01 · Operator
Who operates Google-Read-Aloud
- Company
- Type
- Other bot
- Official docs
- developers.google.com
02 · Behavior
What Google-Read-Aloud does
When a user asks, Google Read Aloud fetches a web page and reads it out with text-to-speech. It is a user-triggered fetcher, not a crawler. Google says such fetchers generally ignore robots.txt. Its former user agent was google-speakr.
03 · Impact
Why Google-Read-Aloud matters for your site
If you allow it
- Makes your pages accessible to users who listen instead of read
- Only fetches on user request
- Verifiable by Google IP lists and reverse DNS
If you block it
- Generally ignores robots.txt
- Some publishers restrict automated access to their text
04 · Allow
How to allow Google-Read-Aloud
robots.txt
User-agent: Google-Read-Aloud
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Google-Read-Aloud")
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-Read-Aloud
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "Google\-Read\-Aloud") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Google\-Read\-Aloud [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block Google-Read-Aloud
Google-Read-Aloud has been reported to ignore robots.txt. Block it at your CDN or web server as well.
robots.txt
# Google-Read-Aloud has been reported to ignore robots.txt.
# Add a Cloudflare, nginx or Apache rule as well.
User-agent: Google-Read-Aloud
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Google-Read-Aloud")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: Google-Read-Aloud
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "Google\-Read\-Aloud") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Google\-Read\-Aloud [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for Google-Read-Aloud
The user agent published by the operator:
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 10; K) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/138.0.0.0 Mobile Safari/537.36 (compatible; Google-Read-Aloud; +https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1061943)07 · Verification
Is it really Google-Read-Aloud?
Anyone can copy a user agent. Real Google-Read-Aloud requests come from the IP ranges published at developers.google.com/static/crawling/ipranges/user-triggered-fetchers-google.json. A reverse DNS lookup of a real request resolves to gae.googleusercontent.com</code>, <code>google.com, and that hostname resolves back to the same IP.
FAQ
Questions about Google-Read-Aloud
What is Google-Read-Aloud?
It is Google's text-to-speech fetcher. On user request, it fetches a web page and reads it out loud.
Does Google-Read-Aloud respect robots.txt?
Generally no. Google says user-triggered fetchers generally ignore robots.txt because a user requested the fetch.
What was Google-Read-Aloud called before?
Google lists google-speakr as its deprecated user agent.
Last reviewed Oct 7, 2026