Search engine crawler · Yandex
YandexMedia user agent, IP ranges and robots.txt
YandexMedia is Yandex's search engine crawler. It identifies itself with the YandexMedia user-agent token, honors robots.txt according to its operator, and can be verified by reverse DNS (yandex.ru, yandex.net, yandex.com).
- Operator
- Yandex
- Reviewed
- September 2026
- Sources
- 1
- Operator
- Yandex
- User-agent token
- YandexMedia
- Purpose
- Search engine crawler
- robots.txt token
- YandexMedia
- Honors robots.txt
- Yes, per the operator
- Published IP ranges
- No official range file
- Verification
- Reverse DNS lookup on the requesting IP must return a host ending in yandex.ru, yandex.net or yandex.com, and a forward DNS lookup of that host must return the same IP. Yandex Webmaster also provides an IP address check tool.
- Reverse DNS suffix
- yandex.ru, yandex.net, yandex.com
- Full user-agent example
- Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexMedia/3.0; +http://yandex.com/bots)
Block or allow YandexMedia in robots.txt
User-agent: YandexMedia
Disallow: /User-agent: YandexMedia
Allow: /Verify a request is really YandexMedia
Anyone can put YandexMedia in a User-Agent header. Reverse DNS lookup on the requesting IP must return a host ending in yandex.ru, yandex.net or yandex.com, and a forward DNS lookup of that host must return the same IP. Yandex Webmaster also provides an IP address check tool.
host <request-ip>
# expect a hostname ending in yandex.ru, yandex.net, yandex.com
host <that-hostname>
# expect it to resolve back to <request-ip>What YandexMedia does
Yandex operates YandexMedia, a search-engine crawler that indexes multimedia data. It sends the user agent "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexMedia/3.0; +http://yandex.com/bots)", honors robots.txt under the YandexMedia token and takes general robots.txt rules into account. Site owners verify it by reverse DNS to a yandex.ru, yandex.net or yandex.com host with forward confirmation, or with the Yandex Webmaster IP check tool.
In server logs YandexMedia appears as "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexMedia/3.0; +http://yandex.com/bots)". Yandex's crawler reference describes its job in one line: it indexes multimedia data. The documentation does not list which file types it requests, how often it visits, or whether it renders pages, so server logs are the only source for what it fetches on a given site and how frequently it returns.
YandexMedia is a search-engine crawler, so blocking its token in robots.txt keeps a site's multimedia out of the Yandex index that this crawler feeds. Yandex documents that YandexMedia takes general robots.txt rules into account, meaning a User-agent: * block applies to it as well as a block that names YandexMedia directly. Allowing it lets Yandex index the site's multimedia data.
Verification follows the method Yandex documents. Run a reverse DNS lookup on the IP; the hostname should end in yandex.ru, yandex.net or yandex.com. Then run a forward lookup on that hostname and confirm it returns the original IP. Yandex also provides an IP address check tool inside Yandex Webmaster. No IP range file is published, so address-list matching is not a method Yandex documents.
Operator note. It takes into account the general rules in robots.txt.
Common questions
- Should I block YandexMedia?
- Only if you do not want your multimedia content indexed by Yandex. The documented purpose is indexing multimedia data for search, so a Disallow rule for the YandexMedia token removes that media from the Yandex index it feeds. A general User-agent: * rule also applies, since Yandex says this crawler takes general robots.txt rules into account.
- How do I verify YandexMedia?
- Reverse-resolve the requesting IP and check that the hostname ends in yandex.ru, yandex.net or yandex.com, then forward-resolve that hostname and confirm it points back to the same IP. Yandex also has an IP address check tool in Yandex Webmaster. Yandex publishes no IP range list for this crawler.
- Does YandexMedia run JavaScript?
- The operator's documentation does not say. Yandex's crawler reference for YandexMedia states only that it indexes multimedia data, honors robots.txt and takes general rules into account. Nothing is published about rendering or script execution.
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.