Safe Official docs Search Engines

Yandex Mobile

Operated by Yandex

Quick Facts

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

Confirmed by the operator

Yandex names YandexMobileBot 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 Yandex Mobile?

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

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

🔶 AI Visibility Trade-off - Blocking Yandex Mobile 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 Yandex Mobile with robots.txt

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

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

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

What does Yandex Mobile do?

Understanding Yandex Mobile'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

Yandex Mobile in context

Yandex Mobile is a search engine crawler operated by Yandex. In plain terms, it builds a search or answer index. Our database files it under search engines and ranks it Tier 3, mid-priority crawlers with a clear purpose but a smaller audience. 62 of the 63 search engines in our database share this tier.

Its safety rating is safe and its blocking impact is critical. So Yandex Mobile is both well behaved and costly to lose: the strongest case for allowing it. How we rate safety and impact.

How site owners treat Yandex Mobile

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

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

Yandex crawlers and close alternatives

Yandex Mobile is one of 39 Yandex crawlers in our database. A User-agent: YandexMobileBot group controls Yandex Mobile only; the other Yandex tokens below need their own lines.

  • YandexMobileBot: this crawler (Tier 3)
  • YaDirectFetcher: Yandex Direct Fetcher, checks pages for an SEO, uptime or analytics service (Tier 3)
  • Yandex: Yandex, builds a search or answer index (Tier 3)
  • YandexAccessibilityBot: Yandex Accessibility, builds a search or answer index (Tier 3)
  • YandexAdditional: YandexAdditional, builds a search or answer index (Tier 3)
  • YandexAdditionalBot: YandexAdditionalBot, builds a search or answer index (Tier 3)
  • YandexAdNet: Yandex Advertising Network, checks pages for an SEO, uptime or analytics service (Tier 3)
  • YandexBlogs: Yandex Blogs, builds a search or answer index (Tier 3)
  • YandexBot: Yandex Search, builds a search or answer index (Tier 3)

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

Other search engines that do the same job (builds a search or answer index) include Amzn-SearchBot from Amazon, Applebot from Apple, baidu from Baidu, Baiduspider from Baidu, Baiduspider-favo from Baidu, Baiduspider-image from Baidu. Deciding about Yandex Mobile is usually a decision about the whole group, so check how your file treats these too.

We first recorded YandexMobileBot on September 22, 2026. Yandex documents it on yandex.com, and we recheck that page before each release.

Which rule Yandex Mobile actually follows

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

User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/

User-agent: YandexMobileBot
Disallow: /drafts/
  1. Find the group. Yandex Mobile looks for a group naming YandexMobileBot. One exists, so it ignores User-agent: * completely.
  2. Apply only that group. It is refused /drafts/ and nothing else.
  3. The surprise. /private/ is open to Yandex Mobile, 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 Yandex Mobile if the file also has a User-agent: YandexMobileBot group?

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

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

Often, yes. Yandex Mobile is a search engine crawler, so pages it cannot fetch can drop out of the answers or results it supports.

Test yourself: is User-agent: yandexmobilebot the same as User-agent: YandexMobileBot?

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

Should you allow Yandex Mobile? Decide by situation

Recommended setting for Yandex Mobile by type of site
If you are...Recommended setting
You publish content and want AI answers to cite itAllow it. It is how this search engine finds your pages.
You license content and want to stop AI trainingBlocking it does not stop training, because Yandex Mobile is a search engine crawler. Block the operator's training crawler instead.
You run an online shopAllow it unless it is overloading your servers.
Your server is under load from botsRate-limit before blocking. It is rated safe in our database.

Check Yandex Mobile on your own site

  1. Open /robots.txt on your domain and search for YandexMobileBot. If it is not named, it follows User-agent: *.
  2. List the Disallow lines in the group Yandex Mobile follows and test your key URLs against them; the longest match wins, and Allow wins a tie.
  3. Look beyond the file. A firewall or bot manager can refuse Yandex Mobile even when robots.txt allows it, and that never shows in the file.
  4. Run our AI bot crawlability test to see how Yandex Mobile and every other crawler we track are treated in one pass, including firewall refusals.

Common mistakes with Yandex Mobile

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

  1. Blocking Yandex Mobile to save bandwidth and then wondering why pages drop out of that search engine. Use crawl-rate settings or caching first.
  2. Writing a User-agent: YandexMobileBot group to add one rule for Yandex Mobile and accidentally dropping every rule it used to follow under User-agent: *.
  3. Disallowing CSS and JavaScript folders, which can stop Yandex Mobile rendering your pages properly.

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

Spotting Yandex Mobile in your logs

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

Check the requests are genuine

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

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

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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