01 · Operator
Who operates Googlebot-Video
- Company
- Official docs
- developers.google.com
02 · Behavior
What Googlebot-Video does
It fetches video files and video-related resources it finds on web pages. Google uses the data for video features in Search and other video-dependent products. Google says it always obeys robots.txt when crawling automatically.
03 · Impact
Why Googlebot-Video matters for your site
If you allow it
- Videos can appear in Google video results and features
- Verifiable through Google's IP list and reverse DNS
If you block it
- You do not want your videos shown in Google Search features
- You want to reduce bandwidth from video fetches
04 · Allow
How to allow Googlebot-Video
robots.txt
User-agent: Googlebot-Video
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Googlebot-Video")
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-Video
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "Googlebot\-Video") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Googlebot\-Video [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block Googlebot-Video
Googlebot-Video follows robots.txt, so one rule is enough. Use a server or CDN rule only to stop spoofed copies.
robots.txt
User-agent: Googlebot-Video
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Googlebot-Video")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: Googlebot-Video
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "Googlebot\-Video") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Googlebot\-Video [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for Googlebot-Video
The user agent published by the operator:
Googlebot-Video/1.007 · Verification
Is it really Googlebot-Video?
Anyone can copy a user agent. Real Googlebot-Video 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-Video
How do I block Googlebot-Video?
Add a robots.txt group with User-agent: Googlebot-Video and Disallow: /. Google says this crawler always obeys robots.txt.
Does blocking Googlebot-Video affect normal web search?
It affects video-related Search features. The main Googlebot uses its own token and is not blocked by this rule.
How can I verify a real Googlebot-Video request?
Match the IP against Google's common-crawlers.json list or use reverse DNS. Genuine hosts end in googlebot.com or geo.googlebot.com.
Last reviewed Oct 7, 2026