01 · Operator
Who operates IAS Crawler
- Company
- Integral Ad Science, Inc.
- Type
- Other bot
- Official docs
- integralads.com
02 · Behavior
What IAS Crawler does
The crawler fetches pages and analyzes them with machine learning. IAS uses the results to rate content for advertising clients. Related user agents include ias_wombles and the ias-xx fetchers from ADmantX, which now redirects to IAS.
03 · Impact
Why IAS Crawler matters for your site
If you allow it
- Can keep your pages eligible for brand-safe ad campaigns
- Follows the robots.txt standard
- Publishes its IP addresses
If you block it
- No search visibility benefit
- Fetches pages for a commercial ad-tech product
04 · Allow
How to allow IAS Crawler
robots.txt
User-agent: ias_crawler
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "ias_crawler")
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: ias_crawler
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "ias_crawler") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ias_crawler [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block IAS Crawler
IAS Crawler follows robots.txt, so one rule is enough. Use a server or CDN rule only to stop spoofed copies.
robots.txt
User-agent: ias_crawler
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "ias_crawler")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: ias_crawler
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "ias_crawler") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ias_crawler [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for IAS Crawler
The user agent published by the operator:
IAS Crawler (ias_crawler; http://integralads.com/site-indexing-policy/)07 · Verification
Is it really IAS Crawler?
Anyone can copy a user agent. Real IAS Crawler requests come from the IP ranges published at integralads.com/policy-docs/iasbot.json.
FAQ
Questions about IAS Crawler
What is the IAS Crawler?
It is Integral Ad Science's crawler. It rates page content for advertisers' brand-safety and verification needs.
Does IAS Crawler respect robots.txt?
Yes. IAS states that its crawlers follow the Standard for Robot Exclusion.
How can I verify IAS Crawler?
Compare the request IP with the list IAS publishes at integralads.com/policy-docs/iasbot.json.
Last reviewed Oct 8, 2026