Informational9 min read · verified 2026-09-19

Google Ads manager account (MCC) limits

A manager account can link up to 85,000 non-manager accounts, but only 50 of them can be active until the hierarchy has spent $10,000 in a month. One client account can have up to 5 direct managers, and a hierarchy can be 6 levels deep.

Yehor Dementiev · Updated September 19, 2026

An MCC (Google Ads manager account) can be linked to a maximum of 85,000 non-manager accounts, but the number of active accounts is capped by spend: 50 if the hierarchy's highest monthly spend over the last 12 months is under $10,000, 2,500 from $10,000 to under $500,000, and no published cap above that. A client account can have up to 5 direct managers, and a hierarchy can be at most 6 levels deep.

Last verified: September 19, 2026

This page covers only the limits and numbers. For how to create an MCC, link clients and set permissions, see the Google Ads MCC agency guide and the manager account setup guide. For per-account limits (campaigns, ad groups, keywords), see Google Ads account limits.

MCC limits at a glance

Limit	Value	Notes
Non-manager accounts linked to one manager	85,000	Includes active, inactive and canceled accounts
Active accounts, highest monthly spend under $10,000	50	Also the default for a new MCC with no spend
Active accounts, $10,000 to under $500,000	2,500	Spend of all accounts under the top manager counts
Active accounts, $500,000 and above	Not published	Google lists "N/A" for this tier
Direct managers per client account	5	Only one of them per MCC hierarchy
Direct managers per manager account	1	A sub-MCC has exactly one parent
Hierarchy depth	6 levels	Top manager to bottom-most account, so max 5 managers stacked
Pending link invitations	20	Per hierarchy
Test accounts in a manager hierarchy	50	Relevant for API developers
Google Ads accounts per email address	20	Manager accounts included
Owners per client account	1	Only one manager can hold ownership
Users per account	Not published	Google does not state a user cap

Sources: Google Ads Help — About account limits for manager accounts, About linking accounts to your manager account, About manager linking and unlinking errors, Google Ads API — System limits, About Google Ads manager accounts.

How the active-account limit is calculated

Google looks at the combined monthly spend of all client accounts under the top-level manager over the last 12 months and takes the highest month. The limit is applied at the top of the hierarchy, not per sub-MCC. A few rules that catch agencies out:

A new MCC with no spend history starts at 50 active accounts. If there is less than 12 months of data, Google uses what exists.
Canceled accounts do not count toward the active limit, but they can still show up in the 85,000 total until Google fully processes them.
Limits are reviewed regularly. If your tier drops and you are already above the new limit, you keep your existing accounts but cannot link or create more until you are back under it.

New account creation limits

Limit	Value
New Google Ads accounts per week	2,500
New accounts per week with a monthly invoicing payments profile	1,500
New accounts per week with an automatic or manual payments profile	15

Source: Google Ads Help — About your Google Ads account limits.

The 15-per-week cap on accounts with automatic or manual payments is the one small agencies actually hit during a busy onboarding week. The active-account limit applies on top: a fresh MCC under $10,000 monthly spend cannot create its 51st active account, no matter the weekly quota.

Can you have more than one manager account?

Yes. Nothing stops you from creating a second or third MCC, and one email address can be associated with up to 20 Google Ads accounts, manager accounts included. You can also create sub-managers inside an existing MCC, which is usually the better option.

A second, separate top-level MCC makes sense when:

You run two businesses (for example an agency and an in-house brand) and want billing, users and spend tiers fully separated.
You white-label for partners and the partner should own their own top-level structure.
You keep a sandbox for tests and training that should never sit next to client accounts.

Keep in mind that spend tiers are calculated per top-level hierarchy. Splitting clients across two unrelated MCCs splits the spend too, which can keep both below the $10,000 threshold and stuck at 50 active accounts each.

