01 · Operator
Who operates Google-CloudVertexBot
- Company
- Type
- AI assistant fetcher
- Official docs
- developers.google.com
02 · Behavior
What Google-CloudVertexBot does
It performs crawls that site owners request when they build Vertex AI Agents on Google Cloud. Its crawling only affects Vertex AI Agents. It has no impact on Google Search. Google lists it among its common crawlers.
03 · Impact
Why Google-CloudVertexBot matters for your site
If you allow it
- Crawls are requested by the site owner
- Needed to build Vertex AI Agents from your own content
- No effect on Google Search visibility
If you block it
- You did not set up a Vertex AI Agent for the site
- You want to limit AI use of your content
04 · Allow
How to allow Google-CloudVertexBot
robots.txt
User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Google-CloudVertexBot")
Action: Skip › All Super Bot Fight Mode rules
# Also check Security › Bots: "Block AI bots" can block it regardless of robots.txt.WordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "Google\-CloudVertexBot") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Google\-CloudVertexBot [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block Google-CloudVertexBot
Google-CloudVertexBot follows robots.txt, so one rule is enough. Use a server or CDN rule only to stop spoofed copies.
robots.txt
User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Google-CloudVertexBot")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "Google\-CloudVertexBot") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Google\-CloudVertexBot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for Google-CloudVertexBot
The operator does not publish a full user agent string. Requests contain the token “Google-CloudVertexBot”.
07 · Verification
Is it really Google-CloudVertexBot?
Anyone can copy a user agent. Real Google-CloudVertexBot requests come from the IP ranges published at developers.google.com/static/crawling/ipranges/common-crawlers.json. A reverse DNS lookup of a real request resolves to googlebot.com</code>, <code>geo.googlebot.com, and that hostname resolves back to the same IP.
FAQ
Questions about Google-CloudVertexBot
What is Google-CloudVertexBot?
It is a Google crawler that fetches pages when site owners build Vertex AI Agents. It does not affect Google Search.
How do I block Google-CloudVertexBot?
Add a rule for user-agent Google-CloudVertexBot in robots.txt, for example Disallow: / or a specific path.
Does blocking Google-CloudVertexBot affect my Google rankings?
No. Google states the crawler only affects Vertex AI Agents and has no impact on Google Search.
Last reviewed Oct 8, 2026