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Google Pinpoint

Q: What is the official user-agent string for Google Pinpoint?

The official user-agent string for Google Pinpoint is: Google-Pinpoint . 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 Pinpoint by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP.

Q: Is Google Pinpoint safe?

Yes, Google Pinpoint 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.

Q: Will blocking Google Pinpoint hurt my SEO?

🔶 AI Visibility Trade-off - Blocking Google Pinpoint will not hurt Google or Bing rankings, but it can remove your content from AI search answers and assistant citations powered by this crawler. Block only if you have a deliberate reason.

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

Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file: User-agent: Google-Pinpoint Disallow: / This instructs Google Pinpoint not to crawl any path on your site. To block only specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/ ).

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

Search your web server access logs for the string Google-Pinpoint (case-insensitive: grep -i "Google-Pinpoint" /var/log/nginx/access.log ). Filter by user-agent in your log analytics tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).

Operated by Google

Scout's quick take

Google Pinpoint visits a page only when a person asks Google's assistant to open it. It is not a background crawler. Heads up: Google says robots.txt may not apply to it, so use a firewall rule if you need it stopped.

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

Check AI bot crawlability Build a full robots.txt

Quick Facts

User-Agent:: Google-Pinpoint
Category:: Google Bots
Operator:: Google
Safety:: Safe
Blocking Impact:: Low - No SEO ranking impact
SEO Impact Score:: 2/10
Official docs:: developers.google.com

Confirmed by the operator

Google names Google-Pinpoint 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 Pinpoint?

Google Pinpoint 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 Pinpoint uses the user-agent token Google-Pinpoint. 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 Pinpoint?

🔶 AI Visibility Trade-off - Blocking Google Pinpoint will not hurt Google or Bing rankings, but it can remove your content from AI search answers and assistant citations powered by this crawler. Block only if you have a deliberate reason.

Generally safe to allow; provides legitimate crawling value.

How to block Google Pinpoint with robots.txt

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

Block completely (robots.txt)

User-agent: Google-Pinpoint
Disallow: /

Allow all (robots.txt)

User-agent: Google-Pinpoint
Allow: /

Block private only (robots.txt)

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

Nginx server block

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

Apache .htaccess

# Apache: Hard-block Google Pinpoint
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Google-Pinpoint" 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 Pinpoint safe to allow?

Yes, Google Pinpoint 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 Pinpoint requests resolve to Google's domain.

What does Google Pinpoint do?

Understanding Google Pinpoint'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 Pinpoint in context

Google Pinpoint 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 not documented. So the decision about Google Pinpoint rests on what you want from Google, not on its behaviour. How we rate safety and impact.

How site owners treat Google Pinpoint

Our robots.txt study of the Tranco top 10,000 did not track Google-Pinpoint 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 Pinpoint's operator says it does not follow robots.txt for these requests, so a robots.txt rule will not stop Google Pinpoint. Use a firewall, CDN or server rule if you need to block it.

Google crawlers and close alternatives

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

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

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

We first recorded Google-Pinpoint on September 22, 2026. Google documents it on developers.google.com, and we recheck that page before each release.

Which rule Google Pinpoint actually follows

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

User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/

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

Find the group. Google Pinpoint looks for a group naming Google-Pinpoint. 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 Pinpoint, 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 Pinpoint if the file also has a User-agent: Google-Pinpoint group?

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

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

Often, yes. Google Pinpoint 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-pinpoint the same as User-agent: Google-Pinpoint?

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

Should you allow Google Pinpoint? Decide by situation

Recommended setting for Google Pinpoint by type of site
If you are...	Recommended setting
You publish content and want AI answers to cite it	Allow it. Google Pinpoint 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 Pinpoint is a user-triggered agent. Block the operator's training crawler instead.
You run an online shop	Allow it unless it is overloading your servers.
Your server is under load from bots	Rate-limit before blocking. It is rated safe in our database.

Check Google Pinpoint on your own site

Open /robots.txt on your domain and search for Google-Pinpoint. If it is not named, it follows User-agent: *.
List the Disallow lines in the group Google Pinpoint 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 Pinpoint even when robots.txt allows it, and that never shows in the file.
Run our robots.txt AI crawler test to see how Google Pinpoint and every other crawler we track are treated in one pass, including firewall refusals.

Common mistakes with Google Pinpoint

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

Assuming a robots.txt rule will stop Google Pinpoint. User-triggered fetches act for a person, and some operators say robots.txt may not apply to them. Check the operator's statement above.
Blocking Google Pinpoint 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.
Counting Google Pinpoint 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 Pinpoint from outside after every change.

Spotting Google Pinpoint in your logs

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

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

Frequently Asked Questions

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

The official user-agent string for Google Pinpoint is: Google-Pinpoint. 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 Pinpoint by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP.

Is Google Pinpoint safe?

Yes, Google Pinpoint 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 Pinpoint hurt my SEO?

How do I block Google Pinpoint in robots.txt?

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

User-agent: Google-Pinpoint
Disallow: /

This instructs Google Pinpoint not to crawl any path on your site. To block only specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/).

Does Google Pinpoint respect robots.txt?

Google Pinpoint 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 Pinpoint is crawling my site?

Search your web server access logs for the string Google-Pinpoint (case-insensitive: grep -i "Google-Pinpoint" /var/log/nginx/access.log). Filter by user-agent in your log analytics tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).