What is AdsBot-Google? Google's advertising crawler
AdsBot-Google checks the quality of web pages used in Google Ads.
2 of the 1662 major websites we measure block AdsBot-Google in robots.txt (0%). 110 of those sites name it directly in their robots.txt; the rest are covered by a wildcard rule.
Key facts
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Operator | |
| Used for | Google Ads |
| Type | Advertising. Checks or classifies pages for an advertising service. It isn't counted in the AI crawler figures. |
| robots.txt token | AdsBot-Google |
| Operator's documentation | Read it here |
What blocking AdsBot-Google does
Google says AdsBot-Google ignores the * group in robots.txt, so only a group that names it applies. The figures below count it that way.
How to allow or block AdsBot-Google
Add one of these groups to the robots.txt file at the root of your domain. It is a stated preference that well-behaved crawlers read, not an enforcement mechanism.
User-agent: AdsBot-Google Disallow: /
User-agent: AdsBot-Google Allow: /
AdsBot-Google user agent string
The string Google documents. Version numbers can change, so match on the name.
AdsBot-Google (+http://www.google.com/adsbot.html)
How to verify a request is really AdsBot-Google
Anyone can put a crawler's name in a user agent string, so the name alone proves nothing. We did not find a published IP list or reverse DNS rule from Google.
How to whitelist AdsBot-Google in a firewall or CDN
robots.txt only states a preference. A firewall, CDN or bot protection service can still refuse the request, and the crawler then gets an error even though robots.txt allows it.
- Check that no group in your robots.txt blocks it, using the rule above.
- Add an allow rule in your firewall or CDN that matches the name in the user agent. Keep the rule narrow, because anyone can copy a name.
- Check your server logs for a 200 response from AdsBot-Google afterwards.
On Cloudflare, also check AI Crawler and Agent access policies, which can block search, agent and training traffic across a site.
Why AdsBot-Google gets a 403 or 405 error
A 403 means the server refused the request, which usually points to a firewall or bot rule. A 405 means the server refused the request's method, so check any rule that only permits certain methods. A crawler that obeys robots.txt won't request a page it is told to avoid, so an error in your logs points to your server's configuration. To stop it deliberately at the server, this nginx rule returns a 403:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "AdsBot-Google") {
return 403;
}Who blocks AdsBot-Google, by sector
| Sector | Sites measured | Blocking | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI companies | 128 | 1 | 1% |
| Government and institutions | 98 | 1 | 1% |
| Developer references | 159 | 0 | 0% |
| E-commerce and retail | 92 | 0 | 0% |
| Finance and business media | 94 | 0 | 0% |
| Health publishers | 88 | 0 | 0% |
| Hosting and infrastructure | 98 | 0 | 0% |
| News publishers | 182 | 0 | 0% |
| Reference and research | 114 | 0 | 0% |
| SaaS platforms | 196 | 0 | 0% |
| SEO and marketing tools | 86 | 0 | 0% |
| Social and media platforms | 115 | 0 | 0% |
| Technology media | 126 | 0 | 0% |
| Travel | 86 | 0 | 0% |
Sites blocking AdsBot-Google
Sites that allow AdsBot-Google by name
adobe.com, agoda.com, apollo.io, audible.com, autotrader.com, aws.amazon.com, babycenter.com, barrons.com, bestbuy.com, booking.com, boots.com, britannica.com, canva.com, cdiscount.com, channel4.com, chatgpt.com, chewy.com, clickup.com, coinbase.com, coursera.org, deepl.com, devclass.com, digicert.com, disneyplus.com, ebay.co.uk, ebay.com, ecwid.com, eltiempo.com, eluniversal.com.mx, equifax.com, expedia.com, fentybeauty.com, fidelity.com, flickr.com, flipkart.com, flywheel.com, getyourguide.com, github.com, globeandmail.com, glossier.com, and 68 more in the full dataset.
Other Google crawlers
Google-Extended (Gemini training control), GoogleOther (research and development fetch), Google-CloudVertexBot (Vertex AI on-demand fetch), Google-Agent (agents acting for users), Google-GeminiNotebook (user-added sources), Googlebot (search indexing), Googlebot-Image (image indexing), Googlebot-Video (video indexing), Googlebot-News (news indexing), Storebot-Google (shopping crawl), Google-InspectionTool (search testing tools), GoogleOther-Image (image fetch for research), GoogleOther-Video (video fetch for research), AdsBot-Google-Mobile (mobile ad quality), Mediapartners-Google (ad matching), APIs-Google (API push notifications), Google-CWS (Chrome Web Store checks), FeedFetcher-Google (feed retrieval), GoogleMessages (link preview), Google-Pinpoint (user-added documents), GoogleProducer (publisher feeds), Google-Read-Aloud (read aloud on request), Google-Site-Verification (site verification).
See all 36 AI crawlers, the rule change log or the full study. Being reachable is only the first step: how AI search engines choose what to cite covers the rest.
Cite this data
You are welcome to quote or republish these figures. Please credit IndexHalo with a link to this page (CC BY 4.0). All our datasets are on the data page.
IndexHalo. "AdsBot-Google block rate across major websites." Measured 12 November 2026. https://www.indexhalo.com/ai-crawlers/adsbot-google/
<a href="https://www.indexhalo.com/ai-crawlers/adsbot-google/">AdsBot-Google block rate across major websites, IndexHalo</a>