Tumblr user agent
Operated by Automattic
Tumblr is the user agent Tumblr uses to fetch pages linked in posts for previews.
The Tumblr bot at a glance
- Tumblr is operated by Automattic and reads page titles, descriptions and images to build link previews.
- The robots.txt token for Tumblr is Tumblr.
- Blocking a social preview bot has no effect on search rankings.
- Tumblr robots.txt support: Not documented.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Allow.
What is Tumblr?
Tumblr reads a linked page to build the link post preview.
Automattic has not published a crawler page for this user agent.
Should you block Tumblr?
Allow Tumblr 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 Tumblr
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 Tumblr is matched case-insensitively. robots.txt alone may not stop Tumblr, so add the Nginx, Apache or Cloudflare rule as well.
robots.txt: block
# Block Tumblr
User-agent: Tumblr
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow Tumblr
User-agent: Tumblr
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep Tumblr out of private areas only
User-agent: Tumblr
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to Tumblr
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(Tumblr)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to Tumblr
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (Tumblr) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "Tumblr")How to verify real Tumblr traffic
Automattic publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for Tumblr, 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 Tumblr in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts Tumblr requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "Tumblr" 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.
Tumblr user agent string
The full user agent Automattic publishes for Tumblr. Version numbers such as Chrome/W.X.Y.Z change over time, so match the token, not the whole string.
Tumblr/14.0.835.186Tumblr FAQ
Tumblr identifies itself with the robots.txt token "Tumblr". A typical request header reads: Tumblr/14.0.835.186
Automattic has not documented how Tumblr 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: Tumblr" followed by "Disallow: /". The token is case-insensitive. Changes can take up to 24 hours to be picked up.
Not reliably. Automattic publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for Tumblr, so anyone can send the same user agent. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
Search your server access log for "Tumblr", for example with: grep -i "Tumblr" 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.
