YandexMobileBot
Yandex operates YandexMobileBot, a search-engine robot that defines pages with a layout suitable for mobile devices. It responds to its own robots.txt token, YandexMobileBot, but does not take general robots.txt rules into account. Site owners verify it by reverse DNS to a hostname ending in yandex.ru, yandex.net or yandex.com, or with the Yandex Webmaster IP address check tool.
Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 8_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/600.1.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/8.0 Mobile/12B411 Safari/600.1.4 (compatible; YandexMobileBot/3.0; +http://yandex.com/bots)What YandexMobileBot does
In logs the robot presents an iPhone Safari user-agent string that ends with the token YandexMobileBot/3.0 and a link to yandex.com/bots. Yandex describes its job in one line, defining pages whose layout is suitable for mobile devices, and gives no further detail on what it does with that assessment. Nothing in Yandex's documentation for this robot describes JavaScript execution or crawl rate, so a site owner's own logs are the only source for how often it visits and which pages it requests.
Allowing YandexMobileBot lets Yandex assess whether a site's pages are laid out for mobile devices for its search engine. Blocking it prevents that assessment, and Yandex does not document what the consequence is for a site's search presence. Control is by a dedicated robots.txt group. Yandex says this robot does not take general rules into account, so a rule under User-agent: * will not reach it. The documentation's own example is User-agent: YandexMobileBot followed by Disallow: /private/*.txt$, which shows the $ end-anchor in use.
To verify a visit, run a reverse DNS lookup on the IP and check that the hostname ends 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 has an IP address check tool in Yandex Webmaster. Yandex publishes no IP range file for this robot, so DNS and the check tool are the documented methods.
Operator note. It does not take into account the general rules in robots.txt. Yandex uses it in the example 'User-agent: YandexMobileBot / Disallow: /private/*.txt$'.
Controlling YandexMobileBot with robots.txt
Use the token YandexMobileBot in robots.txt. Yandex documents limits on how this bot applies robots.txt; see the operator note.
User-agent: YandexMobileBot
Disallow: /User-agent: YandexMobileBot
Allow: /Verifying a request is really YandexMobileBot
Anyone can put YandexMobileBot 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>Common questions
Should I block YandexMobileBot?
Yandex says this robot defines pages with a layout suitable for mobile devices for its search engine. Blocking it stops that check; Yandex does not document what effect that has on your search presence. To block it, add a robots.txt group with User-agent: YandexMobileBot, because rules under User-agent: * do not apply to it.
How do I verify YandexMobileBot?
Do a reverse DNS lookup on the requesting IP and confirm the hostname ends in yandex.ru, yandex.net or yandex.com. Then do a forward DNS lookup on that hostname and check it resolves back to the same IP. Yandex Webmaster also has an IP address check tool. Yandex publishes no IP range file.
Does YandexMobileBot follow robots.txt?
Partially. Yandex documents that it does not take general robots.txt rules into account, and its example addresses the robot directly with User-agent: YandexMobileBot. If your only rules are under User-agent: *, this robot will not apply them.
Sources
Every fact on this page was checked against Yandex'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.