Google-InspectionTool
Google-InspectionTool is Google's fetcher for Search testing tools such as the Rich Result Test and URL inspection in Search Console. Google says rules addressed to it affect only those tools and have no effect on Google Search. It honors robots.txt. Verify it by reverse DNS to googlebot.com with matching forward DNS, or against Google's published common-crawlers.json IP ranges.
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Google-InspectionTool/1.0)What Google-InspectionTool does
Requests from this agent appear in logs with the user-agent Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Google-InspectionTool/1.0) or a mobile variant that ends in (compatible; Google-InspectionTool/1.0) after an Android Chrome prefix. Google ties the agent to its Search testing tools, such as the Rich Result Test and URL inspection in Search Console. Google lists the agent among its common crawlers, and its verification page notes reverse DNS names of the form crawl-***-***-***-***.googlebot.com or geo-crawl-***-***-***-***.geo.googlebot.com.
Blocking Google-InspectionTool in robots.txt affects those testing tools for your site and, in Google's words, has no effect on Google Search or other products. A block does not change how Google Search treats the site; it stops the Rich Result Test and URL inspection from fetching your pages. Google also notes the agent matches the Googlebot robots.txt token, so an existing Googlebot rule already covers it. Allowing it keeps those tools able to fetch your pages.
Google's changelog records one correction relevant to log matching. On 2026-07-14 Google fixed the documented user-agent string, which had previously included a stray semicolon that did not match production. Anyone who built a filter from the old documented string should check it against the corrected form, Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Google-InspectionTool/1.0), and against the mobile variant Google publishes alongside it, which carries the same token after an Android Chrome prefix.
Operator note. Listed under common crawlers; also matches the Googlebot robots.txt token. Mobile agent: 'Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 6.0.1; Nexus 5X Build/MMB29P) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/W.X.Y.Z Mobile Safari/537.36 (compatible; Google-InspectionTool/1.0)'. Changelog 2026-07-14: the documented UA string previously included a stray semicolon that did not match production and has been corrected.
Controlling Google-InspectionTool with robots.txt
Use the token Google-InspectionTool in robots.txt. Google documents that Google-InspectionTool honors robots.txt directives.
User-agent: Google-InspectionTool
Disallow: /User-agent: Google-InspectionTool
Allow: /Verifying a request is really Google-InspectionTool
Anyone can put Google-InspectionTool in a User-Agent header. Reverse DNS to googlebot.com, google.com, or googleusercontent.com with matching forward DNS, or match the source IP against the published common-crawlers.json ranges.
host <request-ip>
# expect a hostname ending in googlebot.com (crawl-***-***-***-***.googlebot.com or geo-crawl-***-***-***-***.geo.googlebot.com)
host <that-hostname>
# expect it to resolve back to <request-ip>Google publishes a machine-readable list. Our probe read it on 2026-09-06; the file's own creation time was 2026-09-04.
- Prefixes
- 317
- IPv4
- 170
- IPv6
- 147
First entries at fetch time: 2001:4860:4801:10::/64, 2001:4860:4801:11::/64, 2001:4860:4801:12::/64
SHA-256 of the fetched body: 241e712f9c902b33aa4c0cc79268c34cb00c025edbc27298547be298763ddade
Common questions
Should I block Google-InspectionTool?
Only if you want to disable Google's Search testing tools for your site. Google says rules for this agent affect the Rich Result Test and URL inspection in Search Console and have no effect on Google Search or other products, so blocking it gains nothing for ranking and removes a diagnostic you may want later.
How do I verify Google-InspectionTool?
Google documents two methods. Run a reverse DNS lookup on the IP and confirm the hostname ends in googlebot.com, google.com or googleusercontent.com, then resolve that hostname forward and check it returns the same IP. Or match the IP against Google's published list at https://developers.google.com/static/crawling/ipranges/common-crawlers.json.
Does Google-InspectionTool run JavaScript?
Google's crawler documentation for this agent does not say whether it renders JavaScript. It documents a user-agent string, a mobile variant with an Android Chrome prefix, its robots.txt behaviour and its IP ranges, but not rendering. Treat script execution as undocumented for this agent.
Sources
Every fact on this page was checked against Google'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.