Archives and Research Crawlers
archive.org_bot user agent
Operated by Internet Archive
archive.org_bot is the Internet Archive's crawler, which saves public pages for the Wayback Machine.
The archive.org_bot bot at a glance
- archive.org_bot is operated by Internet Archive and fetches pages to power a specific product feature.
- The robots.txt token for archive.org_bot is archive.org_bot.
- Blocking an archive crawler has no effect on search rankings.
- archive.org_bot robots.txt support: Not documented.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Allow.
What is archive.org_bot?
archive.org_bot captures snapshots that anyone can browse in the Wayback Machine.
Archived pages are often cited as historical evidence and reused in research datasets.
Should you block archive.org_bot?
Allow archive.org_bot unless it causes a measurable load problem.
| Effect on search rankings | Blocking an archive crawler has no effect on search rankings. |
|---|---|
| Effect on AI visibility | Archived copies can be reused by researchers and AI datasets; blocking stops new snapshots but does not remove existing ones. |
| Follows robots.txt | Not documented |
| Recommendation | Allow |
How to block or allow archive.org_bot
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 archive.org_bot is matched case-insensitively. robots.txt alone may not stop archive.org_bot, so add the Nginx, Apache or Cloudflare rule as well.
robots.txt: block
# Block archive.org_bot
User-agent: archive.org_bot
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow archive.org_bot
User-agent: archive.org_bot
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep archive.org_bot out of private areas only
User-agent: archive.org_bot
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to archive.org_bot
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(archive\.org_bot)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to archive.org_bot
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (archive\.org_bot) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "archive.org_bot")How to verify real archive.org_bot traffic
Internet Archive publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for archive.org_bot, 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 archive.org_bot in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts archive.org_bot requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "archive.org_bot" 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.
archive.org_bot user agent string
The full user agent Internet Archive publishes for archive.org_bot. Version numbers such as Chrome/W.X.Y.Z change over time, so match the token, not the whole string.
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; heritrix/3.1.1-SNAPSHOT-20120116.200628 +http://www.archive.org/details/archive.org_bot)archive.org_bot FAQ
archive.org_bot identifies itself with the robots.txt token "archive.org_bot". A typical request header reads: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; heritrix/3.1.1-SNAPSHOT-20120116.200628 +http://www.archive.org/details/archive.org_bot)
Internet Archive has not documented how archive.org_bot treats robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule and back it with a server rule if the traffic matters to you.
Blocking an archive crawler has no effect on search rankings. Archived copies can be reused by researchers and AI datasets; blocking stops new snapshots but does not remove existing ones.
Add two lines to the robots.txt file at the root of each domain and subdomain: "User-agent: archive.org_bot" followed by "Disallow: /". The token is case-insensitive. Changes can take up to 24 hours to be picked up.
Not reliably. Internet Archive publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for archive.org_bot, so anyone can send the same user agent. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
Search your server access log for "archive.org_bot", for example with: grep -i "archive.org_bot" 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.
