ToutiaoSpider user agent
Operated by ByteDance
ToutiaoSpider is the crawler of Toutiao search, ByteDance's news and search app in China.
The ToutiaoSpider bot at a glance
- ToutiaoSpider is operated by ByteDance and crawls web pages for a search engine index.
- The robots.txt token for ToutiaoSpider is ToutiaoSpider.
- Blocking a search engine crawler removes your pages from that search engine's results.
- ToutiaoSpider robots.txt support: Not documented.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Allow.
What is ToutiaoSpider?
ToutiaoSpider collects pages for Toutiao’s search and news features.
It is separate from Bytespider, which collects AI training data.
Should you block ToutiaoSpider?
Allow ToutiaoSpider unless it causes a measurable load problem.
| Effect on search rankings | Blocking a search engine crawler removes your pages from that search engine's results. |
|---|---|
| Effect on AI visibility | AI features built on that search index, such as Google AI Overviews and AI Mode on top of Googlebot, also lose access to your pages. |
| Follows robots.txt | Not documented |
| Recommendation | Allow |
How to block or allow ToutiaoSpider
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 ToutiaoSpider is matched case-insensitively. robots.txt alone may not stop ToutiaoSpider, so add the Nginx, Apache or Cloudflare rule as well.
robots.txt: block
# Block ToutiaoSpider
User-agent: ToutiaoSpider
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow ToutiaoSpider
User-agent: ToutiaoSpider
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep ToutiaoSpider out of private areas only
User-agent: ToutiaoSpider
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to ToutiaoSpider
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(ToutiaoSpider)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to ToutiaoSpider
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (ToutiaoSpider) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "ToutiaoSpider")How to verify real ToutiaoSpider traffic
ByteDance publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for ToutiaoSpider, so the user agent cannot be verified. Anyone can send the same string. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
How to find ToutiaoSpider in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts ToutiaoSpider requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "ToutiaoSpider" 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.
ToutiaoSpider user agent string
The full user agent ByteDance publishes for ToutiaoSpider. Version numbers such as Chrome/W.X.Y.Z change over time, so match the token, not the whole string.
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; ToutiaoSpider/1.0; http://web.toutiao.com/media_cooperation/;)ToutiaoSpider FAQ
ToutiaoSpider identifies itself with the robots.txt token "ToutiaoSpider". A typical request header reads: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; ToutiaoSpider/1.0; http://web.toutiao.com/media_cooperation/;)
ByteDance has not documented how ToutiaoSpider treats robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule and back it with a server rule if the traffic matters to you.
Blocking a search engine crawler removes your pages from that search engine's results. AI features built on that search index, such as Google AI Overviews and AI Mode on top of Googlebot, also lose access to your pages.
Add two lines to the robots.txt file at the root of each domain and subdomain: "User-agent: ToutiaoSpider" followed by "Disallow: /". The token is case-insensitive. Changes can take up to 24 hours to be picked up.
Not reliably. ByteDance publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for ToutiaoSpider, so anyone can send the same user agent. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
Search your server access log for "ToutiaoSpider", for example with: grep -i "ToutiaoSpider" access.log. The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits per AI bot from an uploaded log file.
Sources: Public bot registry. 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.
