Google-Pinpoint user agent
Operated by Google
Google-Pinpoint is the fetcher that reads URLs Google Pinpoint users add to their document collections.
The Google-Pinpoint bot at a glance
- Google-Pinpoint is operated by Google and fetches a page when a person asks an AI assistant about it or shares its link, and fetches pages to power a specific product feature.
- The robots.txt token for Google-Pinpoint is Google-Pinpoint.
- Blocking an AI assistant fetcher has no effect on search rankings.
- Google-Pinpoint robots.txt support: Not for user-requested fetches.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Allow.
What is Google-Pinpoint?
Google-Pinpoint, a research tool for journalists, fetches each URL a user added as a source.
Google lists it among its user-triggered fetchers, which generally ignore robots.txt.
Should you block Google-Pinpoint?
Allow Google-Pinpoint unless it causes a measurable load problem.
| Effect on search rankings | Blocking an AI assistant fetcher has no effect on search rankings. |
|---|---|
| Effect on AI visibility | Blocking stops the assistant from reading your page when a user asks about it or pastes your link, so its answer falls back to other sources. |
| Follows robots.txt | Not for user-requested fetches |
| Recommendation | Allow |
How to block or allow Google-Pinpoint
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-Pinpoint is matched case-insensitively. robots.txt alone may not stop Google-Pinpoint, so add the Nginx, Apache or Cloudflare rule as well.
robots.txt: block
# Block Google-Pinpoint
User-agent: Google-Pinpoint
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow Google-Pinpoint
User-agent: Google-Pinpoint
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep Google-Pinpoint out of private areas only
User-agent: Google-Pinpoint
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to Google-Pinpoint
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(Google\-Pinpoint)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to Google-Pinpoint
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (Google\-Pinpoint) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "Google-Pinpoint")How to verify real Google-Pinpoint traffic
Google publishes the IP ranges that Google-Pinpoint uses. A request with the Google-Pinpoint user agent from an IP outside that list is an impersonator.
Official Google-Pinpoint 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-Pinpoint in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts Google-Pinpoint requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "Google-Pinpoint" 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-Pinpoint FAQ
Google-Pinpoint uses the robots.txt token "Google-Pinpoint". Google does not publish a full user-agent string, so match the token inside the User-Agent header.
Partly. Google-Pinpoint 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 assistant fetcher has no effect on search rankings. Blocking stops the assistant from reading your page when a user asks about it or pastes your link, so its answer falls back to other sources.
Add two lines to the robots.txt file at the root of each domain and subdomain: "User-agent: Google-Pinpoint" 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-Pinpoint 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-Pinpoint", for example with: grep -i "Google-Pinpoint" 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.
