AdsBot-Google-Mobile user agent
Operated by Google
AdsBot-Google-Mobile is a retired Google Ads crawler that once checked the quality of iPhone ad landing pages.
The AdsBot-Google-Mobile bot at a glance
- AdsBot-Google-Mobile is operated by Google and checks landing pages for an advertising platform.
- The robots.txt token for AdsBot-Google-Mobile is AdsBot-Google-Mobile.
- Blocking a platform fetcher has no effect on organic search rankings.
- AdsBot-Google-Mobile robots.txt support: Yes.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Allow.
What is AdsBot-Google-Mobile?
Google lists AdsBot-Google-Mobile under retired special-case crawlers: it is no longer in use and is noted only for historical reference.
Old robots.txt rules naming it are harmless; AdsBot-Google is the active Google Ads crawler.
Should you block AdsBot-Google-Mobile?
Allow AdsBot-Google-Mobile 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 | Yes |
| Recommendation | Allow |
How to block or allow AdsBot-Google-Mobile
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 AdsBot-Google-Mobile is matched case-insensitively.
robots.txt: block
# Block AdsBot-Google-Mobile
User-agent: AdsBot-Google-Mobile
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow AdsBot-Google-Mobile
User-agent: AdsBot-Google-Mobile
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep AdsBot-Google-Mobile out of private areas only
User-agent: AdsBot-Google-Mobile
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to AdsBot-Google-Mobile
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(AdsBot\-Google\-Mobile)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to AdsBot-Google-Mobile
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (AdsBot\-Google\-Mobile) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "AdsBot-Google-Mobile")How to verify real AdsBot-Google-Mobile traffic
Google publishes the IP ranges that AdsBot-Google-Mobile uses. A request with the AdsBot-Google-Mobile user agent from an IP outside that list is an impersonator.
Official AdsBot-Google-Mobile IP list (JSON)
Reverse DNS check: look up the request IP, confirm the hostname ends in google.com, then look up that hostname and confirm it returns the same IP.
# 1. Reverse lookup: the hostname must end in google.com
host REQUEST_IP
# 2. Forward lookup: must return the same REQUEST_IP
host HOSTNAME_FROM_STEP_1How to find AdsBot-Google-Mobile in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts AdsBot-Google-Mobile requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "AdsBot-Google-Mobile" 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.
AdsBot-Google-Mobile FAQ
AdsBot-Google-Mobile uses the robots.txt token "AdsBot-Google-Mobile". Google does not publish a full user-agent string, so match the token inside the User-Agent header.
Yes. Google states that AdsBot-Google-Mobile follows robots.txt rules written for the "AdsBot-Google-Mobile" token.
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: AdsBot-Google-Mobile" 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 AdsBot-Google-Mobile 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 "AdsBot-Google-Mobile", for example with: grep -i "AdsBot-Google-Mobile" 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.
