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Verified bots

A verified bot is a bot which has been added to Cloudflare's list of verified bots.

You can request for your bot to be added to Cloudflare's bots and agents directory by filling out an online application ↗ in the Cloudflare dashboard.

Verified bot requirement

For a bot to be verified, it must meet the following requirements:

  1. The bot must follow verified bots policy.
  2. The bot must be verified using one of the following verification methods:

Once Cloudflare approves a verified bot, it should appear on Cloudflare Radar's bots and agents directory ↗.

Transient false negatives

Once Cloudflare lists a bot as a verified bot, this entry is cached and may get delisted if no traffic is seen in the Cloudflare network coming from the bot for a defined period of time.

It takes 24 hours for an inactive IP to be removed as a verified bot.

A bot can remain unlisted until Cloudflare sees traffic being sourced from the bot. When the bot is revalidated, it is listed as a verified bot again.

Verification methods

The bot must be verified using one of the following validation methods:

Categories

You can segment your verified bot traffic by its type and purpose by adding the Verified Bot Categories field cf.verified_bot_category as a filter criteria in WAF Custom rules, Advanced Rate Limiting, and Late Transform rules.

Academic research

String value: Academic Research

Definition: Gathers data for scholarly research or academic purposes.

Example: Library of Congress, TurnItInBot, Bibliothèque nationale de France

Accessibility

String value: Accessibility

Definition: Scans websites to identify their accessibility.

Example: Accessible Web Bot

Advertising or marketing

String value: Advertising & Marketing

Definition: Automates marketing tasks including, but not limited to, ad placement and performance tracking.

Example: Google Adsbot

Aggregators

String value: Aggregator

Definition: Collects content from various online sources and consolidates it in one place.

Example: Pinterest, Indeed Jobsbot

AI Assistant

String value: AI Assistant

Definition: Automated AI bot driven by user action.

Example: Perplexity-User, DuckAssistBot

AI Crawler

String value: AI Crawler

Definition: Crawls websites for content that is used for training AI models.

Example: Google Bard, ChatGPT bot

AI Search

String value: AI Search

Definition: Powers AI-driven search experiences.

Example: OAI-SearchBot

Archiver

String value: Archiver

Definition: Saves snapshots of websites to preserve digital content for historical records.

Example: Internet Archive, CommonCrawl

Feed fetcher

String value: Feed Fetcher

Definition: Retrieves updates from feeds to power readers or other applications.

Example: RSS or Podcast feed updaters

Monitoring or analytics

String value: Monitoring & Analytics

Definition: Tracks a website's uptime, performance, and user traffic to gather key monitoring metrics.

Example: Uptime Monitors

Page preview

String value: Page Preview

Definition: Generates previews for links shared on social media or in messaging apps.

Example: Facebook, Slack, Twitter, or Discord Link Preview tools

Search engine crawler

String value: Search Engine Crawler

Definition: A bot that discovers and indexes web pages for search results.

Example: Googlebot, Bingbot, Yandexbot, Baidubot

Search engine optimization

String value: Search Engine Optimization

Definition: Analyzes websites to improve their standing in search engine results pages.

Example: Google Lighthouse, GT Metrix, Pingdom, AddThis

Security

String value: Security

Definition: Scans websites to detect security vulnerabilities and potential threats.

Example: Vulnerability Scanners, SSL Domain Control Validation (DCV) Check Tools

Social media marketing

String value: Social Media Marketing

Definition: Manages and automates activities on social platforms.

Example: Brandwatch

Webhooks

String value: Webhooks

Definition: An automated messenger that sends data from one application to another for specific events.

Example: Payment processors, WordPress Integration tools

Other

String value: Other

Definition: A dedicated category for bots that do not fit into the other classifications.

Cloudflare reserves the right to re-assign verified bot categories if the bot's public documentation and observed behavior differ from the category listed in the bot submission form.

Known issues

The Yandex bot is classified as a Verified Bot, but traffic may occasionally be blocked by a WAF Managed Rule (such as the rule with ID ...f6cbb163).

This typically occurs when Yandex updates its source IP address ranges. The new IPs are temporarily unrecognized by the WAF Managed Rules until the updated Verified Bot IP list is fully synchronized across the Cloudflare network.

To restore Yandex traffic, deploy a WAF exception that temporarily skips the managed rule with ID <RuleID id="2854e3f18ad946049e6d90ccf6cbb163" /> when a request is coming from the Yandex IP and the user-agent contains Yandex. This ensures that legitimate Yandex traffic bypasses the blocking rule without disabling security features for other traffic.

You can also create a WAF Custom Rule with the Skip action targeting the managed ruleset that contains the blocking rule. The rule expression should specifically match the request's Yandex IP and User-Agent.

The issue is transient and will resolve automatically once the new Yandex IP addresses are fully propagated to Cloudflare's systems. This propagation typically takes up to 48 hours. If the bot remains blocked after 48 hours, contact Cloudflare Support.

Availability

Verified bots are excluded by default when Bot Fight Mode is enabled to block definite bots.

Super Bot Fight Mode and Enterprise Bot Management customers have the option to block or allow verified bots.