Safe Official docs Cloud Services

Google-CloudVertexBot

Q: Is Google-CloudVertexBot safe?

Yes. Google-CloudVertexBot is a documented bot: Google publishes a page that names it and explains what it does.

Q: How do I block Google-CloudVertexBot in robots.txt?

Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file: User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot Disallow: / This instructs Google-CloudVertexBot not to crawl any path on your site. The Disallow: / directive covers the entire domain including subfolders. To only block specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/ ). Note: robots.txt is publicly readable - any bot or human can inspect it at yourdomain.com/robots.txt .

Q: How do I verify if Google-CloudVertexBot is crawling my site?

Search your web server access logs for the string Google-CloudVertexBot (case-insensitive grep: grep -i "Google-CloudVertexBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log ). You can also check Google Search Console → Coverage → Crawl Stats for Googlebot variants. For Google-CloudVertexBot specifically, filter by user-agent in your log analysis tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).

Operated by Google

Scout's quick take

Google-CloudVertexBot fetches pages so Google's AI search can answer and cite them. Block it and you can drop out of those answers, so most sites keep it allowed.

# Block only if you really mean to
User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot
Disallow: /

Test my AI crawlability Build a full robots.txt

Quick Facts

User-Agent:: Google-CloudVertexBot
Category:: Cloud Services
Operator:: Google
Safety:: Safe
Blocking Impact:: Varies - Evaluate before blocking
SEO Impact Score:: 0/10
Official docs:: developers.google.com

Confirmed by the operator

Google names Google-CloudVertexBot on its own documentation page, linked above. The token, purpose and robots.txt behaviour on this profile come from that page, re-checked on October 19, 2026.

What is Google-CloudVertexBot?

Google-CloudVertexBot crawls sites on behalf of Google Cloud customers building Vertex AI Agents, usually the site owner's own agents.

It identifies itself with the token Google-CloudVertexBot. Google documents it at developers.google.com.

What happens if you block Google-CloudVertexBot?

No effect on Google Search inclusion. It can stop a Vertex AI agent that is meant to read your site.

Consider blocking based on your content strategy.

How to block Google-CloudVertexBot with robots.txt

<code>User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot</code> - Matching is case-insensitive. Robots.txt is fetched from the root of each subdomain separately.

Block completely (robots.txt)

User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot
Disallow: /

Allow all (robots.txt)

User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot
Allow: /

Block private only (robots.txt)

User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /admin/
Allow: /

Nginx server block

# Nginx: Hard-block Google-CloudVertexBot
if ($http_user_agent ~* "Google\-CloudVertexBot") {
    return 403 "Bot blocked";
}

Apache .htaccess

# Apache: Hard-block Google-CloudVertexBot
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Google\-CloudVertexBot" bad_bot
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from all
Deny from env=bad_bot

Meta robots tag

X-Robots-Tag header

X-Robots-Tag: noindex, nofollow

Is Google-CloudVertexBot safe to allow?

Yes. Google-CloudVertexBot is a documented bot: Google publishes a page that names it and explains what it does.

What does Google-CloudVertexBot do?

From Google's own documentation.

Google-CloudVertexBot crawls sites on behalf of Google Cloud customers building Vertex AI Agents, usually the site owner's own agents.
No effect on Google Search inclusion. It can stop a Vertex AI agent that is meant to read your site.

Google-CloudVertexBot in context

Google-CloudVertexBot is a retrieval crawler that feeds AI search answers operated by Google. In plain terms, it fetches a page when a person asks an assistant or app to open it. Our database files it under cloud services and ranks it Tier 3, mid-priority crawlers with a clear purpose but a smaller audience. 1 of the 3 cloud services in our database share this tier.

Its safety rating is safe and its blocking impact is low. So the decision about Google-CloudVertexBot rests on what you want from Google, not on its behaviour. How we rate safety and impact.

