Caution Official docs Other Agents

archive.org_bot

Q: What is the official user-agent string for archive.org_bot?

The official user-agent string for archive.org_bot is: archive.org_bot . 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 archive.org_bot by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP - legitimate bots resolve back to their operator's domain.

Q: Is archive.org_bot safe?

archive.org_bot is rated Caution. Internet Archive documents it, so it is not a spoofing risk in itself, but it fetches content for uses you may not want to support, and it may not follow robots.txt. Decide on its purpose.

Q: How do I block archive.org_bot in robots.txt?

Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file: User-agent: archive.org_bot Disallow: / This instructs archive.org_bot 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 archive.org_bot is crawling my site?

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

Operated by Internet Archive

Scout's quick take

archive.org_bot does not publish a clear purpose. Check your logs for how often it visits before deciding.

# Block only if you really mean to
User-agent: archive.org_bot
Disallow: /

Test AI crawler access Build a full robots.txt

Quick Facts

User-Agent:: archive.org_bot
Category:: Other Agents
Operator:: Internet Archive
Safety:: Caution
Blocking Impact:: Varies - Evaluate before blocking
SEO Impact Score:: 0/10
Official docs:: archive.org

Confirmed by the operator

Internet Archive names archive.org_bot 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 archive.org_bot?

archive.org_bot is the Internet Archive's crawler. It captures pages for the Wayback Machine.

It identifies itself with the token archive.org_bot. Internet Archive documents it at archive.org.

What happens if you block archive.org_bot?

No effect on Google or Bing. New versions of your pages stop being preserved in the Wayback Machine.

Consider blocking based on your content strategy.

Is "https fr.semrush.com bot" the Internet Archive?

No. A user agent that mentions fr.semrush.com is a Semrush crawler, not archive.org_bot; Semrush links its bot page from the user-agent string on every regional domain. See the SemrushBot profile for its rules.

How to block archive.org_bot with robots.txt

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

Block completely (robots.txt)

User-agent: archive.org_bot
Disallow: /

Allow all (robots.txt)

User-agent: archive.org_bot
Allow: /

Block private only (robots.txt)

User-agent: archive.org_bot
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /admin/
Allow: /

Nginx server block

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

Apache .htaccess

# Apache: Hard-block archive.org_bot
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "archive\.org_bot" 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 archive.org_bot safe to allow?

archive.org_bot is rated Caution. Internet Archive documents it, so it is not a spoofing risk in itself, but it fetches content for uses you may not want to support, and it may not follow robots.txt. Decide on its purpose.

What does archive.org_bot do?

From Internet Archive's own documentation.

archive.org_bot is the Internet Archive's crawler.
No effect on Google or Bing. New versions of your pages stop being preserved in the Wayback Machine.

archive.org_bot in context

archive.org_bot is a utility crawler operated by Internet Archive. In plain terms, it harvests pages for a dataset or data product. Our database files it under other agents and ranks it Tier 6, the lowest priority: scrapers and tools that offer most sites little or nothing. 4 of the 4 other agents in our database share this tier.

Its safety rating is caution and its blocking impact is not documented. So the decision about archive.org_bot rests on what you want from Internet Archive, not on its behaviour. How we rate safety and impact.

How site owners treat archive.org_bot

Our robots.txt study of the Tranco top 10,000 did not track archive.org_bot 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?

archive.org_bot's operator does not clearly document how it treats robots.txt. Write the archive.org_bot rule anyway, then confirm in your logs that its requests stop.

Internet Archive crawlers and close alternatives

archive.org_bot is one of 2 Internet Archive crawlers in our database. A User-agent: archive.org_bot group controls archive.org_bot only; the other Internet Archive tokens below need their own lines.

archive.org_bot: this crawler (Tier 6)
ia_archiver: ia_archiver, harvests pages for a dataset or data product (Tier 6)

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

Other other agents that do the same job (harvests pages for a dataset or data product) include Arquivo-web-crawler from Arquivo.pt, TurnitinBot from Turnitin. Deciding about archive.org_bot is usually a decision about the whole group, so check how your file treats these too.

We first recorded archive.org_bot on March 17, 2026. Internet Archive documents it on archive.org, and we recheck that page before each release.

Which rule archive.org_bot actually follows

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

User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/

User-agent: archive.org_bot
Disallow: /drafts/

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

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

Test yourself: will blocking archive.org_bot remove your pages from AI answers?

Often, yes. archive.org_bot is a utility crawler, so pages it cannot fetch can drop out of the answers or results it supports.

Test yourself: is User-agent: archive.org_bot the same as User-agent: archive.org_bot?

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

Should you allow archive.org_bot? Decide by situation

Recommended setting for archive.org_bot by type of site
If you are...	Recommended setting
You publish content and want AI answers to cite it	Low stakes either way. It does not decide whether AI answers cite you.
You license content and want to stop AI training	Blocking it does not stop training, because archive.org_bot is a utility crawler. Block the operator's training crawler instead.
You run an online shop	Allow it unless your logs show it is costly.
Your server is under load from bots	Rate-limit before blocking. It is rated caution in our database.

Check archive.org_bot on your own site

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

Common mistakes with archive.org_bot

The errors we see most often with archive.org_bot in the files and firewalls we test:

Treating archive.org_bot 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 archive.org_bot is rated caution or aggressive. Back the rule with a server-side block.
Blocking archive.org_bot by IP alone. Ranges change; match the token and verify with logs.

All three hide inside a file that looks correct, so check archive.org_bot from outside after every change.

Spotting archive.org_bot in your logs

robots.txt says what archive.org_bot 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 "archive\.org_bot" /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 "archive\.org_bot" /var/log/nginx/access.log \
  | awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20

Check the requests are genuine

Anyone can send the archive.org_bot user-agent, so confirm the source before acting on a match:

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

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the official user-agent string for archive.org_bot?

The official user-agent string for archive.org_bot is: archive.org_bot. 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 archive.org_bot by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP - legitimate bots resolve back to their operator's domain.

Is archive.org_bot safe?

Will blocking archive.org_bot hurt my SEO?

No effect on Google or Bing. New versions of your pages stop being preserved in the Wayback Machine.

How do I block archive.org_bot in robots.txt?

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

User-agent: archive.org_bot
Disallow: /

This instructs archive.org_bot 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 archive.org_bot respect robots.txt?

The Internet Archive says sites can be "blocked by robots.txt" from its crawls. To remove pages already archived, it asks owners to email info@archive.org.

How do I verify if archive.org_bot is crawling my site?

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

What is the crawl frequency of archive.org_bot?

Crawl frequency data for archive.org_bot is not publicly documented. Monitor your logs to understand actual visit patterns.

Can I block archive.org_bot from specific pages only?

Yes. Instead of a global Disallow: / you can restrict archive.org_bot to specific paths:

User-agent: archive.org_bot
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /staging/
Allow: /

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

Is archive.org_bot causing high server load?

If archive.org_bot is generating excessive requests, you can:
1. Add Crawl-delay: 30 below the User-agent directive in robots.txt.
2. Rate-limit the user-agent via Nginx's limit_req_zone or Apache's mod_ratelimit.
3. Block it outright at Cloudflare WAF with rule: http.user_agent contains "archive.org_bot".
4. Use fail2ban to auto-block IPs exceeding request thresholds.

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