redditbot user agent
Operated by Reddit
redditbot is the fetcher Reddit uses to read pages linked in posts, for thumbnails and previews.
The redditbot bot at a glance
- redditbot is operated by Reddit and reads page titles, descriptions and images to build link previews.
- The robots.txt token for redditbot is redditbot.
- Blocking a social preview bot has no effect on search rankings.
- redditbot robots.txt support: Not documented.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Allow.
What is redditbot?
redditbot loads a linked page to pick a title, thumbnail and preview for the Reddit post.
Reddit has not published a crawler page for redditbot.
Should you block redditbot?
Allow redditbot unless it causes a measurable load problem.
| Effect on search rankings | Blocking a social preview bot has no effect on search rankings. |
|---|---|
| Effect on AI visibility | No direct effect on AI answers, but shared links lose their title, image and description, which usually lowers clicks from social and chat apps. |
| Follows robots.txt | Not documented |
| Recommendation | Allow |
How to block or allow redditbot
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 redditbot is matched case-insensitively. robots.txt alone may not stop redditbot, so add the Nginx, Apache or Cloudflare rule as well.
robots.txt: block
# Block redditbot
User-agent: redditbot
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow redditbot
User-agent: redditbot
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep redditbot out of private areas only
User-agent: redditbot
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to redditbot
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(redditbot)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to redditbot
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (redditbot) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "redditbot")How to verify real redditbot traffic
Reddit publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for redditbot, 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 redditbot in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts redditbot requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "redditbot" 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.
redditbot user agent string
The full user agent Reddit publishes for redditbot. Version numbers such as Chrome/W.X.Y.Z change over time, so match the token, not the whole string.
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; redditbot/1.0; +http://www.reddit.com/feedback)redditbot FAQ
redditbot identifies itself with the robots.txt token "redditbot". A typical request header reads: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; redditbot/1.0; +http://www.reddit.com/feedback)
Reddit has not documented how redditbot treats robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule and back it with a server rule if the traffic matters to you.
Blocking a social preview bot has no effect on search rankings. No direct effect on AI answers, but shared links lose their title, image and description, which usually lowers clicks from social and chat apps.
Add two lines to the robots.txt file at the root of each domain and subdomain: "User-agent: redditbot" followed by "Disallow: /". The token is case-insensitive. Changes can take up to 24 hours to be picked up.
Not reliably. Reddit publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for redditbot, so anyone can send the same user agent. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
Search your server access log for "redditbot", for example with: grep -i "redditbot" 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.
