Factset_spyderbot user agent
Operated by FactSet
Factset_spyderbot is the crawler of FactSet, reported as collecting web data that may be used for AI model training.
The Factset_spyderbot bot at a glance
- Factset_spyderbot is operated by FactSet and collects public web pages that may be used to train AI models.
- The robots.txt token for Factset_spyderbot is Factset_spyderbot.
- Blocking an AI training crawler has no effect on Google or Bing rankings.
- Factset_spyderbot robots.txt support: Not documented.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Your choice.
What is Factset_spyderbot?
FactSet is a financial data company; its crawler gathers web content for its data products.
FactSet has not published a crawler page.
Should you block Factset_spyderbot?
Blocking Factset_spyderbot is a business decision: it protects your content but can lower how well AI products know your brand.
| Effect on search rankings | Blocking an AI training crawler has no effect on Google or Bing rankings. |
|---|---|
| Effect on AI visibility | Blocking keeps your future pages out of that company's training data, so its models may know less about your brand over time. It does not remove you from that company's AI search, which uses a separate bot. |
| Follows robots.txt | Not documented |
| Recommendation | Your choice |
How to block or allow Factset_spyderbot
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 Factset_spyderbot is matched case-insensitively. robots.txt alone may not stop Factset_spyderbot, so add the Nginx, Apache or Cloudflare rule as well.
robots.txt: block
# Block Factset_spyderbot
User-agent: Factset_spyderbot
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow Factset_spyderbot
User-agent: Factset_spyderbot
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep Factset_spyderbot out of private areas only
User-agent: Factset_spyderbot
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to Factset_spyderbot
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(Factset_spyderbot)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to Factset_spyderbot
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (Factset_spyderbot) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "Factset_spyderbot")How to verify real Factset_spyderbot traffic
FactSet publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for Factset_spyderbot, 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 Factset_spyderbot in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts Factset_spyderbot requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "Factset_spyderbot" 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.
Factset_spyderbot FAQ
Factset_spyderbot uses the robots.txt token "Factset_spyderbot". FactSet does not publish a full user-agent string, so match the token inside the User-Agent header.
FactSet has not documented how Factset_spyderbot treats robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule and back it with a server rule if the traffic matters to you.
Blocking an AI training crawler has no effect on Google or Bing rankings. Blocking keeps your future pages out of that company's training data, so its models may know less about your brand over time. It does not remove you from that company's AI search, which uses a separate bot.
Add two lines to the robots.txt file at the root of each domain and subdomain: "User-agent: Factset_spyderbot" followed by "Disallow: /". The token is case-insensitive. Changes can take up to 24 hours to be picked up.
Not reliably. FactSet publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for Factset_spyderbot, so anyone can send the same user agent. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
Search your server access log for "Factset_spyderbot", for example with: grep -i "Factset_spyderbot" 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.
