01 · Operator
Who operates msnbot
- Company
- Microsoft Corporation
- Official docs
- search.msn.com
02 · Behavior
What msnbot does
msnbot crawled web pages for Microsoft's search index. Variants such as msnbot-media, msnbot-NewsBlogs and msnbot-Products crawled specific content types. Bot databases now group it with Bingbot. Requests with this user agent today may be fakes.
03 · Impact
Why msnbot matters for your site
If you allow it
- Historically fed Microsoft's search index
If you block it
- Microsoft now crawls with Bingbot
- Current requests with this name may be spoofed
04 · Allow
How to allow msnbot
robots.txt
User-agent: msnbot
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "msnbot")
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: msnbot
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "msnbot") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} msnbot [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block msnbot
Start with robots.txt. If msnbot keeps showing up in your logs, block it at your CDN or web server.
robots.txt
User-agent: msnbot
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "msnbot")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: msnbot
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "msnbot") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} msnbot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for msnbot
The user agent published by the operator:
msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)07 · Verification
Is it really msnbot?
msnbot’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 msnbot
Is msnbot still active?
Microsoft's search crawler today is Bingbot. Treat new msnbot requests with caution and verify their IP.
Should I block msnbot?
Blocking msnbot does not affect Bingbot. Keep Bingbot allowed if you want to appear in Bing.
Last reviewed Oct 8, 2026