AhrefsBot
Ahrefs Pte. Ltd. operates AhrefsBot, which indexes information about websites, their content and how they link to each other, feeding both the Ahrefs marketing intelligence platform and the Yep search engine. It honors robots.txt under the token AhrefsBot. Site owners verify it through Ahrefs' published IP range JSON or by reverse DNS, where hostnames end in ahrefs.com or ahrefs.net.
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; AhrefsBot/7.0; +http://ahrefs.com/robot/)What AhrefsBot does
In logs the crawler identifies as "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; AhrefsBot/7.0; +http://ahrefs.com/robot/)". Ahrefs says the bot indexes fresh, accurate information about websites, their content and their links, and that this data powers the Ahrefs marketing intelligence platform and the Yep search engine. An Ahrefs help article says crawling comes from Singapore, the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Germany. The bot renders JavaScript, and Ahrefs notes that crawl-delay cannot be followed during rendering because rendering fetches several assets at the same time. It also caches frequently requested assets such as images, CSS and JS.
Allowing AhrefsBot lets your site and its links appear in Ahrefs' SEO datasets and in Yep search results. Blocking it under the AhrefsBot token removes your pages from both. Ahrefs says both of its bots strictly respect robots.txt allow and disallow rules as well as crawl-delay, though the bot may need some time to pick up robots.txt changes before its next scheduled crawl. If you want to slow the bot rather than block it, a crawl-delay directive works for HTML page requests, and returning 4xx or 5xx status codes makes the bot reduce crawl speed on its own.
Ahrefs publishes two machine-readable lists. https://api.ahrefs.com/v3/public/crawler-ip-ranges returns a prefixes array of ipv4Prefix objects, and https://api.ahrefs.com/v3/public/crawler-ips returns an ips array of ip_address objects. Both are shared with AhrefsSiteAudit without separating the two bots. Cloudflare also lists AhrefsBot as a verified good bot. Yep, the search engine the bot feeds, participates in IndexNow. The /robot page gives a support email address.
Operator note. The documentation states 'Obeys robots.txt: Yes' and 'Obeys crawl delay: Yes', and that both Ahrefs bots 'strictly respect robots.txt on both disallow and allow rules, as well as crawl-delay directives'; crawl-delay is followed for HTML page requests but 'cannot be followed when rendering JavaScript' because rendering fetches multiple assets simultaneously, and the bot 'may need some time to pick up the changes in your robots.txt file' before the next scheduled crawl. Returning 4xx or 5xx status codes makes the bot automatically reduce its crawl speed, and it caches frequently requested assets such as images, CSS and JavaScript. Ahrefs says AhrefsBot crawls from Singapore, the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Germany; the published IP lists are shared with AhrefsSiteAudit and do not separate the two bots. Yep, the search engine AhrefsBot feeds, is an IndexNow participant, and the ahrefs.com/robot page lists a support email address.
Controlling AhrefsBot with robots.txt
Use the token AhrefsBot in robots.txt. Ahrefs Pte. Ltd. documents that AhrefsBot honors robots.txt directives.
User-agent: AhrefsBot
Disallow: /User-agent: AhrefsBot
Allow: /Verifying a request is really AhrefsBot
Anyone can put AhrefsBot in a User-Agent header. Ahrefs publishes its crawler IP ranges at https://api.ahrefs.com/v3/public/crawler-ip-ranges and individual crawler IP addresses at https://api.ahrefs.com/v3/public/crawler-ips. Reverse DNS can also be used: 'The reverse DNS suffix of the IPs hostname is always ahrefs.com or ahrefs.net.' AhrefsBot is also listed as a Cloudflare verified 'good' bot.
host <request-ip>
# expect a hostname ending in ahrefs.com or ahrefs.net
host <that-hostname>
# expect it to resolve back to <request-ip>Ahrefs Pte. Ltd. publishes a machine-readable list. Our probe read it on 2026-09-06; the file's own creation time was not stated.
- Prefixes
- 81
- IPv4
- 81
- IPv6
- 0
First entries at fetch time: 5.39.1.224/27, 5.39.109.160/27, 15.235.27.0/24
SHA-256 of the fetched body: 4246eee9407d58fb030ee9f12776f974f628db4b4f91f8111847dd565fc63d45
Common questions
Should I block AhrefsBot?
Block it only if you do not want your site in Ahrefs' SEO data or in Yep search results, since those are the two documented uses. If server load is the issue, Ahrefs honors crawl-delay for HTML requests and slows down when your server returns 4xx or 5xx codes, so throttling is an option short of a full block.
Does AhrefsBot run JavaScript?
Yes. Ahrefs says crawl-delay cannot be followed when rendering JavaScript because rendering fetches multiple assets simultaneously, which confirms the bot renders pages. It also caches frequently requested assets such as images, CSS and JS.
How do I verify AhrefsBot?
Check the source IP against the published lists at api.ahrefs.com/v3/public/crawler-ip-ranges (prefixes with ipv4Prefix) or api.ahrefs.com/v3/public/crawler-ips (ips with ip_address). Alternatively run a reverse DNS lookup; Ahrefs says the hostname suffix is always ahrefs.com or ahrefs.net. The lists cover AhrefsSiteAudit too, so IP alone does not tell the two bots apart; use the user agent for that.
Sources
Every fact on this page was checked against Ahrefs Pte. Ltd.'s own documentation, listed below, and re-checked by a second reviewer before publication. Reviewed September 2026.
Related crawlers
This registry documents how operators describe their own bots so site owners can identify and control them. It does not publish third-party IP lists or guess at undocumented behaviour. To see how your own site responds to automated visitors, the bot detection scanner reads a URL's live response and names the protection it finds.