Ragstore replacing semantic search?

I got the email below a few days ago. Is it a real email? Is google shutting down corpora/semantic search and replacing it with this? None of the API endpoints in the email work, and real companies don’t give four days notice when taking production products offline. At the same time, semantic search stopped working around the same time this email was sent, so I don’t know. I can’t find any information online about this supposed change or why semantic search stopped working. Is it a scam? What’s going on here?

You’re receiving this communication, because we’ve identified that you’re using Semantic Retrieval in Gemini API.

On September 29, 2025, we are renaming “Corpus” APIs to “RagStore.” And on October 9, 2025, we’re shutting down the Semantic Retrieval API. As a result, you will lose access to stored vectors derived from files that you have uploaded. See https://ai.google.dev/api/semantic-retrieval/corpora.

We understand that this change can require some planning and decision-making, therefore we have provided additional information to guide you through the change.

What you need to know

On September 29, 2025, all APIs that have “Corpus” in their names will be discontinued and the corresponding APIs with “RagStore” in the name will be used instead. We’re also discontinuing the HTTP endpoint paths in i.google.dev/api/semantic-retrieval/corpora.

On October 9, 2025, we will also discontinue the following paths in the Semantic Retrieval API:

  • ai.google.dev/api/semantic-retrieval/question-answering

  • ai.google.dev/api/semantic-retrieval/corpora

  • ai.google.dev/api/semantic-retrieval/documents

  • ai.google.dev/api/semantic-retrieval/chunks

  • ai.google.dev/api/semantic-retrieval/permissions

Impact:

  • You will need to update your API paths to use “RagStore” instead of “Corpus” before September 29, 2025

  • You will no longer be able to use the above API paths on and after October 9, 2025

  • You will lose access to your vector stores via the above API paths on October 9, 2025

What you need to do

Ensure that you are no longer reliant on the Semantic Retrieval API before October 9, 2025.

Update your APIs path to use RagStore instead of Corpus before September 29, 2025.