GrapeshotCrawler user agent
Operated by Oracle
GrapeshotCrawler is the contextual advertising crawler of Grapeshot, a technology formerly owned by Oracle.
The GrapeshotCrawler bot at a glance
- GrapeshotCrawler is operated by Oracle and checks landing pages for an advertising platform.
- The robots.txt token for GrapeshotCrawler is GrapeshotCrawler.
- Blocking a platform fetcher has no effect on organic search rankings.
- GrapeshotCrawler robots.txt support: Not documented.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Your choice.
What is GrapeshotCrawler?
GrapeshotCrawler reads page content to classify it for contextual ad targeting.
Ad-supported publishers often see it in their logs.
Should you block GrapeshotCrawler?
Blocking GrapeshotCrawler is a business decision: it protects your content but can lower how well AI products know your brand.
| 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 documented |
| Recommendation | Your choice |
How to block or allow GrapeshotCrawler
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 GrapeshotCrawler is matched case-insensitively. robots.txt alone may not stop GrapeshotCrawler, so add the Nginx, Apache or Cloudflare rule as well.
robots.txt: block
# Block GrapeshotCrawler
User-agent: GrapeshotCrawler
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow GrapeshotCrawler
User-agent: GrapeshotCrawler
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep GrapeshotCrawler out of private areas only
User-agent: GrapeshotCrawler
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to GrapeshotCrawler
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(GrapeshotCrawler)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to GrapeshotCrawler
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (GrapeshotCrawler) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "GrapeshotCrawler")How to verify real GrapeshotCrawler traffic
Oracle publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for GrapeshotCrawler, 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 GrapeshotCrawler in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts GrapeshotCrawler requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "GrapeshotCrawler" 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.
GrapeshotCrawler user agent string
The full user agent Oracle publishes for GrapeshotCrawler. Version numbers such as Chrome/W.X.Y.Z change over time, so match the token, not the whole string.
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; GrapeshotCrawler/2.0; +http://www.grapeshot.co.uk/crawler.php)GrapeshotCrawler FAQ
GrapeshotCrawler identifies itself with the robots.txt token "GrapeshotCrawler". A typical request header reads: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; GrapeshotCrawler/2.0; +http://www.grapeshot.co.uk/crawler.php)
Oracle has not documented how GrapeshotCrawler treats robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule and back it with a server rule if the traffic matters to you.
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: GrapeshotCrawler" followed by "Disallow: /". The token is case-insensitive. Changes can take up to 24 hours to be picked up.
Not reliably. Oracle publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for GrapeshotCrawler, so anyone can send the same user agent. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
Search your server access log for "GrapeshotCrawler", for example with: grep -i "GrapeshotCrawler" 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.
