Safe Reported Google Bots

Google-NotebookLM (superseded)

Operated by Google

Quick Facts

User-Agent:
Google-NotebookLM
Category:
Google Bots
Operator:
Google
Safety:
Safe
Blocking Impact:
Low - No SEO ranking impact
SEO Impact Score:
2/10
Official docs:
None published by Google
Named by:
ai.robots.txt

Reported, not operator documented

Google has not published a crawler page that names Google-NotebookLM. It is listed here because a credible public source does: ai.robots.txt. Superseded name. Google documents Google-GeminiNotebook as its replacement and says the old token was supported until August 2026.

What that means for you: the robots.txt rule on this page is the best available spelling, and a well-behaved crawler using this string will honour it, but there is no vendor statement of purpose, crawl rate or robots.txt compliance to rely on. Treat a matching request in your logs as a detection clue, not proof of who sent it, and combine the rule with a firewall rule if the traffic matters to you. If the operator publishes documentation, this profile moves to Official docs.

What is Google-NotebookLM (superseded)?

Google-NotebookLM (superseded) is an on-demand AI fetcher operated by Google. It retrieves a page only when a user explicitly asks an AI assistant or agent to read, summarize, or act on a specific URL. Because it is triggered by real user intent rather than bulk crawling, blocking it mainly prevents users from pulling your content into Google's assistant.

Google-NotebookLM (superseded) is an on-demand AI fetcher operated by Google. It retrieves a page only when a user explicitly asks an AI assistant or agent to read, summarize, or act on a specific URL. Because it is triggered by real user intent rather than bulk crawling, blocking it mainly prevents users from pulling your content into Google's assistant.
Google-NotebookLM (superseded) uses the user-agent token Google-NotebookLM. You can control it via robots.txt, meta tags (noai), or the emerging llms.txt standard. Robots.txt is voluntary; for hard enforcement, combine it with server-level IP blocking.

What happens if you block Google-NotebookLM (superseded)?

✅ No SEO Impact - Blocking Google-NotebookLM (superseded) does not affect your rankings in Google, Bing, or any other search engine. Google-NotebookLM (superseded) is an AI crawler, not a traditional search indexer. You can freely block it via User-agent / Disallow: / without any SEO penalty.
Generally safe to allow; provides legitimate crawling value.

How to block Google-NotebookLM (superseded) with robots.txt

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

Block completely (robots.txt)
User-agent: Google-NotebookLM Disallow: /
Allow all (robots.txt)
User-agent: Google-NotebookLM Allow: /
Block private only (robots.txt)
User-agent: Google-NotebookLM Disallow: /private/ Disallow: /api/ Disallow: /admin/ Allow: /
Nginx server block
# Nginx: Hard-block Google-NotebookLM (superseded) if ($http_user_agent ~* "Google-NotebookLM") { return 403 "Bot blocked"; }
Apache .htaccess
# Apache: Hard-block Google-NotebookLM (superseded) SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Google-NotebookLM" bad_bot Order Allow,Deny Allow from all Deny from env=bad_bot
Meta robots tag
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">
X-Robots-Tag header
X-Robots-Tag: noindex, nofollow

Is Google-NotebookLM (superseded) safe to allow?

Yes, Google-NotebookLM (superseded) is a safe and legitimate crawler operated by Google. It follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309) and can be controlled with standard robots.txt rules.
Verify by reverse-DNS lookup: legitimate Google-NotebookLM (superseded) requests resolve to Google's domain.

What does Google-NotebookLM (superseded) do?

Understanding Google-NotebookLM (superseded)'s purpose helps you decide whether to allow or block it.

  • Fetches a page only when a user asks an AI assistant to read it
  • Summarizes or extracts the URL the user provided
  • Triggered by real user intent, not bulk crawling
  • Low traffic volume compared with training crawlers
  • Blocking it prevents users from pulling your content into the assistant

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the official user-agent string for Google-NotebookLM (superseded)?
The official user-agent string for Google-NotebookLM (superseded) is: Google-NotebookLM. Use this exact string in robots.txt, Nginx, Apache, or Cloudflare firewall rules to target this bot. Matching in robots.txt is case-insensitive. Verify a request genuinely comes from Google-NotebookLM (superseded) by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP.
Is Google-NotebookLM (superseded) safe?
Yes, Google-NotebookLM (superseded) is a safe and legitimate crawler operated by Google. It follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309) and can be controlled with standard robots.txt rules.
Will blocking Google-NotebookLM (superseded) hurt my SEO?
✅ No SEO Impact - Blocking Google-NotebookLM (superseded) does not affect your rankings in Google, Bing, or any other search engine. Google-NotebookLM (superseded) is an AI crawler, not a traditional search indexer. You can freely block it via User-agent / Disallow: / without any SEO penalty.
How do I block Google-NotebookLM (superseded) in robots.txt?
Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file:
User-agent: Google-NotebookLM
Disallow: /

This instructs Google-NotebookLM (superseded) not to crawl any path on your site. To block only specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/).
Does Google-NotebookLM (superseded) respect robots.txt?
Google-NotebookLM (superseded) is operated by Google and is expected to fetch and parse /robots.txt before crawling, following RFC 9309. For hard enforcement, combine robots.txt with server-level IP or user-agent blocking.
How do I verify if Google-NotebookLM (superseded) is crawling my site?
Search your web server access logs for the string Google-NotebookLM (case-insensitive: grep -i "Google-NotebookLM" /var/log/nginx/access.log). Filter by user-agent in your log analytics tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).

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