Google-Agent user agent
Operated by Google
Google-Agent is the user agent Google's AI agents use when they browse a site to complete a task for a user.
The Google-Agent bot at a glance
- Google-Agent is operated by Google and loads web pages in a browser to complete tasks on behalf of a user.
- The robots.txt token for Google-Agent is Google-Agent.
- Blocking an AI agent has no effect on search rankings.
- Google-Agent robots.txt support: Not for user-requested fetches.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Allow.
What is Google-Agent?
Google-Agent is listed among Google’s user-triggered fetchers: it visits pages because a user asked a Google agent to do something.
Google notes that user-triggered fetchers generally ignore robots.txt, because a person requested the visit.
Should you block Google-Agent?
Allow Google-Agent unless it causes a measurable load problem.
| Effect on search rankings | Blocking an AI agent has no effect on search rankings. |
|---|---|
| Effect on AI visibility | Blocking stops agents from completing tasks on your website for their users, which can cost bookings or sales that agents would have made. |
| Follows robots.txt | Not for user-requested fetches |
| Recommendation | Allow |
How to block or allow Google-Agent
Put the robots.txt rule in the file at the root of every domain and subdomain, for example https://example.com/robots.txt. The token Google-Agent is matched case-insensitively. robots.txt alone may not stop Google-Agent, so add the Nginx, Apache or Cloudflare rule as well.
robots.txt: block
# Block Google-Agent
User-agent: Google-Agent
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow Google-Agent
User-agent: Google-Agent
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep Google-Agent out of private areas only
User-agent: Google-Agent
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to Google-Agent
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(Google\-Agent)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to Google-Agent
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (Google\-Agent) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "Google-Agent")How to verify real Google-Agent traffic
Google publishes the IP ranges that Google-Agent uses. A request with the Google-Agent user agent from an IP outside that list is an impersonator.
Official Google-Agent IP list (JSON)
Reverse DNS check: look up the request IP, confirm the hostname ends in google.com, googleusercontent.com, then look up that hostname and confirm it returns the same IP.
# 1. Reverse lookup: the hostname must end in google.com, googleusercontent.com
host REQUEST_IP
# 2. Forward lookup: must return the same REQUEST_IP
host HOSTNAME_FROM_STEP_1How to find Google-Agent in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts Google-Agent requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "Google-Agent" access.log | awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20For a full report per AI bot, upload the log to the AI Log File Analyzer, a free tool by Justin Hà.
Google-Agent FAQ
Google-Agent uses the robots.txt token "Google-Agent". Google does not publish a full user-agent string, so match the token inside the User-Agent header.
Partly. Google-Agent fetches pages because a user asked for them, and Google says robots.txt rules may not apply to those user-requested fetches. Use a firewall rule if you must stop it.
Blocking an AI agent has no effect on search rankings. Blocking stops agents from completing tasks on your website for their users, which can cost bookings or sales that agents would have made.
Add two lines to the robots.txt file at the root of each domain and subdomain: "User-agent: Google-Agent" followed by "Disallow: /". The token is case-insensitive. Changes can take up to 24 hours to be picked up.
Yes. Google publishes the IP ranges Google-Agent uses. Check the request IP against that list; a matching user agent from any other IP is an impersonator.
Search your server access log for "Google-Agent", for example with: grep -i "Google-Agent" access.log. The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits per AI bot from an uploaded log file.
Sources: Google crawler documentation. Last reviewed by Justin Hà.
See which of these bots actually reach your website
The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits from GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and other AI crawlers in your server log, for free. The GEO Technical Package sets up robots.txt, llms.txt and crawler access for AI search.
