01 · Operator
Who operates Gigabot
- Company
- Gigablast, Inc.
- Official docs
- en.wikipedia.org
02 · Behavior
What Gigabot does
Gigablast ran its own web crawler to build an independent search index. Matt Wells developed the engine through Gigablast, Inc. in Albuquerque. The gigablast.com bot page now shows unrelated content.
03 · Impact
Why Gigabot matters for your site
If you allow it
- No current benefit
If you block it
- The search engine no longer exists
- Current requests under this name are likely spoofed
04 · Allow
How to allow Gigabot
robots.txt
User-agent: Gigabot
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Gigabot")
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: Gigabot
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "Gigabot") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Gigabot [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block Gigabot
Start with robots.txt. If Gigabot keeps showing up in your logs, block it at your CDN or web server.
robots.txt
User-agent: Gigabot
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Gigabot")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: Gigabot
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "Gigabot") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Gigabot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for Gigabot
The user agent published by the operator:
Gigabot/3.0 (http://www.gigablast.com/spider.html)07 · Verification
Is it really Gigabot?
Gigabot’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 Gigabot
Is Gigabot still active?
No. Gigablast went offline without notice in April 2023.
Should I block Gigabot?
Yes, there is no benefit. Requests claiming to be Gigabot today are unlikely to be genuine.
What was Gigablast?
It was an independent, open-source web search engine with its own crawler, founded in 2000.
Last reviewed Oct 7, 2026