What is Googlebot-Image?
Googlebot-Image is Google's image crawler. Google says rules addressed to it affect Google Images, Discover, Google Video and every Search feature that shows images, logos or favicons. If you have no Googlebot-Image group in robots.txt, it follows your Googlebot rules.
Last verified 2026-09-30 against the operator's documentation. All bots
Googlebot-Image at a glance
- Operator
- Type
- Search engine crawlers
- Purpose
- Crawls images for Google Images and image features in Search.
- robots.txt token
Googlebot-Image- Example user agent
Googlebot-Image/1.0- How to verify
- Run a reverse DNS lookup on the source IP and check that the name ends in googlebot.com (Google uses crawl-….googlebot.com and geo-crawl-….geo.googlebot.com), then run a forward lookup on that name and confirm it returns the same IP. Or check the IP against Google's common crawler ranges. A googleusercontent.com name does not count: any Google Cloud virtual machine can have one.
- Reverse DNS
- googlebot.com
- Operator documentation
- https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/google-common-crawlers
How often is Googlebot-Image impersonated?
For the median organisation, 1% of requests claiming to be Googlebot-Image failed verification.
Measured between 3 July 2026 and 28 September 2026 across organisations protected by Centinel. We only publish a share when at least five organisations each saw enough of these requests. Pooled across all of their requests, the share was under 1%: a few large organisations carry most of the traffic, so the median organisation is the better guide to what yours will see.
This directory measures requests between 3 July 2026 and 28 September 2026. The fake crawler report covers its own, earlier window (late June to 21 September 2026), so its figures differ from the ones here. Read it for the method.
Have a request that claims to be Googlebot-Image? Check its IP address.
Should you block Googlebot-Image?
- Allow it if
- image search sends you visitors or your images carry your brand.
- Block it if
- specific image directories should not appear in Google Images.
- What blocking changes
- Your images stop being crawled for Google Images, Discover and the Search features that show images, logos and favicons. Your pages stay in web search.
To block it, add this group to your robots.txt. Google says its common crawlers always obey robots.txt when crawling automatically.
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Disallow: /robots.txt only asks. It does nothing against a client that ignores it or only pretends to be Googlebot-Image. Stopping those takes verification at your edge.
Googlebot-Image: common questions
See which bots reach your site, and which of them are who they claim to be.
What is Googlebot-Image?
Googlebot-Image is Google's image crawler. Google says rules addressed to it affect Google Images, Discover, Google Video and every Search feature that shows images, logos or favicons. If you have no Googlebot-Image group in robots.txt, it follows your Googlebot rules.
How do I verify that a request is really Googlebot-Image?
Run a reverse DNS lookup on the source IP and check that the name ends in googlebot.com (Google uses crawl-….googlebot.com and geo-crawl-….geo.googlebot.com), then run a forward lookup on that name and confirm it returns the same IP. Or check the IP against Google's common crawler ranges. A googleusercontent.com name does not count: any Google Cloud virtual machine can have one. The user agent alone proves nothing: any client can send it.
How do I block Googlebot-Image in robots.txt?
Add a group for User-agent: Googlebot-Image with Disallow: /. Google says its common crawlers always obey robots.txt when crawling automatically. robots.txt only asks. A client that ignores it, or pretends to be Googlebot-Image, has to be stopped at your edge.
What happens if I block Googlebot-Image?
Your images stop being crawled for Google Images, Discover and the Search features that show images, logos and favicons. Your pages stay in web search.
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