iaskspider user agent
Operated by iAsk
iaskspider is the crawler of iAsk, an AI answer engine.
The iaskspider bot at a glance
- iaskspider is operated by iAsk and indexes web pages so an AI search product can show and cite them in answers.
- The robots.txt token for iaskspider is iaskspider.
- Blocking an AI search crawler has no effect on Google or Bing rankings.
- iaskspider robots.txt support: No.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Consider blocking.
What is iaskspider?
iaskspider collects pages that iAsk uses to answer user questions.
Public registries report that it does not respect robots.txt.
Should you block iaskspider?
Consider blocking iaskspider: it brings little visibility back and its robots.txt behaviour is weak or undocumented.
| Effect on search rankings | Blocking an AI search crawler has no effect on Google or Bing rankings. |
|---|---|
| Effect on AI visibility | Blocking removes your pages from that AI search index, so its answers can no longer cite or link to your website. |
| Follows robots.txt | No |
| Recommendation | Consider blocking |
How to block or allow iaskspider
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 iaskspider is matched case-insensitively. robots.txt alone may not stop iaskspider, so add the Nginx, Apache or Cloudflare rule as well.
robots.txt: block
# Block iaskspider
User-agent: iaskspider
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow iaskspider
User-agent: iaskspider
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep iaskspider out of private areas only
User-agent: iaskspider
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to iaskspider
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(iaskspider)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to iaskspider
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (iaskspider) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "iaskspider")How to verify real iaskspider traffic
iAsk publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for iaskspider, 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 iaskspider in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts iaskspider requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "iaskspider" 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.
iaskspider user agent string
The full user agent iAsk publishes for iaskspider. Version numbers such as Chrome/W.X.Y.Z change over time, so match the token, not the whole string.
iaskspider/2.0iaskspider FAQ
iaskspider identifies itself with the robots.txt token "iaskspider". A typical request header reads: iaskspider/2.0
No reliable evidence says it does. Reports show iaskspider crawling sites that disallow it, so pair robots.txt with a firewall or server rule.
Blocking an AI search crawler has no effect on Google or Bing rankings. Blocking removes your pages from that AI search index, so its answers can no longer cite or link to your website.
Add two lines to the robots.txt file at the root of each domain and subdomain: "User-agent: iaskspider" followed by "Disallow: /". The token is case-insensitive. Changes can take up to 24 hours to be picked up.
Not reliably. iAsk publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for iaskspider, so anyone can send the same user agent. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
Search your server access log for "iaskspider", for example with: grep -i "iaskspider" 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.
