Cliqzbot: Is It Still Active? What It Is & How to Block It

01 · Operator

Who operates Cliqzbot

Company: Cliqz GmbH (defunct)
Type: Search engine crawler

02 · Behavior

What Cliqzbot does

Cliqz ran its own search index for suggestions in its browser. The company was majority-owned by Hubert Burda Media. Its search technology was later acquired by Brave. Current requests with this name are unlikely to come from Cliqz.

03 · Impact

Why Cliqzbot matters for your site

If you allow it

None today; the search engine no longer exists

If you block it

Operator shut down in 2020
Current traffic is likely fake

04 · Allow

How to allow Cliqzbot

robots.txt

User-agent: Cliqzbot
Allow: /

Cloudflare

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

nginx

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

Apache

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

05 · Block

How to block Cliqzbot

Start with robots.txt. If Cliqzbot keeps showing up in your logs, block it at your CDN or web server.

robots.txt

User-agent: Cliqzbot
Disallow: /

Cloudflare

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

nginx

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

Apache

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

06 · User agents

User agents we see for Cliqzbot

The user agent published by the operator:

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Cliqzbot/2.0; +http://cliqz.com/company/cliqzbot)

07 · Verification

Is it really Cliqzbot?

Cliqzbot’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 Cliqzbot

Is Cliqzbot still active?

No. Cliqz announced on April 29, 2020 that it would shut down its browser and search engine.

Should I block Cliqzbot?

Yes, it is safe to block. Add 'User-agent: Cliqzbot' with 'Disallow: /' to robots.txt.

What happened to Cliqz search?

Its search technology, renamed Tailcat, was acquired by Brave after the shutdown.

Cliqzbot was Cliqz GmbH (defunct)’s search engine crawler