Overview
Google-Agent is a fetcher associated with Google, used for navigating and acting on websites in response to users of agents hosted on Google infrastructure.
Its primary user-agent pattern is Google-Agent; related patterns include Google hosted agent fetcher; a representative HTTP user-agent is Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; Google-Agent; +https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/google-agent) Chrome/W.X.Y.Z Safari/537.36.
Google-Agent is verified with High confidence. The identity type is Official Documented.
Google-Agent may ignore robots.txt because the request is user-triggered, signed, or otherwise outside normal autonomous crawler behavior. Use authenticated access controls or network policy when enforcement is required.
Treat the user-agent or identity as a claim and corroborate it with published network data, reverse DNS, signed-request evidence, or current operator documentation when available.
Identity
- User-Agent Pattern
-
Google-Agent - Aliases
- Google hosted agent fetcher
- HTTP Agent Examples
-
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; Google-Agent; +https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/google-agent) Chrome/W.X.Y.Z Safari/537.36 - Robots Token
- Google-Agent
- Identity Type
- Officially documented
- Evidence Method
- Verify Google-Agent by matching `Google-Agent` to Google evidence, then corroborating the request with source-network ownership, reverse DNS, signed request data, or current operator documentation.
Classification
- Type
- AI
- Kind
- Fetcher
- Family
- Purpose
- AI assistant
Behavior and handling
- Common Use
- navigating and acting on websites in response to users of agents hosted on Google infrastructure
- Detection Notes
- Google-Agent traffic is primarily detected by `Google-Agent`; related patterns include `Google hosted agent fetcher`; a representative HTTP user-agent is `Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; Google-Agent; +https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/google-agent) Chrome/W.X.Y.Z Safari/537.36`. Treat these values as identification claims and corroborate them with source-network ownership, reverse DNS, signed request data, or current operator documentation.
- Respects robots.txt
- No
- Spoofing Risk
- Google-Agent can be spoofed if identification relies only on a user-agent string; corroborate the request with stronger operator-controlled evidence when available.
- Risk
- Neutral
- Recommended Handling
- Depends
Rules and controls
- Robots.txt Snippet
-
# This agent may ignore robots.txt. Use authenticated access controls or network policy when blocking is required.
Relationships
- Operator
- Google Checked 2026-08-07
Relationships without an Evidence link are normalized from the canonical directory record. They should not be interpreted as independent proof of physical presence or request origin.