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Social preview bot · Yahoo

YahooMailProxy is Yahoo’s social preview bot

YahooMailProxy is a Yahoo content fetch proxy. It retrieves content of URLs embedded in emails sent to Yahoo Mail users.

Verifiable operator

Our take

Allow

Blocking it can break images and content in emails your recipients open in Yahoo Mail.

User agent

YahooMailProxy; https://senders.yahooinc.com/mail-proxy-servers

01 · Operator

Who operates YahooMailProxy

Company
Yahoo
Official docs
senders.yahooinc.com

02 · Behavior

What YahooMailProxy does

When an email to a Yahoo Mail user contains URLs, this proxy fetches their content. Yahoo publishes the IPv4 and IPv6 ranges it uses. The current documented user agent links to senders.yahooinc.com.

03 · Impact

Why YahooMailProxy matters for your site

If you allow it

  • Needed for your email content to display in Yahoo Mail
  • Published IP ranges make it easy to verify

If you block it

  • No search visibility

04 · Allow

How to allow YahooMailProxy

robots.txt

# YahooMailProxy 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 "YahooMailProxy")
Action:     Skip › All Super Bot Fight Mode rules

# Also check Security › Bots: "Block AI bots" can block it regardless of robots.txt.

WordPress

# YahooMailProxy 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 ~* "YahooMailProxy") { return 403; }

Apache

# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} YahooMailProxy [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]

05 · Block

How to block YahooMailProxy

Start with robots.txt. If YahooMailProxy keeps showing up in your logs, block it at your CDN or web server.

robots.txt

# YahooMailProxy 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 "YahooMailProxy")
Action:     Block

WordPress

# YahooMailProxy 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 ~* "YahooMailProxy") {
    return 403;
}

Apache

# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} YahooMailProxy [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>

06 · User agents

User agents we see for YahooMailProxy

The user agent published by the operator:

YahooMailProxy; https://senders.yahooinc.com/mail-proxy-servers

07 · Verification

Is it really YahooMailProxy?

Anyone can copy a user agent. Real YahooMailProxy requests come from the IP ranges published at senders.yahooinc.com/mail-proxy-servers/.

FAQ

Questions about YahooMailProxy

What is YahooMailProxy?

It is a Yahoo proxy that fetches the content of URLs embedded in emails sent to Yahoo Mail users.

How do I verify YahooMailProxy?

Compare the request IP with the IPv4 and IPv6 ranges Yahoo publishes on its Mail Proxy Servers page.

Should I block YahooMailProxy?

Usually not. Blocking it can stop email content hosted on your server from loading for Yahoo Mail users.

Last updated Oct 14, 2026

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