User-triggered fetcher · Google
Google Pinpoint user agent, IP ranges and robots.txt
Google Pinpoint is Google's user-triggered fetcher. It identifies itself with the Google-Pinpoint user-agent token, does not consult robots.txt according to its operator, and runs from 496 published IP prefixes.
- Operator
- Reviewed
- September 2026
- Sources
- 1
- Operator
- User-agent token
- Google-Pinpoint
- Purpose
- User-triggered fetcher
- robots.txt token
- undocumented
- Honors robots.txt
- No, per the operator
- Published IP ranges
- Yes, 496 prefixes (248 IPv4, 248 IPv6)
- Verification
- Reverse DNS with matching forward DNS, or match the source IP against user-triggered-fetchers.json or user-triggered-fetchers-google.json.
- Reverse DNS suffix
- gae.googleusercontent.com (***-***-***-***.gae.googleusercontent.com) or google.com (google-proxy-***-***-***-***.google.com)
- Full user-agent example
- Google-Pinpoint
Block or allow Google Pinpoint in robots.txt
User-agent: undocumented
Disallow: /User-agent: undocumented
Allow: /Verify a request is really Google Pinpoint
Anyone can put Google-Pinpoint in a User-Agent header. Reverse DNS with matching forward DNS, or match the source IP against user-triggered-fetchers.json or user-triggered-fetchers-google.json.
host <request-ip>
# expect a hostname ending in gae.googleusercontent.com (***-***-***-***.gae.googleusercontent.com) or google.com (google-proxy-***-***-***-***.google.com)
host <that-hostname>
# expect it to resolve back to <request-ip>Published IP ranges
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
- 496
- IPv4
- 248
- IPv6
- 248
First entries at fetch time: 2001:4860:4801:4004::/64, 2001:4860:4801:4008::/64, 2001:4860:4801:4009::/64
SHA-256 of the fetched body: 5590a1a5d2fbe83872191aa2d8d45e9c854c56c49b742df9d33b7612f5482a5a
What Google Pinpoint does
Google operates Google-Pinpoint, a user-triggered fetcher that requests individual URLs Pinpoint users specify as sources for their personal document collections. Google documents no robots.txt token for it and says it generally ignores robots.txt. Site owners verify requests through reverse DNS ending in gae.googleusercontent.com or google.com with matching forward DNS, or against Google's published user-triggered-fetchers IP ranges.
Google-Pinpoint shows up in logs with the bare user-agent string Google-Pinpoint and no browser-style prefix. Each request is for one URL that a Pinpoint user added as a source to a personal collection of documents. Google classes it as a user-triggered fetcher rather than a crawler, and the documented behaviour is limited to fetching the specific URLs users name. A request happens because a person asked for that page inside the Pinpoint product, so traffic follows individual actions rather than a scheduled crawl of the site.
Because Google-Pinpoint is user-triggered, Google says it generally ignores robots.txt, and Google documents no robots.txt token for it. A Disallow rule is not a documented control. Site owners who want to refuse these requests need to act at the server or firewall level, using the user-agent string or the published IP ranges. Blocking it means a Pinpoint user who names one of your URLs as a source will not get that document into their collection; the documentation describes no effect on Google Search indexing or any other Google product.
Verification follows Google's standard method. Run a reverse DNS lookup on the requesting IP; the hostname should end in gae.googleusercontent.com or google.com, in the forms ***-***-***-***.gae.googleusercontent.com or google-proxy-***-***-***-***.google.com. Then resolve that hostname forward and confirm it returns the same IP. As an alternative, match the address against user-triggered-fetchers-google.json, the range file Google publishes for this group of fetchers. Google also lists user-triggered-fetchers.json for the same purpose.
Operator note. User-triggered fetcher; generally ignores robots.txt.
Common questions
- Does Google-Pinpoint obey robots.txt?
- No, as a rule. Google documents Google-Pinpoint as a user-triggered fetcher and says it generally ignores robots.txt. Google also lists no robots.txt token for it. To refuse the requests you have to block at the server level using the user-agent string or Google's published IP ranges.
- How do I verify Google-Pinpoint?
- Do a reverse DNS lookup on the source IP and check that the hostname ends in gae.googleusercontent.com or google.com, then resolve that hostname forward and confirm it matches the original IP. Or compare the IP with the user-triggered-fetchers-google.json file that Google publishes at developers.google.com.
- Should I block Google-Pinpoint?
- Only if you object to Pinpoint users pulling your pages into their personal document collections. Google's documentation ties this fetcher to that single product and describes no link to search indexing, so blocking it carries no documented search cost. A robots.txt rule is not a documented control for it; you need a server-level block.
Sources
The operator documentation used for this entry. Recorded review date September 2026; consult the linked pages for current policy and compare them with this dated snapshot.
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.