What is Omgilibot? Webz.io's AI crawler
Omgilibot is a crawler operated by Webz.io, a company that sells web data feeds.
59 of the 389 major websites we measure block Omgilibot in robots.txt (15%), making it number 11 of the 30 AI crawlers we track for how often it is blocked. 48 of those sites name it directly in their robots.txt; the rest are covered by a wildcard rule.
Key facts
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Operator | Webz.io |
| Used for | Webz.io's data feeds |
| Type | Model training. Collects content that may be used to train AI models. Blocking it does not usually remove a site from AI search. |
| robots.txt token | Omgilibot |
| Operator's documentation | Read it here |
What blocking Omgilibot does
IndexHalo classes it as a training dataset source because the collected data is supplied to other companies.
How to allow or block Omgilibot
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: Omgilibot Disallow: /
User-agent: Omgilibot Allow: /
Omgilibot user agent string
Webz.io's page doesn't list a full string, so look for Omgilibot in the user agent field of your logs.
How to verify a request is really Omgilibot
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 Webz.io.
How to whitelist Omgilibot 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 Omgilibot afterwards.
On Cloudflare, also check AI Crawler and Agent access policies, which can block search, agent and training traffic across a site.
Why Omgilibot 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 ~* "Omgilibot") {
return 403;
}Which sites recently changed their rules for Omgilibot?
| Date first seen | Site | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 31 August 2026 | fastcompany.com | Started blocking |
| 31 August 2026 | inc.com | Started blocking |
See the full change log.
Who blocks Omgilibot, by sector
| Sector | Sites measured | Blocking | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| News publishers | 44 | 27 | 61% |
| Social and media platforms | 28 | 9 | 32% |
| Finance and business media | 29 | 8 | 28% |
| Technology media | 25 | 6 | 24% |
| Reference and research | 25 | 3 | 12% |
| Health publishers | 16 | 1 | 6% |
| E-commerce and retail | 19 | 1 | 5% |
| Travel | 19 | 1 | 5% |
| AI companies | 28 | 1 | 4% |
| SEO and marketing tools | 26 | 1 | 4% |
| SaaS platforms | 54 | 1 | 2% |
| Developer references | 34 | 0 | 0% |
| Government and institutions | 19 | 0 | 0% |
| Hosting and infrastructure | 23 | 0 | 0% |
Sites blocking Omgilibot
abcnews.go.com, academia.edu, arstechnica.com, asahi.com, barrons.com, bbc.co.uk, behance.net, buzzfeednews.com, cnbc.com, cnn.com, disneyplus.com, dw.com, elpais.com, fastcompany.com, figma.com, flickr.com, forbes.com, fortune.com, france24.com, ft.com, gizmodo.com, globeandmail.com, hackernoon.com, huffpost.com, hulu.com, imdb.com, inc.com, instacart.com, investopedia.com, jasper.ai, latimes.com, lemonde.fr, marketwatch.com, nature.com, nbcnews.com, netflix.com, newsweek.com, nytimes.com, pinterest.com, reddit.com, reuters.com, sciencedirect.com, searchenginejournal.com, smh.com.au, spiegel.de, telegraph.co.uk, theage.com.au, theatlantic.com, theregister.com, thetimes.co.uk, theverge.com, travelandleisure.com, usatoday.com, verywellhealth.com, vimeo.com, vox.com, washingtonpost.com, wsj.com, zdnet.com.
Sites that allow Omgilibot by name
soundcloud.com, squarespace.com, stability.ai.
See all 30 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. "Omgilibot block rate across major websites." Measured 3 November 2026. https://www.indexhalo.com/ai-crawlers/omgilibot/
<a href="https://www.indexhalo.com/ai-crawlers/omgilibot/">Omgilibot block rate across major websites, IndexHalo</a>