FriendlyCrawler
SafeUser-agent: FriendlyCrawler
Category: Scrapers
SEO impact if blocked: 2/10
FriendlyCrawler
1 crawler operated by FriendlyCrawler
Who FriendlyCrawler is, for site owners
FriendlyCrawler operates 1 crawler in our directory, filed under Scrapers. Its crawl behaviour is rated safe.
Blocking FriendlyCrawler carries an SEO impact score of 2/10. Blocking impact is rated: Low - No SEO ranking impact.
Our recommendation for FriendlyCrawler: Generally safe to allow; provides legitimate crawling value.
FriendlyCrawler at a glance
| Operator | FriendlyCrawler |
|---|---|
| Crawler in directory | 1 |
| Categories | Scrapers |
| SEO impact if blocked | 2/10 |
| Crawl behaviour | 1 rated safe |
Crawler operated by FriendlyCrawler
What FriendlyCrawler's crawlers are for
FriendlyCrawler runs 1 crawler in our database. Grouped by the job each one does:
- a utility crawler:
FriendlyCrawler
The highest-priority token is Tier 6. That makes FriendlyCrawler a lower-priority operator for most sites: worth a deliberate decision, but rarely the one that decides your visibility.
How site owners treat FriendlyCrawler
How often site owners write rules for FriendlyCrawler's tokens, from our own robots.txt study of the Tranco top 10,000:
| Token | Files naming it | Files blocking it |
|---|---|---|
FriendlyCrawler | 193 (3.5%) | Not measured |
A FriendlyCrawler token can be blocked without being named, through a User-agent: * group with Disallow: /, so its blocking share can be higher than its naming share.
All counts come from 5,583 valid files fetched October 20, 2026.
Writing one policy for FriendlyCrawler
A robots.txt file cannot say "FriendlyCrawler"; it can only name FriendlyCrawler's tokens, one group at a time. With a single token, one group is the whole policy.
# One token controls everything FriendlyCrawler fetches through it
User-agent: FriendlyCrawler
Disallow: /private/
Allow: /- Decide per job, not per company. Training, search and user-triggered fetching have different trade-offs, even from the same operator.
- Name every token you mean. A token you leave out follows
User-agent: *. - Repeat shared rules. A named group ignores the
*group, so copy anyDisallowlines you still want it to obey. - Verify from outside. Run the AI crawlability test after any change to see the result for each FriendlyCrawler token, including firewall refusals.
Test yourself: does User-agent: FriendlyCrawler block all of FriendlyCrawler's crawlers?
No. robots.txt matches crawler tokens, not company names. Use the token FriendlyCrawler.
Test yourself: if you block one FriendlyCrawler token, are the others blocked too?
No. Each token is read separately. Blocking one leaves the rest following whatever group applies to them.
Each FriendlyCrawler crawler, explained
A one-paragraph brief for every FriendlyCrawler token in our database, covering what it does, how it treats robots.txt and how often large sites write rules for it:
- FriendlyCrawler (
FriendlyCrawler, Tier 6): a utility crawler that harvests pages for a dataset or data product. Rated safe. FriendlyCrawler's operator does not clearly document how it treats robots.txt. Write the FriendlyCrawler rule anyway, then confirm in your logs that its requests stop. 3.5% of top-site robots.txt files name it.
Common mistakes with FriendlyCrawler's crawlers
The errors we see most often with FriendlyCrawler's crawlers in the files and firewalls we test:
- Treating FriendlyCrawler's crawlers as an AI or search crawler. Blocking it has little effect on visibility; decide based on load and what it does with your data.
- Relying on robots.txt alone when FriendlyCrawler's crawlers is rated caution or aggressive. Back the rule with a server-side block.
- Blocking FriendlyCrawler's crawlers by IP alone. Ranges change; match the token and verify with logs.
All three hide inside a file that looks correct, so check FriendlyCrawler's crawlers from outside after every change.
What our own data shows about FriendlyCrawler
Everything below comes from the AI Crawler Check bot database and our two most recent robots.txt scans of the Tranco top 10,000, not from FriendlyCrawler's marketing. FriendlyCrawler has one token in our database, so the whole picture fits in one place.
FriendlyCrawler in our records
We first recorded FriendlyCrawler on March 17, 2026. We could not find a page where FriendlyCrawler names it, so treat the token as reported rather than documented. FriendlyCrawler is outside our tracked token set, but 193 of 5,583 top-site files already name it, which is enough to show owners treat it as a real crawler.
Among the 39 data scrapers in our database, FriendlyCrawler sits 18th by priority (Tier 6), level with Amazon Kendra, ApifyBot, Barkrowler, BLEXBot. 29 of the 39 share its safe rating. Other operators with a crawler that harvests pages for a dataset or data product: FirecrawlAgent (Firecrawl, Tier 2), iaskspider (iAsk, Tier 2), NovaAct (Amazon, Tier 2), CloudflareBrowserRenderingCrawler (Cloudflare, Tier 3), Amazon Kendra (Amazon, Tier 6). A policy for FriendlyCrawler is usually a policy for these too.
