YandexMetrika user agent
Operated by Yandex
YandexMetrika is the Yandex Metrica robot that checks page availability, including Yandex Direct ad landing pages.
The YandexMetrika bot at a glance
- YandexMetrika is operated by Yandex and fetches pages to power a specific product feature.
- The robots.txt token for YandexMetrika is YandexMetrika.
- Blocking a platform fetcher has no effect on organic search rankings.
- YandexMetrika robots.txt support: No.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Allow.
What is YandexMetrika?
Yandex states it ignores robots.txt.
Yandex lists this robot on its official page of Yandex robots.
Should you block YandexMetrika?
Allow YandexMetrika 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 | No |
| Recommendation | Allow |
How to block or allow YandexMetrika
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 YandexMetrika is matched case-insensitively. robots.txt alone may not stop YandexMetrika, so add the Nginx, Apache or Cloudflare rule as well.
robots.txt: block
# Block YandexMetrika
User-agent: YandexMetrika
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow YandexMetrika
User-agent: YandexMetrika
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep YandexMetrika out of private areas only
User-agent: YandexMetrika
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to YandexMetrika
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(YandexMetrika)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to YandexMetrika
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (YandexMetrika) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "YandexMetrika")How to verify real YandexMetrika 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 YandexMetrika in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts YandexMetrika requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "YandexMetrika" 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.
YandexMetrika user agent string
The full user agent Yandex publishes for YandexMetrika. Version numbers such as Chrome/W.X.Y.Z change over time, so match the token, not the whole string.
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexMetrika/2.0; +http://yandex.com/bots yabs01)YandexMetrika FAQ
YandexMetrika identifies itself with the robots.txt token "YandexMetrika". A typical request header reads: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexMetrika/2.0; +http://yandex.com/bots yabs01)
No reliable evidence says it does. Reports show YandexMetrika crawling sites that disallow it, so pair robots.txt with a firewall or server rule.
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: YandexMetrika" 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 YandexMetrika 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 "YandexMetrika", for example with: grep -i "YandexMetrika" 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.
