msnbot user agent
Operated by Microsoft
msnbot is the legacy crawler of MSN Search, the predecessor of Bing.
The msnbot bot at a glance
- msnbot is operated by Microsoft and crawls web pages for a search engine index.
- The robots.txt token for msnbot is msnbot.
- Blocking a search engine crawler removes your pages from that search engine's results.
- msnbot robots.txt support: Not documented.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Allow.
What is msnbot?
msnbot was replaced by Bingbot, but old robots.txt files and some log entries still name it.
Bing’s current crawler page lists Bingbot, AdIdxBot, BingPreview and MicrosoftPreview.
Should you block msnbot?
Allow msnbot 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 msnbot
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 msnbot is matched case-insensitively. robots.txt alone may not stop msnbot, so add the Nginx, Apache or Cloudflare rule as well.
robots.txt: block
# Block msnbot
User-agent: msnbot
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow msnbot
User-agent: msnbot
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep msnbot out of private areas only
User-agent: msnbot
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to msnbot
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(msnbot)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to msnbot
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (msnbot) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "msnbot")How to verify real msnbot traffic
Microsoft publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for msnbot, 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 msnbot in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts msnbot requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "msnbot" 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.
msnbot user agent string
The full user agent Microsoft publishes for msnbot. Version numbers such as Chrome/W.X.Y.Z change over time, so match the token, not the whole string.
adidxbot/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)msnbot FAQ
msnbot identifies itself with the robots.txt token "msnbot". A typical request header reads: adidxbot/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)
Microsoft has not documented how msnbot 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: msnbot" followed by "Disallow: /". The token is case-insensitive. Changes can take up to 24 hours to be picked up.
Not reliably. Microsoft publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for msnbot, so anyone can send the same user agent. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
Search your server access log for "msnbot", for example with: grep -i "msnbot" 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.
