Other · Google
GoogleOther-Image user agent, IP ranges and robots.txt
GoogleOther-Image is Google's other. It identifies itself with the GoogleOther-Image user-agent token, honors robots.txt according to its operator, and runs from 317 published IP prefixes.
- Operator
- Reviewed
- September 2026
- Sources
- 2
- Operator
- User-agent token
- GoogleOther-Image
- Purpose
- Other
- robots.txt token
- GoogleOther-Image
- Honors robots.txt
- Yes, per the operator
- Published IP ranges
- Yes, 317 prefixes (170 IPv4, 147 IPv6)
- Verification
- 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.
- Reverse DNS suffix
- googlebot.com (crawl-***-***-***-***.googlebot.com or geo-crawl-***-***-***-***.geo.googlebot.com)
- Full user-agent example
- GoogleOther-Image/1.0
Block or allow GoogleOther-Image in robots.txt
User-agent: GoogleOther-Image
Disallow: /User-agent: GoogleOther-Image
Allow: /Verify a request is really GoogleOther-Image
Anyone can put GoogleOther-Image 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>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
- 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
What GoogleOther-Image does
Google operates GoogleOther-Image, a version of GoogleOther optimized for fetching publicly accessible image URLs. Crawling preferences addressed to it affect no specific Google product. It honors the GoogleOther-Image robots.txt token and also matches the GoogleOther token. Site owners verify requests by reverse DNS to googlebot.com, google.com or googleusercontent.com with a matching forward lookup, or against Google's published common-crawlers.json ranges.
In logs the crawler identifies itself with the short user-agent GoogleOther-Image/1.0. Google lists it among its common crawlers and describes it as the version of GoogleOther optimized for fetching publicly accessible image URLs, so requests for image URLs are what to expect from it. Google does not tie the visits to any named product; crawling preferences addressed to this user agent affect no specific product, in the same way as GoogleOther.
Because Google says crawling preferences for GoogleOther-Image affect no specific product, allowing or blocking it does not add or remove your images from a particular Google service, as far as Google's documentation states. A Disallow rule under GoogleOther-Image stops the image fetches. Google also notes that the crawler matches the GoogleOther robots.txt token, so a rule aimed at GoogleOther covers GoogleOther-Image as well; if you want to block image fetching but leave GoogleOther alone, address GoogleOther-Image specifically.
Reverse-resolve the source IP and confirm the hostname ends in googlebot.com, google.com or googleusercontent.com; common crawlers appear as crawl-***-***-***-***.googlebot.com or geo-crawl-***-***-***-***.geo.googlebot.com. Forward-resolve that hostname and check it returns the same IP. Google also publishes the address ranges for its common crawlers in common-crawlers.json, so matching against that file is an equivalent check.
Operator note. Common crawler; also matches the GoogleOther robots.txt token.
Common questions
- Should I block GoogleOther-Image?
- Google says crawling preferences for GoogleOther-Image affect no specific product, so blocking it does not, per Google's documentation, remove your images from a named Google service. Blocking stops Google fetching publicly accessible image URLs through this crawler. A rule for the GoogleOther token also blocks it, since Google says the crawler matches that token too.
- How do I verify GoogleOther-Image?
- Reverse-resolve the source IP and check the hostname ends in googlebot.com, google.com or googleusercontent.com, in the form crawl-***-***-***-***.googlebot.com. Forward-resolve that name and confirm it returns the same IP. Alternatively, match the IP against Google's published common-crawlers.json ranges.
- What is the difference between GoogleOther and GoogleOther-Image?
- Google describes GoogleOther-Image as the version of GoogleOther optimized for fetching publicly accessible image URLs. Both have crawling preferences that affect no specific product. GoogleOther-Image has its own robots.txt token but also matches the GoogleOther token, so a rule for GoogleOther applies to both.
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.