Safe Official docs Search Engines

Kagi Search

Operated by Kagi

Quick Facts

User-Agent:
Kagibot
Category:
Search Engines
Operator:
Kagi
Safety:
Safe
Blocking Impact:
Low - No SEO ranking impact
SEO Impact Score:
2/10
Official docs:
kagi.com

Confirmed by the operator

Kagi names Kagibot on its own documentation page, linked above. The token, purpose and robots.txt behaviour on this profile come from that page, re-checked on September 22, 2026.

What is Kagi Search?

Kagi Search is an AI search-index crawler operated by Kagi. It collects and indexes web content so it can be surfaced as citations or answers inside Kagi's AI search experience. Allowing Kagi Search can increase your visibility in AI-powered search results, which is why most sites choose to permit it.

Kagi Search is an AI search-index crawler operated by Kagi. It collects and indexes web content so it can be surfaced as citations or answers inside Kagi's AI search experience. Allowing Kagi Search can increase your visibility in AI-powered search results, which is why most sites choose to permit it.
Kagi Search uses the user-agent token Kagibot. 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 Kagi Search?

🔶 AI Visibility Trade-off - Blocking Kagi Search 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 Kagi Search with robots.txt

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

Block completely (robots.txt)
User-agent: Kagibot Disallow: /
Allow all (robots.txt)
User-agent: Kagibot Allow: /
Block private only (robots.txt)
User-agent: Kagibot Disallow: /private/ Disallow: /api/ Disallow: /admin/ Allow: /
Nginx server block
# Nginx: Hard-block Kagi Search if ($http_user_agent ~* "Kagibot") { return 403 "Bot blocked"; }
Apache .htaccess
# Apache: Hard-block Kagi Search SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Kagibot" 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 Kagi Search safe to allow?

Yes, Kagi Search is a safe and legitimate crawler operated by Kagi. It follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309) and can be controlled with standard robots.txt rules.
Verify by reverse-DNS lookup: legitimate Kagi Search requests resolve to Kagi's domain.

What does Kagi Search do?

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

  • Indexes web pages for AI-powered search answers
  • Surfaces your content as citations inside AI search results
  • Builds a knowledge index used to answer user questions
  • Allowing it can increase visibility in AI search
  • Respects robots.txt directives

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the official user-agent string for Kagi Search?
The official user-agent string for Kagi Search is: Kagibot. 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 Kagi Search by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP.
Is Kagi Search safe?
Yes, Kagi Search is a safe and legitimate crawler operated by Kagi. It follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309) and can be controlled with standard robots.txt rules.
Will blocking Kagi Search hurt my SEO?
🔶 AI Visibility Trade-off - Blocking Kagi Search 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.
How do I block Kagi Search in robots.txt?
Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file:
User-agent: Kagibot
Disallow: /

This instructs Kagi Search not to crawl any path on your site. To block only specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/).
Does Kagi Search respect robots.txt?
Kagi Search is operated by Kagi 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 Kagi Search is crawling my site?
Search your web server access logs for the string Kagibot (case-insensitive: grep -i "Kagibot" /var/log/nginx/access.log). Filter by user-agent in your log analytics tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).

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