01 · Operator
Who operates FaviconAPI
- Company
- Vemetric
- Type
- Other bot
- Official docs
- vemetric.com
02 · Behavior
What FaviconAPI does
FaviconAPI fetches the favicon for any domain passed to Vemetric's API. It reads the icon declared in the site's HTML. Requests are on demand, not a crawl. The API is open source and can be self-hosted, so requests may come from other servers.
03 · Impact
Why FaviconAPI matters for your site
If you allow it
- Your site icon displays correctly in apps using the API
- Requests are on demand and low in volume
If you block it
- It brings no traffic
- No verification method is published
04 · Allow
How to allow FaviconAPI
robots.txt
# FaviconAPI has no documented robots.txt token and does not read robots.txt.
# Use a Cloudflare, nginx or Apache rule instead.
Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "FaviconAPI")
Action: Skip › All Super Bot Fight Mode rules
# Also check Security › Bots: "Block AI bots" can block it regardless of robots.txt.
WordPress
# FaviconAPI has no documented robots.txt token and does not read robots.txt.
# Use a Cloudflare, nginx or Apache rule instead.
nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "FaviconAPI") { return 403; }
Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} FaviconAPI [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
05 · Block
How to block FaviconAPI
Start with robots.txt. If FaviconAPI keeps showing up in your logs, block it at your CDN or web server.
robots.txt
# FaviconAPI has no documented robots.txt token and does not read robots.txt.
# Use a Cloudflare, nginx or Apache rule instead.
Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "FaviconAPI")
Action: Block
WordPress
# FaviconAPI has no documented robots.txt token and does not read robots.txt.
# Use a Cloudflare, nginx or Apache rule instead.
nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "FaviconAPI") {
return 403;
}
Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} FaviconAPI [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>
06 · User agents
User agents we see for FaviconAPI
The user agent published by the operator:
FaviconAPI/1.0 (+https://vemetric.com/favicon-api)
07 · Verification
Is it really FaviconAPI?
FaviconAPI’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 FaviconAPI
What is FaviconAPI?
It is the fetcher of Vemetric's free favicon API. It retrieves a site's favicon when the API is called for that domain.
Does FaviconAPI crawl my site?
No. It fetches on demand when someone calls the API with your domain.
Can FaviconAPI requests come from other operators?
Yes. The API is open source and can be self-hosted with Docker, so others may run it.
Last updated Oct 19, 2026