What is APIs-Google? Google's service crawler

None of the 1662 major websites we measure block APIs-Google in robots.txt. 7 of those sites name it directly in their robots.txt; the rest are covered by a wildcard rule.

Key facts

What blocking APIs-Google does

Google says APIs-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 APIs-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: APIs-Google
Disallow: /

User-agent: APIs-Google
Allow: /

APIs-Google user agent string

The string Google documents. Version numbers can change, so match on the name.

APIs-Google (+https://developers.google.com/webmasters/APIs-Google.html)

How to verify a request is really APIs-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 APIs-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.

1. Check that no group in your robots.txt blocks it, using the rule above.
2. 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.
3. Check your server logs for a 200 response from APIs-Google afterwards.

On Cloudflare, also check AI Crawler and Agent access policies, which can block search, agent and training traffic across a site.

Why APIs-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 ~* "APIs-Google") {
    return 403;
}

Who blocks APIs-Google, by sector

Sites that allow APIs-Google by name

academia.edu, hertz.com, news.com.au, pinterest.com, thesun.co.uk, thetimes.co.uk, zeit.de.

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), AdsBot-Google (ad quality), Mediapartners-Google (ad matching), 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.

IndexHalo. "APIs-Google block rate across major websites." Measured 12 November 2026. https://www.indexhalo.com/ai-crawlers/apis-google/

<a href="https://www.indexhalo.com/ai-crawlers/apis-google/">APIs-Google block rate across major websites, IndexHalo</a>