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Google-NotebookLM (superseded)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
Evidence:
Verified by AI Crawler Check: in 85 top-10k robots.txt files

Reported, not operator documented

Google has not published a crawler page that names Google-NotebookLM. It is listed here on our own evidence. Verified by AI Crawler Check: 85 of the 5,583 valid robots.txt files in the Tranco top 10,000 carry a rule for Google-NotebookLM, so site owners treat it as a real crawler name (how we measure this). That proves the spelling is in use, not who sends it. Superseded name.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 Google-NotebookLM rule on this page is the best available spelling, but Google has made no statement of purpose, crawl rate or robots.txt compliance. Treat a Google-NotebookLM request in your logs as a clue, not proof of who sent it, and add a firewall rule if that 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What is Google-NotebookLM (superseded)?

Google-NotebookLM (superseded) is an on-demand AI fetcher operated by Google.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Google-NotebookLM (superseded) is an on-demand AI fetcher operated by Google.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Google-NotebookLM (superseded) uses the user-agent token Google-NotebookLM.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What happens if you block Google-NotebookLM (superseded)?

✅ No SEO Impact - Blocking Google-NotebookLM (superseded) does not affect your rankings in Google, Bing, or any other search engine.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?

Google-NotebookLM (superseded) is rated Safe in this directory, meaning there are no credible public reports of abusive crawling under this name. It is a Reported token: Google has not published documentation for it, so its purpose, crawl rate and robots.txt behaviour are not confirmed by the operator, and anyone can send the same user-agent string. Allow or block it on its stated purpose, and back the robots.txt rule with a firewall rule if the traffic matters to you.
Google publishes no IP ranges or reverse-DNS pattern for Google-NotebookLM (superseded), so the user-agent string cannot be verified. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.

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

Google-NotebookLM (superseded) in context

Google-NotebookLM (superseded) is a user-triggered agent 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 Google crawlers and ranks it Tier 3, mid-priority crawlers with a clear purpose but a smaller audience. 20 of the 24 Google crawlers in our database share this tier.

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

How site owners treat Google-NotebookLM (superseded)

In our own scan of the Tranco top 10,000 (5,583 valid robots.txt files), 85 files (1.5%) name Google-NotebookLM in a User-agent line. That shows site owners treat the token as a real crawler worth a rule. It does not, on its own, prove who operates it.

Does it follow robots.txt?

Google-NotebookLM (superseded)'s operator does not clearly document how it treats robots.txt. Write the Google-NotebookLM (superseded) rule anyway, then confirm in your logs that its requests stop.

Google crawlers and close alternatives

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

  • Google-NotebookLM: 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-CloudVertexBot: Google Vertex AI, fetches a page when a person asks an assistant or app to open it (Tier 3)

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

No other crawler in our Google crawlers category has exactly the same purpose, which makes Google-NotebookLM (superseded) an unusual case: decide about it on its own merits.

We first recorded Google-NotebookLM on May 31, 2026. We could not find a page where Google names it, so treat the token as reported rather than documented.

Which rule Google-NotebookLM (superseded) actually follows

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

User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/

User-agent: Google-NotebookLM
Disallow: /drafts/
  1. Find the group. Google-NotebookLM (superseded) looks for a group naming Google-NotebookLM. One exists, so it ignores User-agent: * completely.
  2. Apply only that group. It is refused /drafts/ and nothing else.
  3. The surprise. /private/ is open to Google-NotebookLM (superseded), 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-NotebookLM (superseded) if the file also has a User-agent: Google-NotebookLM group?

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

Related: how AI engines choose their sources

Test yourself: will blocking Google-NotebookLM (superseded) remove your pages from AI answers?

Often, yes. Google-NotebookLM (superseded) is a user-triggered agent, so pages it cannot fetch can drop out of the answers or results it supports.

Test yourself: is User-agent: google-notebooklm the same as User-agent: Google-NotebookLM?

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

Should you allow Google-NotebookLM (superseded)? Decide by situation

Recommended setting for Google-NotebookLM (superseded) by type of site
If you are...Recommended setting
You publish content and want AI answers to cite itAllow it. Google-NotebookLM (superseded) fetches pages for answers, so blocking it can remove you from them.
You license content and want to stop AI trainingBlocking it does not stop training, because Google-NotebookLM (superseded) is a user-triggered agent. Block the operator's training crawler instead.
You run an online shopAllow it unless it is overloading your servers.
Your server is under load from botsRate-limit before blocking. It is rated safe in our database.

Check Google-NotebookLM (superseded) on your own site

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

Common mistakes with Google-NotebookLM (superseded)

The errors we see most often with Google-NotebookLM (superseded) in the files and firewalls we test:

  1. Assuming a robots.txt rule will stop Google-NotebookLM (superseded). User-triggered fetches act for a person, and some operators say robots.txt may not apply to them. Check the operator's statement above.
  2. Blocking Google-NotebookLM (superseded) as if it were a bulk crawler. It fetches one page because a person asked; blocking it means that person's assistant cannot read your page.
  3. Counting Google-NotebookLM (superseded) visits as crawl volume. Each request maps to a real user question, which makes the paths it requests a useful signal of what people ask about you.

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

Spotting Google-NotebookLM (superseded) in your logs

robots.txt says what Google-NotebookLM (superseded) 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-NotebookLM" /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-NotebookLM" /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-NotebookLM (superseded) user-agent, so confirm the source before acting on a match:

  • Google-NotebookLM: we hold no published IP list, so use reverse DNS where the operator documents a hostname and treat an unverifiable Google-NotebookLM (superseded) request with caution.

Frequently Asked Questions

What user-agent string does Google-NotebookLM (superseded) use?
Google-NotebookLM (superseded) is reported to identify itself with Google-NotebookLM. Evidence that the spelling is in real use comes from our own robots.txt study: 85 of the 5,583 valid robots.txt files in the Tranco top 10,000 name it (fetched October 20, 2026), not from Google, which has not published crawler documentation naming it. Use it in robots.txt as the best available match, and treat a request carrying it as a clue rather than proof of who sent it.
Is Google-NotebookLM (superseded) safe?
Google-NotebookLM (superseded) is rated Safe in this directory, meaning there are no credible public reports of abusive crawling under this name. It is a Reported token: Google has not published documentation for it, so its purpose, crawl rate and robots.txt behaviour are not confirmed by the operator, and anyone can send the same user-agent string. Allow or block it on its stated purpose, and back the robots.txt rule with a firewall rule if the traffic matters to you.
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?
Not documented. Google has published no statement that Google-NotebookLM (superseded) reads robots.txt. A rule for Google-NotebookLM will stop a client that chooses to honour it; for enforcement, add a firewall or CDN rule as well.
How do I verify if Google-NotebookLM (superseded) is crawling my site?
Search your access logs for Google-NotebookLM (for example grep -i "Google-NotebookLM" /var/log/nginx/access.log). Because the operator publishes no IP ranges or reverse-DNS pattern, a match shows that something used the name, not that Google sent it.

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