Googlebot-Video — Google's video crawler
Googlebot-Video is the Google crawler that fetches video content for Google's video features. It uses the Googlebot-Video robots.txt user-agent token and is documented among Google's common crawlers, letting operators control video crawling separately from page crawling.
What this means
Googlebot-Video is Google's dedicated crawler for video content that may appear in Google's video features. Google lists it among its common crawlers with its own robots.txt user-agent token, distinct from the main Googlebot page crawler.
With its own token, you can allow page crawling while restricting video crawling, or vice versa, by targeting Googlebot-Video specifically.
robots.txt considerations
Googlebot-Video honours robots.txt. To keep video content out of Google's video features while still allowing page crawling, target the Googlebot-Video token with a Disallow rule. Verify suspect requests using Google's reverse-DNS and published IP-range method, since the user agent is spoofable.
- robots.txt token: Googlebot-Video
- Separate control from the main Googlebot page crawler
- Verify via reverse DNS to googlebot.com / google.com
How it appears in analytics and logs
A request carrying the Googlebot-Video token is Google fetching video content, not a page. It is bot traffic; regular video crawling is the normal state for sites seeking video search visibility.
Diagnostic use case
See whether Google is crawling your video content, and allow or restrict video crawling independently of normal page crawling.
What WebmasterID can help detect
WebmasterID classifies Googlebot-Video server-side as a search crawler and surfaces its activity separately from human traffic, so video-crawl coverage is visible without log parsing.
Common mistakes
- Assuming a Disallow on Googlebot also blocks Googlebot-Video — they are separate tokens.
- Counting video-crawl hits as human page views.
- Trusting a Googlebot-Video user agent without verification.
Privacy and accuracy notes
Identification uses the user agent plus Google's reverse-DNS/IP verification — no human identity. WebmasterID records Googlebot-Video as a bot event, separate from human analytics.
Related pages
- Googlebot-Image — Google's image crawler
Googlebot-Image is the Google crawler that fetches image files for Google Images. It uses the Googlebot-Image robots.txt user-agent token and is documented among Google's common crawlers, so operators can target image crawling separately from page crawling.
- Googlebot-News — Google News crawling
Googlebot-News is the user agent that governs crawling for Google News. Google documents it as relying on Googlebot for actual crawling, with the Googlebot-News token letting publishers control Google News inclusion separately from general Search.
- Bot intelligence
See search-engine crawlers separated from human traffic.
Sources and verification notes
- Google — Google crawlers (user agents) overviewLists Googlebot-Video among Google's common crawlers and tokens.
Last reviewed 2026-06-24. Facts are checked against primary/official sources where available; uncertain specifics are marked “Data not yet verified” rather than guessed.