--- title: "YandexMedia User Agent: What It Does & How to Block It" description: "YandexMedia is Yandex's bot that crawls web pages for a search engine index. See its user agent, robots.txt rules and SEO impact." url: "https://justinha.info.vn/bots/search-engines/yandexmedia/" --- # YandexMedia User agent, robots.txt rules and blocking guide by [Yandex](https://justinha.info.vn/bots/company/yandex/) [Search Engine Crawlers](https://justinha.info.vn/bots/search-engines/) Search indexOfficial docs YandexMedia is the Yandex robot that indexes multimedia data. ## Should you block YandexMedia? Allow Allow YandexMedia unless it causes a measurable load problem. Search rankings Blocking a search engine crawler removes your pages from that search engine's results. AI visibility AI features built on that search index, such as Google AI Overviews and AI Mode on top of Googlebot, also lose access to your pages. ## YandexMedia at a glance robots.txt token ` YandexMedia ` Operator Yandex What it does Crawls web pages for a search engine index. Follows robots.txt Yes Can be verified Yes, reverse DNS Source [Official documentation](https://yandex.com/support/webmaster/en/robot-workings/check-yandex-robots) ## What is YandexMedia? It fetches audio and media content for Yandex services. Yandex lists this robot on its official page of Yandex robots. ## How to block or allow YandexMedia 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 ` YandexMedia ` is matched case-insensitively. robots.txt: block ``` # Block YandexMedia User-agent: YandexMedia Disallow: / ``` robots.txt: allow ``` # Allow YandexMedia User-agent: YandexMedia Allow: / ``` robots.txt: partial ``` # Keep YandexMedia out of private areas only User-agent: YandexMedia Disallow: /wp-admin/ Disallow: /cart/ Disallow: /checkout/ Disallow: /my-account/ Allow: / ``` Nginx ``` # Nginx: return 403 to YandexMedia if ($http_user_agent ~* "(YandexMedia)") { return 403; } ``` Apache ``` # Apache .htaccess: return 403 to YandexMedia RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (YandexMedia) [NC] RewriteRule .* - [F,L] ``` Cloudflare WAF ``` # Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block (http.user_agent contains "YandexMedia") ``` ## How to verify real YandexMedia 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_1 ``` ## How to find YandexMedia in your server logs Search the web server access log for the token. This command counts YandexMedia requests per URL on Nginx or Apache: ``` grep -i "YandexMedia" access.log | awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20 ``` For a full report per AI bot, upload the log to the [AI Log File Analyzer](https://justinha.info.vn/ai-log-file-analyzer-tool/), a free tool by Justin Hà. ## YandexMedia user agent string The full user agent published for YandexMedia. Version numbers such as ` Chrome/W.X.Y.Z ` change over time, so match the token, not the whole string. ``` Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexMedia/3.0; +http://yandex.com/bots) ``` ## YandexMedia FAQ What is the YandexMedia user agent? YandexMedia identifies itself with the robots.txt token "YandexMedia". A typical request header reads: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexMedia/3.0; +http://yandex.com/bots) Does YandexMedia respect robots.txt? Yandex states that YandexMedia follows robots.txt rules. Check the documented scope and any exceptions on this profile. Will blocking YandexMedia hurt my SEO? Blocking a search engine crawler removes your pages from that search engine's results. AI features built on that search index, such as Google AI Overviews and AI Mode on top of Googlebot, also lose access to your pages. How do I block YandexMedia in robots.txt? Add two lines to the robots.txt file at the root of each domain and subdomain: "User-agent: YandexMedia" followed by "Disallow: /". The token is case-insensitive. Changes can take up to 24 hours to be picked up. How can I verify a request really comes from YandexMedia? Yes. Run a reverse DNS lookup on the request IP; a real YandexMedia request resolves to yandex.ru, yandex.net, yandex.com, and a forward lookup of that hostname returns the same IP. How do I see if YandexMedia visits my website? Search your server access log for "YandexMedia", for example with: grep -i "YandexMedia" access.log. The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits per AI bot from an uploaded log file. Last reviewed October 19, 2026 by [Justin Hà](https://justinha.info.vn/about/). Source: [Yandex crawler documentation](https://yandex.com/support/webmaster/en/robot-workings/check-yandex-robots). ## Related bots - [YaDirectFetcher](https://justinha.info.vn/bots/platform-fetchers/yadirectfetcher/) Yandex · Ads and Platform Fetchers - [YandexAccessibilityBot](https://justinha.info.vn/bots/search-engines/yandexaccessibilitybot/) Yandex · Search Engine Crawlers - [YandexAdditional](https://justinha.info.vn/bots/ai-crawlers/yandexadditional/) Yandex · AI Training Crawlers - [YandexAdNet](https://justinha.info.vn/bots/platform-fetchers/yandexadnet/) Yandex · Ads and Platform Fetchers - [YandexBlogs](https://justinha.info.vn/bots/search-engines/yandexblogs/) Yandex · Search Engine Crawlers - [YandexBot](https://justinha.info.vn/bots/search-engines/yandexbot/) Yandex · Search Engine Crawlers ## 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. [Analyze your AI bot traffic free](https://justinha.info.vn/ai-log-file-analyzer-tool/) [See the GEO Technical Package](https://justinha.info.vn/geo-ai-branding/technical-package/)