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