01 · Operator
Who operates ImagesiftBot
- Type
- AI training crawler
- Official docs
- imagesift.com
02 · Behavior
What ImagesiftBot does
The bot scrapes publicly available images from the web. It stores the page URL, page text and image alt text. ImageSift uses this data for its web intelligence products.
03 · Impact
Why ImagesiftBot matters for your site
If you allow it
- Respects robots.txt and crawl-delay
- Identifies itself with an info URL
If you block it
- No search traffic in return
- Collects images and text for a commercial AI product
04 · Allow
How to allow ImagesiftBot
robots.txt
User-agent: ImagesiftBot
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "ImagesiftBot")
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: ImagesiftBot
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "ImagesiftBot") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ImagesiftBot [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block ImagesiftBot
ImagesiftBot follows robots.txt, so one rule is enough. Use a server or CDN rule only to stop spoofed copies.
robots.txt
User-agent: ImagesiftBot
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "ImagesiftBot")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: ImagesiftBot
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "ImagesiftBot") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ImagesiftBot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for ImagesiftBot
The user agent published by the operator:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; ImagesiftBot; +imagesift.com)07 · Verification
Is it really ImagesiftBot?
ImagesiftBot’s operator publishes no IP ranges or hostnames, so requests cannot be verified. Treat the user agent as a claim, and watch your logs for unusual request rates.
FAQ
Questions about ImagesiftBot
Does ImagesiftBot respect robots.txt?
Yes. It follows rules for ImagesiftBot and supports crawl-delay. Without such rules it falls back to your Googlebot rules.
Who operates ImagesiftBot?
It is run by ImageSift, a product of Hive (Castle Global, Inc.).
How do I opt out of ImagesiftBot?
Disallow ImagesiftBot in robots.txt, or email support@imagesift.com to opt out.
Last reviewed Oct 8, 2026