How site owners treat Google-CloudVertexBot

Our robots.txt study of the Tranco top 10,000 did not track Google-CloudVertexBot as a named token, so we do not publish an adoption figure for it. If you run a large site, your own logs are the best evidence of how often it visits.

Does it follow robots.txt?

Google-CloudVertexBot's operator says it follows robots.txt, so a correctly written Google-CloudVertexBot group is enough to control it.

Google crawlers and close alternatives

Google-CloudVertexBot is one of 32 Google crawlers in our database. A User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot group controls Google-CloudVertexBot only; the other Google tokens below need their own lines.

Google-CloudVertexBot: this crawler (Tier 3)
AdsBot-Google: Google Ads Quality (Desktop), checks pages for an SEO, uptime or analytics service (Tier 3)
AdsBot-Google-Mobile: Google Ads Quality (Mobile), checks pages for an SEO, uptime or analytics service (Tier 3)
APIs-Google: APIs-Google, fetches a page when a person asks an assistant or app to open it (Tier 3)
Chrome-Lighthouse: Lighthouse Audit, checks pages for an SEO, uptime or analytics service (Tier 4)
FeedFetcher-Google: Google Feed Fetcher, builds a search or answer index (Tier 3)
Gemini-Deep-Research: Gemini-Deep-Research, fetches a page when a person asks an assistant or app to open it (Tier 3)
Google-Agent: Google Agent (Project Mariner), fetches a page when a person asks an assistant or app to open it (Tier 2)
Google-CWS: Chrome Web Store Fetcher, checks pages for an SEO, uptime or analytics service (Tier 4)

To give Google-CloudVertexBot the same answer as its siblings, stack User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot with their lines above one set of rules; to treat Google-CloudVertexBot differently, give it its own group.

No other crawler in our cloud services category has exactly the same purpose, which makes Google-CloudVertexBot an unusual case: decide about it on its own merits.

We first recorded Google-CloudVertexBot on March 17, 2026. Google documents it on developers.google.com, and we recheck that page before each release.

Which rule Google-CloudVertexBot actually follows

Google-CloudVertexBot reads exactly one group in robots.txt, the most specific one that names Google-CloudVertexBot, and never combines rules across groups. This short file shows the trap:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/

User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot
Disallow: /drafts/

Find the group. Google-CloudVertexBot looks for a group naming Google-CloudVertexBot. One exists, so it ignores User-agent: * completely.
Apply only that group. It is refused /drafts/ and nothing else.
The surprise. /private/ is open to Google-CloudVertexBot, because that rule lives in the * group it no longer reads. To keep it out of both, repeat Disallow: /private/ inside its own group.

Test yourself: does a rule under User-agent: * apply to Google-CloudVertexBot if the file also has a User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot group?

No. Once a group names it, Google-CloudVertexBot reads only that group. Put every rule you want it to follow inside its own group.

Test yourself: will blocking Google-CloudVertexBot remove your pages from AI answers?

Often, yes. Google-CloudVertexBot is a retrieval crawler that feeds AI search answers, so pages it cannot fetch can drop out of the answers or results it supports.

Test yourself: is User-agent: google-cloudvertexbot the same as User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot?

Yes. RFC 9309 makes user-agent matching case-insensitive. Paths are a different story: Disallow: /Blog/ does not block /blog/.

Should you allow Google-CloudVertexBot? Decide by situation

Recommended setting for Google-CloudVertexBot by type of site
If you are...	Recommended setting
You publish content and want AI answers to cite it	Allow it. Google-CloudVertexBot fetches pages for answers, so blocking it can remove you from them.
You license content and want to stop AI training	Blocking it does not stop training, because Google-CloudVertexBot is a retrieval crawler that feeds AI search answers. Block the operator's training crawler instead.
You run an online shop	Allow it on product and category pages, which are the pages shoppers ask assistants about.
Your server is under load from bots	Rate-limit before blocking. It is rated safe in our database.