What you cannot do is link the same client account twice inside one hierarchy. A client can have up to 5 direct managers (for example your agency MCC plus the client's own in-house MCC), but only one per hierarchy. If you try, Google returns "The client would be linked more than once in a hierarchy." Setup steps for creating a manager account are in the manager account guide.

Structuring an MCC for an agency

With 6 levels available, depth is rarely the constraint. Most agencies need two or three:

Level	Example
1	Agency top-level MCC
2	Sub-MCC per team, vertical or country
3	Client accounts (or a client sub-MCC for clients with several accounts)

Practical rules:

Group sub-MCCs by who works on them. Access granted at a sub-MCC flows down to its accounts, so a sub-MCC per team is the simplest way to scope permissions.
Give multi-account clients their own sub-MCC. A retailer with separate accounts per country stays in one place for reporting.
Use account labels for everything that cuts across the tree, such as service tier, account manager or contract end date.
Name accounts consistently, for example Client | Country | Channel. Naming conventions are covered in the MCC agency guide.

Remember that a sub-MCC can only have one direct parent manager, so plan the tree before you link dozens of accounts into it.

Access levels and ownership

Google Ads has five user access levels. They apply the same way in a client account and in a manager account; users of a manager account get access to the accounts under it.

Access level	What it allows
Admin	Full control, including adding users, changing access levels and managing links
Standard	Edit campaigns and view reports, no user management
Read only	View campaigns, billing data and reports, no changes
Billing	Manage payment information and billing reports
Email only	Receive notification emails and reports, no login

Source: Google Ads Help — About access levels in your Google Ads account.

Ownership is separate from user access. The manager that creates an account automatically becomes its owner, and a client account can only have one owner. Linking an existing account does not give your MCC ownership; the client has to turn it on. An owner manager's admins get full administrative access, but the client account still owns its data.

When a client leaves, an admin of the owner manager can transfer ownership to the new agency's MCC, or the client can unlink the owner manager and turn on ownership for a different one. An agency can unlink a client at any time as long as the account keeps at least one user with access or a manager with ownership. Source: About ownership of client accounts.

Monitoring everything under one MCC

The MCC gives you one login and cross-account reporting, but the limits above tell you how big it can get: thousands of active accounts under one top-level manager. Google's UI is built for looking at accounts one at a time or in a summary table. It does not tell you which of 200 accounts had a budget run out at 10 a.m., lost conversion tracking or had an ad disapproved, unless someone checks.

That is the job of AdsCockpit Monitoring: you define a rule once and it watches every account in the MCC, so an issue shows up as an alert instead of in next month's report. If you script this yourself instead, Google Ads scripts at manager level work too, within their own execution limits.

More limits across the platform are collected in the Google Ads limits reference.

FAQ

How many accounts can an MCC manage?

Up to 85,000 non-manager accounts, counting active, inactive and canceled ones. How many can be active depends on spend: 50 if the hierarchy's highest monthly spend in the last 12 months is under $10,000, 2,500 from $10,000 up to $500,000, and Google lists no active-account cap above $500,000.

Can I have more than one manager account in Google Ads?

Yes. You can create several manager accounts, and one email address can be associated with up to 20 Google Ads accounts, manager accounts included. A client account can be directly linked to up to 5 manager accounts, but only one of them per MCC hierarchy.

How many levels deep can an MCC hierarchy go?

Six levels from the top-level manager to the bottom-most advertiser account, which means at most 5 manager accounts stacked on top of each other. A manager account can only be directly managed by one other manager account.

Is there a limit on creating new Google Ads accounts?

Yes. Google caps creation at 2,500 new accounts per week, 1,500 per week with a monthly invoicing payments profile, and 15 per week with an automatic or manual payments profile. Your manager's active-account limit also applies to new accounts.

Who owns a client account created from an MCC?

The manager that creates an account automatically becomes its owner. A client account can have only one owner, and an admin of the owner manager can transfer ownership to another manager, for example when a client moves agencies.

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