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Googlebot-Image (Google): what it is and how to allow or block it

Updated · checked against the operator's documentation on

Googlebot-Image is Google's crawler for the images that appear in Google Search and related surfaces. Its robots.txt token is Googlebot-Image.

Facts

Operator
Google
Category
Search engine crawler
robots.txt token
Googlebot-Image
Honors robots.txt?
Yes, per Google. Google says its common crawlers always obey robots.txt rules when crawling automatically.
User-agent example
Googlebot-Image/1.0
User agent we logged
Googlebot-Image/1.0Most common variant in our own logs, 161 requests, 19 to 25 Oct 2026. Static snapshot, not the live counter below. A logged string is a claim: anyone can send it.
Official source
Google: Overview of Google crawlers and fetchers
Compared with the source

What it is used for

Per Google, it is the image crawler; its robots.txt rules apply to Google Images, Discover, Video mode and any Search feature that shows images, logos or favicons.

What happens if you block it

Per Google, your images disappear from Google Images, Discover, Video mode and any Search feature that shows images, logos or favicons. Your other pages are not affected.

In our own logs it never fetched robots.txt under its own name; it probably shares the robots.txt read of Googlebot (our inference, not a Google statement), so that is no sign of non-compliance. Google's verification page names several IP range files but does not say which crawler is in which file, so check the current page rather than assuming.

Is it really Googlebot-Image?

Anyone can send Googlebot-Image as a user agent, so a log line proves nothing by itself. The way to tell is the requesting IP address.

How to allow or block Googlebot-Image

Add one of these groups to the robots.txt at the root of your domain. A group that names the bot overrides a general User-agent: * group.

Allow Googlebot-Image
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Allow: /
Block Googlebot-Image
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Disallow: /

Does your site allow Googlebot-Image today? The checker evaluates your robots.txt for this and every other bot.Check my site

What we see on our own sites

Live counter, last 30 days: 1 request on 1 day identified as Googlebot-Image (latest: ). That is a small sample: read it as an example, not as a measurement of the web.

  • Images and files: 1

Counts come from the websites we operate; they hold no IP addresses or URLs, and a user agent is only a claim. See the bot traffic data and the methodology.

Questions about Googlebot-Image

What is Googlebot-Image?

Google's crawler for the images that appear in Google Search and related surfaces. Per Google, it is the image crawler; its robots.txt rules apply to Google Images, Discover, Video mode and any Search feature that shows images, logos or favicons.

Is Googlebot-Image safe and legitimate?

The real Googlebot-Image is a search engine crawler run by Google. A user-agent string is only a claim, though, so anyone can send it. Compare the requesting IP address with the published IP ranges.

Does Googlebot-Image obey robots.txt?

Yes, per Google. Google says its common crawlers always obey robots.txt rules when crawling automatically.

How do I block Googlebot-Image?

Add a group to the robots.txt at the root of your domain: User-agent: Googlebot-Image followed by Disallow: /. A group that names the bot overrides a general User-agent: * group.

Will blocking Googlebot-Image hurt my Google rankings or AI visibility?

It affects images, not your other pages. Per Google, images disappear from Google Images, Discover, Video mode and any Search feature that shows images, logos or favicons when it is blocked.

Related bots

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Other Search engine crawlers

All Search Engine Crawlers · Bot directory · Bots from Google · Which bots to allow or block · robots.txt generator · See a page as a bot