ipapi.gr

Bot signals — Search & SEO crawler

Googlebot IP addresses

Google common crawlers

Google-operated common crawlers; multiple crawler identities share these ranges.

risk.is_crawler Ranges Reviewed
Official documentation (opens in a new tab) All search & SEO crawlers

Check an IP

Is this IP really Googlebot?

Checks the address against what Google common crawlers publishes, the same evidence behind risk.is_crawler.

01 — Verification

How IPAPI.GR verifies Googlebot.

Only from what Google common crawlers publishes about itself. No third-party blocklists, no behavioural guesses. Live address counts change with every publication, so check the official file for the current list.

02 — In the response

What a match looks like.

A lookup of a Googlebot address sets risk.is_crawler. The flags come with geolocation and network data in the same response, for Pro API keys.

The response says which kind of bot an address belongs to, not which operator. Pair it with the user agent: a request that claims to be Googlebot but doesn't match is unverified.

GET /api/lookup/{ip}?key=PRO_KEY
{
  // … location and network fields …
  "risk": {
    "is_ai": false,
    "is_crawler": true,
    "is_scanner": false
  }
}

03 — Configuration

Allow, block or verify it yourself.

nginx + jq
# 1. Build a geo include from the official file (cron, e.g. hourly).
#    Keep the old file if the download fails or comes back empty.
curl -fsS https://developers.google.com/static/crawling/ipranges/common-crawlers.json \
  | jq -r '.prefixes[] | (.ipv4Prefix // .ipv6Prefix // empty) | "\(.) 1;"' \
  > /etc/nginx/googlebot-ranges.conf.new && [ -s /etc/nginx/googlebot-ranges.conf.new ] && mv /etc/nginx/googlebot-ranges.conf.new /etc/nginx/googlebot-ranges.conf \
  && nginx -t -q && nginx -s reload

# 2. In the http block: 1 when the client IP is in the published ranges.
geo $googlebot_ip {
    default 0;
    include /etc/nginx/googlebot-ranges.conf;
}

# 3. A request that claims to be Googlebot from any other address is an impostor.
map "$http_user_agent:$googlebot_ip" $fake_googlebot {
    default 0;
    "~*(Googlebot).*:0$" 1;
}

# In the server block:
if ($fake_googlebot) { return 403; }
Built from developers.google.com/static/crawling/ipranges/common-crawlers.json, a JSON file with a prefixes array.

04 — Questions

About Googlebot.

Where does Googlebot publish its IP addresses?

Google common crawlers publishes its addresses at https://developers.google.com/static/crawling/ipranges/common-crawlers.json. IPAPI.GR reads that publication directly, not a third-party copy.

How often is the Googlebot list refreshed?

IPAPI.GR re-fetches it every hour. If a refresh fails, the previous entries expire after at most 24 hours instead of being trusted forever.

Which risk flag does Googlebot set?

A matching address sets risk.is_crawler in the lookup response. The risk flags are returned for Pro API keys.

From the blog

Go deeper.

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Verify Googlebot on every request.

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