YandexDirect user agent
Operated by Yandex
YandexDirect is the Yandex robot that classifies Yandex Advertising Network partner sites by topic for ad matching.
The YandexDirect bot at a glance
- YandexDirect is operated by Yandex and checks landing pages for an advertising platform.
- The robots.txt token for YandexDirect is YandexDirect.
- Blocking a platform fetcher has no effect on organic search rankings.
- YandexDirect robots.txt support: Not for user-requested fetches.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Allow.
What is YandexDirect?
Publishers in the Yandex ad network should allow it.
Yandex lists this robot on its official page of Yandex robots.
Should you block YandexDirect?
Allow YandexDirect unless it causes a measurable load problem.
| Effect on search rankings | Blocking a platform fetcher has no effect on organic search rankings. |
|---|---|
| Effect on AI visibility | Blocking breaks the feature the fetcher serves, such as ad approval or feed updates. |
| Follows robots.txt | Not for user-requested fetches |
| Recommendation | Allow |
How to block or allow YandexDirect
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 YandexDirect is matched case-insensitively. robots.txt alone may not stop YandexDirect, so add the Nginx, Apache or Cloudflare rule as well.
robots.txt: block
# Block YandexDirect
User-agent: YandexDirect
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow YandexDirect
User-agent: YandexDirect
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep YandexDirect out of private areas only
User-agent: YandexDirect
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to YandexDirect
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(YandexDirect)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to YandexDirect
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (YandexDirect) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "YandexDirect")How to verify real YandexDirect traffic
Reverse DNS check: look up the request IP, confirm the hostname ends in yandex.ru, yandex.net, yandex.com, then look up that hostname and confirm it returns the same IP.
# 1. Reverse lookup: the hostname must end in yandex.ru, yandex.net, yandex.com
host REQUEST_IP
# 2. Forward lookup: must return the same REQUEST_IP
host HOSTNAME_FROM_STEP_1How to find YandexDirect in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts YandexDirect requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "YandexDirect" 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.
YandexDirect user agent string
The full user agent Yandex publishes for YandexDirect. Version numbers such as Chrome/W.X.Y.Z change over time, so match the token, not the whole string.
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexDirect/3.0; +http://yandex.com/bots)YandexDirect FAQ
YandexDirect identifies itself with the robots.txt token "YandexDirect". A typical request header reads: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexDirect/3.0; +http://yandex.com/bots)
Partly. YandexDirect fetches pages because a user asked for them, and Yandex says robots.txt rules may not apply to those user-requested fetches. Use a firewall rule if you must stop it.
Blocking a platform fetcher has no effect on organic search rankings. Blocking breaks the feature the fetcher serves, such as ad approval or feed updates.
Add two lines to the robots.txt file at the root of each domain and subdomain: "User-agent: YandexDirect" followed by "Disallow: /". The token is case-insensitive. Changes can take up to 24 hours to be picked up.
Yes. Run a reverse DNS lookup on the request IP; a real YandexDirect request resolves to yandex.ru, yandex.net, yandex.com, and a forward lookup of that hostname returns the same IP.
Search your server access log for "YandexDirect", for example with: grep -i "YandexDirect" access.log. The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits per AI bot from an uploaded log file.
Sources: Yandex 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.
