01 · Operator
Who operates AhrefsBot
- Company
- Ahrefs
- Type
- SEO tool crawler
- Official docs
- ahrefs.com
02 · Behavior
What AhrefsBot does
AhrefsBot crawls the web automatically to build the Ahrefs database, which also powers the Yep search engine. It obeys robots.txt and Crawl-delay for HTML pages; when rendering JavaScript it may fetch several assets at once. It is not triggered by individual users.
03 · Impact
Why AhrefsBot matters for your site
If you allow it
- Your backlinks and pages show up correctly in Ahrefs data used by marketers
- Helps your pages appear in Yep search
If you block it
- Competitors can use Ahrefs to analyze your site
- Crawl load with no direct traffic from Ahrefs itself
04 · Allow
How to allow AhrefsBot
robots.txt
User-agent: AhrefsBot
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "AhrefsBot")
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: AhrefsBot
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "AhrefsBot") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} AhrefsBot [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block AhrefsBot
AhrefsBot follows robots.txt, so one rule is enough. Use a server or CDN rule only to stop spoofed copies.
robots.txt
User-agent: AhrefsBot
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "AhrefsBot")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: AhrefsBot
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "AhrefsBot") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} AhrefsBot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for AhrefsBot
The user agent published by the operator:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; AhrefsBot/7.0; +http://ahrefs.com/robot/)07 · Verification
Is it really AhrefsBot?
Anyone can copy a user agent. Real AhrefsBot requests come from the IP ranges published at api.ahrefs.com/v3/public/crawler-ip-ranges. A reverse DNS lookup of a real request resolves to ahrefs.com</code>, <code>ahrefs.net, and that hostname resolves back to the same IP.
FAQ
Questions about AhrefsBot
Does blocking AhrefsBot affect Google rankings?
No. AhrefsBot only feeds Ahrefs and Yep; Google uses its own crawler, Googlebot.
Does AhrefsBot obey Crawl-delay?
Yes, for HTML pages. Ahrefs notes crawl-delay cannot be followed when rendering JavaScript, so asset requests may arrive more often.
How do I verify AhrefsBot?
Check that reverse DNS ends in ahrefs.com or ahrefs.net, or match the IP against the ranges at api.ahrefs.com/v3/public/crawler-ip-ranges.
Last reviewed Oct 6, 2026