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Crawler

What is AhrefsBot?

AhrefsBot is Ahrefs' crawler for its SEO index and the Yep search engine.

Other botsFollows robots.txtIP list
Operator
Ahrefs
Purpose
Other bots. Ads checks, SEO tools and research crawls. Not AI training or AI search.
robots.txt token
AhrefsBot
Sample user agent
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; AhrefsBot/7.0; +http://ahrefs.com/robot/)User agents change with versions. Match on the token, not the full string.
Follows robots.txt
Yes, according to Ahrefs. Ahrefs says it respects Allow, Disallow and Crawl-delay, but not for JavaScript rendering.
How to verify
Check the IP against Ahrefs's published list.Reverse DNS on ahrefs.com or ahrefs.net, confirmed with a forward lookup.
Sources
Ahrefs documentationAhrefs IP list
Last reviewed

Allow or block AhrefsBot

Block AhrefsBot
User-agent: AhrefsBot
Disallow: /

Asks AhrefsBot not to crawl any page. Well-behaved crawlers stop; it does not stop anyone who ignores robots.txt.

Allow AhrefsBot
User-agent: AhrefsBot
Allow: /

Lets AhrefsBot crawl everything. You only need this if a broader rule would otherwise block it.

Should you block it?

AhrefsBot is not an AI training or AI search crawler. Block it only if you don't want Ahrefs's product to read your pages.

Write a full policy with the AI Crawler Policy Generator

How to verify a AhrefsBot request

  1. Find the IP address of the request in your server or CDN logs.
  2. Get Ahrefs's published list (Ahrefs IP list).
  3. Check whether the IP falls inside one of the ranges. If it doesn't, the request is not from AhrefsBot, whatever its user agent says.

Or with reverse DNS

  1. Run a reverse DNS lookup on the IP (host 192.0.2.1, with the IP from your log).
  2. Check the hostname ends in ahrefs.com or ahrefs.net.
  3. Run a forward lookup on that hostname and check it returns the same IP. Both steps must pass.
Test AhrefsBot requests

Questions about AhrefsBot

Is AhrefsBot safe to allow?

AhrefsBot reads public pages; it does not log in or submit forms. Whether to allow it depends on whether you want Ahrefs's product to use your pages.

How do I know a request is really AhrefsBot?

Check the request against what Ahrefs publishes: Check the IP against Ahrefs's published list. Reverse DNS on ahrefs.com or ahrefs.net, confirmed with a forward lookup. The user agent alone proves nothing.

How often does AhrefsBot visit?

It depends on your site; Ahrefs doesn't publish a schedule. Referscope shows the real visits.

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