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GoogleOther user agent

Operated by Google · Research · Other crawlers

robots.txt token
GoogleOther

GoogleOther identifies itself with the token GoogleOther. That is the case-insensitive substring to grep for in access logs, and the exact name to put after User-agent: in robots.txt. It crawls for research and dataset work rather than a consumer product.

Allow or block GoogleOther in robots.txt

Robots.txt applies the most specific matching group, so a group naming GoogleOther overrides your User-agent: * rules for this bot alone.

Allow
User-agent: GoogleOther
Allow: /
Block
User-agent: GoogleOther
Disallow: /

What blocking costs you: Google's research crawlers (separate from Search and Google-Extended) can't reach you.

To see which AI crawlers your robots.txt allows right now, run your domain through the AI crawler access checker. To check whether AI answers actually cite you, use the AI citation checker.

Google's other crawlers

Blocking one Google bot does not block the others — each token is a separate group.

Google's own documentation: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/overview-google-crawlers#googleother

FAQ

What is the GoogleOther user agent?
GoogleOther announces itself with the User-Agent token "GoogleOther". That token is the case-insensitive substring to match in server logs and the exact name to put after "User-agent:" in robots.txt. Google does not publish one fixed full string, so match on the token rather than the whole line.
Who operates GoogleOther and what does it collect?
GoogleOther is run by Google and crawls for research and dataset work rather than a consumer product. In the AI picture that puts it under "Other crawlers": Non-AI crawl infrastructure — excluded from your AI picture.
How do I block GoogleOther?
Add a robots.txt group naming the token exactly: User-agent: GoogleOther followed by Disallow: /. Robots.txt matches the most specific group, so a GoogleOther group overrides whatever your User-agent: * group says. Google's research crawlers (separate from Search and Google-Extended) can't reach you.
Should I block GoogleOther?
That depends on what you lose. Google's research crawlers (separate from Search and Google-Extended) can't reach you. Sites chasing AI citations usually keep the live-answer and AI-search bots open and make a separate decision about the training crawlers. Run your domain through the AI crawler access checker to see which ones your robots.txt lets in today.
Can GoogleOther be spoofed?
Yes. A User-Agent header is self-reported, so any scraper can claim to be GoogleOther. The token is fine for reporting and for robots.txt, but if you are rate-limiting or firewalling on it, verify the request IP against Google's published ranges before you trust the name.

Paste a full User-Agent line and identify any crawler with the AI bot user agent list and lookup, or see every token side by side.