A decision record for FriendlyCrawler
Teams that review crawlers once a quarter keep one short entry per token, so anyone can see why a rule exists and when it was last checked. Filled in from our data, the FriendlyCrawler entry reads:
- Operator and job: FriendlyCrawler; it harvests pages for a dataset or data product.
- Priority and behaviour: Tier 6, rated safe, blocking impact low.
- Suggested starting point: Allow by default; revisit if it costs you bandwidth.
- Enforcement: FriendlyCrawler's operator does not clearly document how it treats robots.txt. Write the FriendlyCrawler rule anyway, then confirm in your logs that its requests stop.
User-agent: FriendlyCrawler
Allow: /Paste the line into the validator with one of your own URLs before it goes live. Revisit the FriendlyCrawler entry once a quarter, or when FriendlyCrawler publishes a new token next to it.
Checking FriendlyCrawler on your own site
Because FriendlyCrawler runs only FriendlyCrawler in our records, one check covers the whole operator. Search your access logs for the string FriendlyCrawler over the last 30 days, note how many requests it made and which paths it asked for, then compare that with what your robots.txt allows. FriendlyCrawler publishes no page about the crawler that we could find, so judge it by the requests you actually see rather than by its name. A Tier 6 crawler rated safe rarely needs more than a quarterly look, and our log checker does the counting for you.
How top sites treat FriendlyCrawler's crawlers
From our robots.txt study of the Tranco top 10,000 (5,583 valid files, fetched October 20, 2026):
None of the tokens for FriendlyCrawler's crawlers is tracked by name in our study. For scale, 20.1% of top-site files block at least one AI training crawler and 4.3% refuse every unnamed crawler with User-agent: * and Disallow: /, which would catch FriendlyCrawler's crawlers too.
More questions about FriendlyCrawler
- Will blocking FriendlyCrawler affect my Google rankings?
- Only if one of its tokens is a Google search crawler. None of FriendlyCrawler's tokens are Googlebot, so classic Google rankings are unaffected.
- How quickly does a robots.txt change take effect for FriendlyCrawler?
- Crawlers cache robots.txt, commonly for up to a day. Expect a change to apply within about 24 hours, and confirm it in your logs.
- Can I allow FriendlyCrawler on some sections and block it on others?
- Yes. Inside the group for
FriendlyCrawler, addDisallowlines for the paths to keep private andAllowlines for exceptions. The longest matching rule wins. - Does blocking FriendlyCrawler delete content it already collected?
- No. robots.txt only controls future visits. For content already collected, check whether FriendlyCrawler offers a removal or opt-out process.
- Is a firewall block better than robots.txt for FriendlyCrawler?
- A firewall enforces the decision, while robots.txt asks politely. Many operators recommend robots.txt because blocking their IPs can stop them reading your rules at all. Use robots.txt first, and add a firewall rule only if requests continue.
A five-minute FriendlyCrawler review
- Confirm the token. Compare the user-agent in your logs with the tokens listed on this page. A close spelling is not the same crawler.
- Decide the outcome per crawler. Use the briefs above to choose allow, limit or block for each token.
- Write the group. Add or edit one
User-agentgroup per decision and repeat any shared rules inside it. - Publish and wait. Allow about a day for crawlers to fetch the new file.
- Confirm the result. Check your logs, then run the AI bot crawlability test to see the outcome from outside, including any firewall layer.
How to block or allow FriendlyCrawler in robots.txt
This rule covers the single crawler FriendlyCrawler operates. Add it to the robots.txt file at the root of your domain.
Block FriendlyCrawler completely
User-agent: FriendlyCrawler
Disallow: /
Allow FriendlyCrawler explicitly
User-agent: FriendlyCrawler
Allow: /
These FriendlyCrawler rules ask; they do not enforce. If a FriendlyCrawler token ignores them, block it at the server or CDN. Paths are case-sensitive, and each rule matches the token, not the full user-agent string.
Frequently asked questions about FriendlyCrawler
What crawler does FriendlyCrawler run?
FriendlyCrawler operates 1 crawler in our directory: FriendlyCrawler (user-agent FriendlyCrawler).
Should I block FriendlyCrawler?
Generally safe to allow; provides legitimate crawling value. The SEO impact score for blocking is 2/10, where 10 means blocking costs you the most visibility.
How do I block FriendlyCrawler in robots.txt?
Add the following to robots.txt at your domain root: User-agent: FriendlyCrawler then Disallow: /.
Does blocking FriendlyCrawler hurt my search rankings?
Blocking impact is rated: Low - No SEO ranking impact. Google's own ranking crawler is Googlebot, which this operator does not run, so blocking FriendlyCrawler does not by itself remove you from Google's index. What it can change is whether AI assistants and analytics tools can read your pages.