any of these dates. GreatFire can’t settle it either: for www.google.com, it lists interference only since June 23, 2020.¹ What matters for your plans is today’s status, and that’s clear.

Can people in China still reach Google?

Some can, through a VPN, but they’re a small minority. The best recent evidence puts VPN use at a few percentage points, and nobody has a reliable national count of Google users.

The best study we found comes from GPPi. Published in May 2026, it analyzes leaked reports from Geedge Networks, a Chinese company.¹²

It concludes that VPN use in China is “probably closer to a few percentage points rather than a third of the population.”¹²

Earlier estimates ran from 3% to 30% of internet users, a range the authors call “almost useless.”¹² Their own figure has real limits:

• The reports cover January to July 2023, so the data is old.
• They cover Xinjiang only, which the authors call “the most surveilled region in the country.”
• They include two of the three major carriers.
• The authors say the national figure may be higher, but likely still in single digits.

Not every VPN user searches on Google, either. AppInChina says no public demographic data is available for Google users in China.¹¹

We don’t explain how to get around the block. For a business, it’s the wrong question anyway. You can’t build a market on a route your buyers may not use.

Why does StatCounter show Google at 6.83% in China?

We don’t know, and neither does anyone we read. StatCounter put Google at 6.83% in China in October 2026, up from 1.45% in September, and we found no explanation.¹⁴

StatCounter, China	Google share
September 2026, all devices	1.45% 14
October 2026, all devices	6.83% 14
October 2026, mobile	9.72% 15
Highest month before October, from November 2025	2.32%, June 2026 14
Lowest month in the same 12 months	1.42%, August 2026 14
12-month average to October 2026, our calculation	2.29% 14

It’s tempting to read this as Google coming back. The test data says otherwise: www.google.com was still failing on October 24, in the same month.¹

Three reasons to stay cautious:

• StatCounter measures clicks through to websites, not searches.¹⁸
• One month isn’t a trend, and StatCounter can revise its data for 45 days after first publication.¹⁸
• StatCounter’s China numbers have surprised before. In May 2023, its CEO reportedly called them anomalous and said the company was investigating.¹⁹

Free check

Is your website visible on Baidu?

Enter your website. We check Baidu, access from China and how your site is set up, then email you the report.

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Does your Google SEO reach Chinese buyers?

It depends on where they are. On the mainland, mostly not. In Hong Kong and Taiwan, yes, because Google is the leading engine there.

Where your buyers are	Google share, Oct 2026	Leading engine	What it means for you
Mainland China	6.83% 14	Baidu 49.00%, then Bing 21.69% 14	Separate work on Chinese engines
Hong Kong	89.59% 16	Google	Your Google work counts, in the right language
Taiwan	80.02% 17	Google	Your Google work counts, in the right language

1. Mainland China6.83%
2. Hong Kong89.59%
3. Taiwan80.02%

A Google ranking doesn’t travel to the mainland with you. Baidu runs its own crawler and builds its own index,²⁰ and nothing we read suggests it inherits rankings from Google.

Language is the other gap. An English page ranking on Google answers English searches. To reach someone searching in Chinese, you need a Chinese page.

The script depends on your target. See simplified or traditional Chinese.

Chinese speakers abroad are a separate case. They live outside the block, and we have no figure for how they search. Start with mainland China or the diaspora.

For more on what those buyers actually do, read how Chinese buyers search for foreign services.

How to check your own Google data for China

You can see what Google sends you from China in a few minutes, if your site is in Search Console. The Performance report includes a Countries view.²¹

1. Open the Performance report. Set the date range to the last 12 months.
2. Open the Countries tab. Find China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
3. Filter on each one. Then open the Queries tab to see what people typed.
4. Note the language. Chinese queries show demand. English ones may come from foreign residents or travelers.
5. Compare pages. See which pages get those clicks, and whether a Chinese version exists.

Read the result carefully. A small China row doesn’t prove there’s no demand. It only shows what Google delivers, and Google is the wrong place to measure the mainland.

The bottom line

Google Search doesn’t work in mainland China, and October’s rise in StatCounter doesn’t change that. Hong Kong and Taiwan are a different story, since Google leads in both.

So decide where your buyers are first. If they’re on the mainland, your Google work won’t carry over, and you need a presence on Chinese engines.

How Index in China can help

We work on Chinese search engines, the part of search that your Google work doesn’t reach.

We translate your site into Simplified Chinese with a human reviewer, handle its submission to Chinese search engines where the account allows it, and send a monthly report on Chinese traffic.

We don’t promise rankings or traffic. See what we do or book a 30-minute call.

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