What is Twitterbot?
Twitterbot is the crawler X uses to read card markup when a link is shared, so the post can show a title, description and image. X caches the result for 7 days.
Last verified 2026-09-30 against the operator's documentation. All bots
Twitterbot at a glance
- Operator
- X
- Type
- Link preview bots
- Purpose
- Fetches card markup when a link is shared on X.
- robots.txt token
Twitterbot- How to verify
- X publishes no IP list or reverse DNS domain for Twitterbot.
- Operator documentation
- https://developer.x.com/en/docs/x-for-websites/cards/guides/getting-started
How often is Twitterbot impersonated?
Other apps also put "Twitterbot" in their user agent, so a request carrying the name is not always a claim to be X's bot. We show no share.
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 Twitterbot? Check its IP address.
Should you block Twitterbot?
- Allow it if
- people share your pages on X.
- Block it if
- you do not want preview cards on X.
- What blocking changes
- Links to your pages shared on X lose their preview card.
To block it, add this group to your robots.txt. X says Twitterbot respects robots.txt. If a page or its image is blocked, no card or thumbnail is shown.
User-agent: Twitterbot
Disallow: /robots.txt only asks. It does nothing against a client that ignores it or only pretends to be Twitterbot. Stopping those takes verification at your edge.
Twitterbot: common questions
See which bots reach your site, and which of them are who they claim to be.
What is Twitterbot?
Twitterbot is the crawler X uses to read card markup when a link is shared, so the post can show a title, description and image. X caches the result for 7 days.
How do I verify that a request is really Twitterbot?
X publishes no IP list or reverse DNS domain for Twitterbot. The user agent alone proves nothing: any client can send it.
How do I block Twitterbot in robots.txt?
Add a group for User-agent: Twitterbot with Disallow: /. X says Twitterbot respects robots.txt. If a page or its image is blocked, no card or thumbnail is shown. robots.txt only asks. A client that ignores it, or pretends to be Twitterbot, has to be stopped at your edge.
What happens if I block Twitterbot?
Links to your pages shared on X lose their preview card.
Related bots
- facebookexternalhit (Meta): Builds link previews when content is shared on Meta's apps.
- Pinterestbot (Pinterest): Indexes pages behind Pins and keeps Pin details up to date.