01 · Operator
Who operates Googlebot-Image
- Company
- Official docs
- developers.google.com
02 · Behavior
What Googlebot-Image does
It fetches image URLs found on web pages. The data feeds Google Images, Discover, Google Video and Search features that show images, logos and favicons. Google says it always obeys robots.txt when crawling automatically. It crawls from Google's published common-crawler IP ranges.
03 · Impact
Why Googlebot-Image matters for your site
If you allow it
- Images can appear in Google Images and Discover
- Logos and favicons show correctly in Search results
- Verifiable through Google's IP list and reverse DNS
If you block it
- You do not want images to appear in Google search features
- You want to save bandwidth on large image libraries
04 · Allow
How to allow Googlebot-Image
robots.txt
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Googlebot-Image")
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: Googlebot-Image
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "Googlebot\-Image") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Googlebot\-Image [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block Googlebot-Image
Googlebot-Image follows robots.txt, so one rule is enough. Use a server or CDN rule only to stop spoofed copies.
robots.txt
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Googlebot-Image")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "Googlebot\-Image") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Googlebot\-Image [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for Googlebot-Image
The user agent published by the operator:
Googlebot-Image/1.007 · Verification
Is it really Googlebot-Image?
Anyone can copy a user agent. Real Googlebot-Image requests come from the IP ranges published at developers.google.com/static/crawling/ipranges/common-crawlers.json. A reverse DNS lookup of a real request resolves to googlebot.com</code>, <code>geo.googlebot.com, and that hostname resolves back to the same IP.
FAQ
Questions about Googlebot-Image
How do I block Googlebot-Image?
Add a robots.txt group with User-agent: Googlebot-Image and a Disallow rule. Google says this crawler always obeys robots.txt.
Is Googlebot-Image the same as Googlebot?
No. It is a separate Google crawler with its own token for image crawling. Blocking it does not block the main Googlebot.
How can I verify a real Googlebot-Image request?
Check the IP against Google's common-crawlers.json list, or run reverse DNS. Real hosts end in googlebot.com or geo.googlebot.com.
Last reviewed Oct 7, 2026