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Search engine crawler · Yandex

YandexFavicons is Yandex’s search engine crawler

YandexFavicons is a Yandex robot that downloads site favicons for Yandex search results.

Verifiable operator Ignores robots.txt

Our take

Allow

It fetches only the favicon shown next to your site in Yandex results.

User agent

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexFavicons/1.0; +http://yandex.com/bots)

01 · Operator

Who operates YandexFavicons

Company
Yandex
Official docs
yandex.com

02 · Behavior

What YandexFavicons does

YandexFavicons fetches the favicon file of a site. Yandex shows it next to the site in search results. It does not follow robots.txt.

03 · Impact

Why YandexFavicons matters for your site

If you allow it

  • Shows your icon in Yandex search results
  • Very light traffic

If you block it

  • Ignores robots.txt

04 · Allow

How to allow YandexFavicons

robots.txt

User-agent: YandexFavicons
Allow: /

Cloudflare

# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "YandexFavicons")
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: YandexFavicons
Allow: /

nginx

# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "YandexFavicons") { return 403; }

Apache

# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} YandexFavicons [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]

05 · Block

How to block YandexFavicons

YandexFavicons has been reported to ignore robots.txt. Block it at your CDN or web server as well.

robots.txt

# YandexFavicons has been reported to ignore robots.txt.
# Add a Cloudflare, nginx or Apache rule as well.
User-agent: YandexFavicons
Disallow: /

Cloudflare

# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "YandexFavicons")
Action:     Block

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: YandexFavicons
Disallow: /

nginx

# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "YandexFavicons") {
    return 403;
}

Apache

# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} YandexFavicons [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>

06 · User agents

User agents we see for YandexFavicons

The user agent published by the operator:

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexFavicons/1.0; +http://yandex.com/bots)

07 · Verification

Is it really YandexFavicons?

Anyone can copy a user agent. A reverse DNS lookup of a real request resolves to yandex.ru</code>, <code>yandex.net</code>, <code>yandex.com, and that hostname resolves back to the same IP.

FAQ

Questions about YandexFavicons

Does YandexFavicons respect robots.txt?

No. Yandex documents that YandexFavicons does not follow robots.txt rules.

How do I block YandexFavicons?

Because it ignores robots.txt, you must block it by user agent on your server or firewall.

How can I verify that YandexFavicons is really from Yandex?

Run a reverse DNS lookup on the IP. The hostname must end in yandex.ru, yandex.net or yandex.com, and a forward lookup must return the same IP.

Last reviewed Oct 8, 2026

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