Google-Apps-Script User Agent: What It Is & How to Block It

01 · Operator

Who operates Google-Apps-Script

Company: Google
Type: Other bot
Official docs: developers.google.com

02 · Behavior

What Google-Apps-Script does

Developers write scripts that fetch URLs through the UrlFetchApp service. Each request comes from someone's automation, not from one Google crawler. Requests run on Google infrastructure, but the intent depends on the script's author.

03 · Impact

Why Google-Apps-Script matters for your site

If you allow it

May be a feed, sheet or integration you or a partner built
Usually low volume

If you block it

Anyone can run scripts, including scrapers
No way to tell scripts apart by user agent

04 · Allow

How to allow Google-Apps-Script

robots.txt

User-agent: Google-Apps-Script
Allow: /

Cloudflare

# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Google-Apps-Script")
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: Google-Apps-Script
Allow: /

nginx

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

Apache

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

05 · Block

How to block Google-Apps-Script

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

robots.txt

User-agent: Google-Apps-Script
Disallow: /

Cloudflare

# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Google-Apps-Script")
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: Google-Apps-Script
Disallow: /

nginx

# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "Google\-Apps\-Script") {
    return 403;
}

Apache

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

06 · User agents

User agents we see for Google-Apps-Script

The user agent published by the operator:

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Google-Apps-Script; beanserver; +https://script.google.com; id: UAEmdDd_XLoqpGxtGfu5uvUaQlW77VLYz-w)

07 · Verification

Is it really Google-Apps-Script?

Google-Apps-Script’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 Google-Apps-Script

Is Google-Apps-Script a Google crawler?

No. It marks requests sent by user-written Google Apps Script code via UrlFetchApp.

Why is Google-Apps-Script hitting my site?

Someone's script is fetching your pages, for example to import data into a spreadsheet.

Can I block Google-Apps-Script?

Yes, block requests with this user agent on your server. robots.txt support is not documented.

Google-Apps-Script is Google’s other bot