Check Google-CloudVertexBot on your own site

Open /robots.txt on your domain and search for Google-CloudVertexBot. If it is not named, it follows User-agent: *.
List the Disallow lines in the group Google-CloudVertexBot follows and test your key URLs against them; the longest match wins, and Allow wins a tie.
Look beyond the file. A firewall or bot manager can refuse Google-CloudVertexBot even when robots.txt allows it, and that never shows in the file.
Run our AI bot access checker to see how Google-CloudVertexBot and every other crawler we track are treated in one pass, including firewall refusals.

Common mistakes with Google-CloudVertexBot

The errors we see most often with Google-CloudVertexBot in the files and firewalls we test:

Blocking Google-CloudVertexBot while trying to stop AI training. Retrieval crawlers fetch pages so answers can cite them; blocking it can remove you from those answers without affecting training.
Letting a firewall or bot-fight mode refuse Google-CloudVertexBot while robots.txt allows it. The file looks right, but the crawler still gets a 403 or a challenge page.
Forgetting that once a User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot group exists, Google-CloudVertexBot ignores every rule under User-agent: *.

All three hide inside a file that looks correct, so check Google-CloudVertexBot from outside after every change.

Spotting Google-CloudVertexBot in your logs

robots.txt says what Google-CloudVertexBot may do; your access logs show what it actually did.

Count requests

On a server with standard Nginx or Apache logs, this counts matching requests per day (adjust the log path for your host):

grep -iE "Google-CloudVertexBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log \
  | awk '{print $4}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -c

And this shows which paths it requested most, which is the quickest way to see whether your Disallow lines are being respected:

grep -iE "Google-CloudVertexBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log \
  | awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20

Check the requests are genuine

Anyone can send the Google-CloudVertexBot user-agent, so confirm the source before acting on a match:

Google-CloudVertexBot: compare each address with the ranges at developers.google.com/static/crawling/ipranges/common-crawlers.json. A request claiming to be Google-CloudVertexBot from outside them is not genuine.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the official user-agent string for Google-CloudVertexBot?

The official user-agent string for Google-CloudVertexBot is: Google-CloudVertexBot. This is the exact string you must use in robots.txt, Nginx, Apache, or Cloudflare firewall rules to target this bot. User-agent matching in robots.txt is case-insensitive, but the string must be spelled correctly. You can verify that a request genuinely comes from Google-CloudVertexBot by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP - legitimate bots resolve back to their operator's domain.

Is Google-CloudVertexBot safe?

Yes. Google-CloudVertexBot is a documented bot: Google publishes a page that names it and explains what it does.

Will blocking Google-CloudVertexBot hurt my SEO?

No effect on Google Search inclusion. It can stop a Vertex AI agent that is meant to read your site.

How do I block Google-CloudVertexBot in robots.txt?

Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file:

User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot
Disallow: /

This instructs Google-CloudVertexBot not to crawl any path on your site. The Disallow: / directive covers the entire domain including subfolders. To only block specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/). Note: robots.txt is publicly readable - any bot or human can inspect it at yourdomain.com/robots.txt.

Does Google-CloudVertexBot respect robots.txt?

Yes. Google lists it among its common crawlers, which follow robots.txt.

How do I verify if Google-CloudVertexBot is crawling my site?

Search your web server access logs for the string Google-CloudVertexBot (case-insensitive grep: grep -i "Google-CloudVertexBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log). You can also check Google Search Console → Coverage → Crawl Stats for Googlebot variants. For Google-CloudVertexBot specifically, filter by user-agent in your log analysis tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).

What is the crawl frequency of Google-CloudVertexBot?

Crawl frequency data for Google-CloudVertexBot is not publicly documented. Monitor your logs to understand actual visit patterns.

Can I block Google-CloudVertexBot from specific pages only?

Yes. Instead of a global Disallow: / you can restrict Google-CloudVertexBot to specific paths:

User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /staging/
Allow: /

This allows Google-CloudVertexBot everywhere except the listed paths. Path matching in robots.txt uses prefix matching - Disallow: /private/ blocks /private/page.html but NOT /public/private/.