Safe Official docs Data Scrapers

imgproxy

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

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

Q: Is imgproxy safe?

Yes, imgproxy is a safe and legitimate crawler. It is operated by Open Source, which publicly documents its crawler at an official URL and follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309). The user-agent string imgproxy is verifiable via reverse-DNS lookup on the crawling IP addresses. You can safely allow it unless you have a specific reason to block (e.g., AI training opt-out or SEO tool visibility).

Q: Will blocking imgproxy hurt my SEO?

✅ Minimal Impact - Blocking imgproxy has no meaningful effect on your search engine rankings or organic traffic.

Q: How do I block imgproxy in robots.txt?

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

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

Operated by Open Source

Scout's quick take

imgproxy collects content for datasets or resale. If you do not want that, block it, and back the rule with a firewall in case it ignores robots.txt.

User-agent: imgproxy
Disallow: /

Test my robots.txt against AI bots Build a full robots.txt

Quick Facts

User-Agent:: imgproxy
Category:: Data Scrapers
Operator:: Open Source
Safety:: Safe
Blocking Impact:: Low - No SEO ranking impact
SEO Impact Score:: 2/10
Official docs:: docs.imgproxy.net

Confirmed by the operator

Open Source names imgproxy 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 imgproxy?

A fast and secure standalone server for resizing and converting remote images. Often used as a proxy.

A fast and secure standalone server for resizing and converting remote images. Often used as a proxy.
imgproxy is a data aggregation crawler. Unlike search bots or AI crawlers, its purpose is typically to collect content for private datasets, price monitoring, or research. Blocking imgproxy via robots.txt or at the server level has NO negative SEO impact. If you see excessive crawl volume from this bot in your logs, a hard block is recommended.

What happens if you block imgproxy?

✅ Minimal Impact - Blocking imgproxy has no meaningful effect on your search engine rankings or organic traffic.

Generally safe to allow; provides legitimate crawling value.

How to block imgproxy with robots.txt

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

Block completely (robots.txt)

User-agent: imgproxy
Disallow: /

Allow all (robots.txt)

User-agent: imgproxy
Allow: /

Block private only (robots.txt)

User-agent: imgproxy
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /admin/
Allow: /

Nginx server block

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

Apache .htaccess

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

Yes, imgproxy is a safe and legitimate crawler. It is operated by Open Source, which publicly documents its crawler at an official URL and follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309). The user-agent string imgproxy is verifiable via reverse-DNS lookup on the crawling IP addresses. You can safely allow it unless you have a specific reason to block (e.g., AI training opt-out or SEO tool visibility).

Verify by reverse-DNS lookup: legitimate imgproxy requests resolve to open-source's domain.

What does imgproxy do?

Understanding imgproxy's purpose helps you decide whether to allow or block it.

Extracts content, prices, or data from websites
May be used for competitive intelligence
Often operates without explicit permission
Can increase server load and bandwidth usage
May violate terms of service or copyright

imgproxy in context

imgproxy is a utility crawler operated by Open Source. In plain terms, it harvests pages for a dataset or data product. Our database files it under data scrapers and ranks it Tier 6, the lowest priority: scrapers and tools that offer most sites little or nothing. 37 of the 39 data scrapers in our database share this tier.

Its safety rating is safe and its blocking impact is low. So the decision about imgproxy rests on what you want from Open Source, not on its behaviour. How we rate safety and impact.

How site owners treat imgproxy

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

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

Open Source crawlers and close alternatives

imgproxy is one of 2 Open Source crawlers in our database. A User-agent: imgproxy group controls imgproxy only; the other Open Source tokens below need their own lines.

imgproxy: this crawler (Tier 6)
news-please: news-please, harvests pages for a dataset or data product (Tier 6)

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

Other data scrapers that do the same job (harvests pages for a dataset or data product) include Amazon Kendra from Amazon, ApifyBot from Apify, Barkrowler from Babbar, BLEXBot from WebMeUp, coccocbot-web from Unknown, Crawl4AI from Unknown. Deciding about imgproxy is usually a decision about the whole group, so check how your file treats these too.

We first recorded imgproxy on March 17, 2026. Open Source documents it on docs.imgproxy.net, and we recheck that page before each release.

Which rule imgproxy actually follows

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

User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/

User-agent: imgproxy
Disallow: /drafts/

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

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

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

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

Test yourself: is User-agent: imgproxy the same as User-agent: imgproxy?

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

Should you allow imgproxy? Decide by situation

Recommended setting for imgproxy 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 imgproxy is a utility crawler. Block the operator's training crawler instead.
You run an online shop	Consider blocking it, especially on price and stock pages that competitors scrape.
Your server is under load from bots	Rate-limit before blocking. It is rated safe in our database.

Check imgproxy on your own site

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

Common mistakes with imgproxy

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

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

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

Spotting imgproxy in your logs

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

Check the requests are genuine

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

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

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the official user-agent string for imgproxy?

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

Is imgproxy safe?

Will blocking imgproxy hurt my SEO?

✅ Minimal Impact - Blocking imgproxy has no meaningful effect on your search engine rankings or organic traffic.

How do I block imgproxy in robots.txt?

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

User-agent: imgproxy
Disallow: /

This instructs imgproxy 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 imgproxy respect robots.txt?

Yes - imgproxy is a well-behaved bot operated by Open Source. It fetches and parses /robots.txt before crawling any page, following RFC 9309.

How do I verify if imgproxy is crawling my site?

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

What is the crawl frequency of imgproxy?

imgproxy crawls at a moderate rate. If you notice excessive traffic in your logs, you can add a Crawl-delay directive:

User-agent: imgproxy
Crawl-delay: 10

(10 second delay between requests).

Can I block imgproxy from specific pages only?

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

User-agent: imgproxy
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /staging/
Allow: /

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

Is imgproxy causing high server load?

If imgproxy 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 "imgproxy".
4. Use fail2ban to auto-block IPs exceeding request thresholds.