Other · Yandex
YandexScreenshotBot user agent, IP ranges and robots.txt
YandexScreenshotBot is Yandex's other. It identifies itself with the YandexScreenshotBot user-agent token, applies robots.txt only in part, per 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
- YandexScreenshotBot
- Purpose
- Other
- robots.txt token
- YandexScreenshotBot
- Honors robots.txt
- Partially, see notes
- 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 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/W.X.Y.Z Safari/537.36 (compatible; YandexScreenshotBot/3.0; +http://yandex.com/bots)
Block or allow YandexScreenshotBot in robots.txt
User-agent: YandexScreenshotBot
Disallow: /User-agent: YandexScreenshotBot
Allow: /Verify a request is really YandexScreenshotBot
Anyone can put YandexScreenshotBot 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 YandexScreenshotBot does
Yandex operates YandexScreenshotBot, which takes a screenshot of the page. It uses the YandexScreenshotBot token; robots.txt support is partial, because Yandex says general robots.txt rules do not apply to it. No IP range file is documented; site owners verify visits by reverse DNS to a yandex.ru, yandex.net or yandex.com hostname with forward confirmation, or with the Yandex Webmaster IP checker.
The user agent is a Chrome-like string ending in (compatible; YandexScreenshotBot/3.0; +http://yandex.com/bots), where W.X.Y.Z stands for a Chrome version such as 41.0.2272.96, per Yandex's documented placeholder. Yandex describes the purpose in a single clause, that it takes a screenshot of the page. The documentation does not say what Yandex does with the screenshot, and it does not say whether the Chrome-like string means the bot renders the page and runs JavaScript.
Robots.txt control is partial. Yandex documents that general robots.txt rules do not apply to YandexScreenshotBot, so a User-agent: * group does not stop it. A group addressed to YandexScreenshotBot by name is the control the registry records. Blocking it prevents Yandex from capturing screenshots of the site's pages, and allowing it lets those captures continue. The documentation gives no IP range file for this bot, so verification depends on the DNS check that applies to all Yandex robots.
Operator note. It does not take into account the general rules in robots.txt. In the documented UA string, 'W.X.Y.Z' is a placeholder for the Chrome version (for example 41.0.2272.96).
Common questions
- Does YandexScreenshotBot obey robots.txt?
- Partly. Yandex states that general robots.txt rules do not apply to YandexScreenshotBot, so a User-agent: * Disallow does not affect it. Address a group to YandexScreenshotBot by name to control it; that is the only robots.txt control the registry records for this bot.
- How do I verify YandexScreenshotBot?
- Reverse-resolve the source IP and confirm the hostname ends in yandex.ru, yandex.net or yandex.com, then forward-resolve that hostname and confirm it returns the same IP. Yandex also has an IP address check tool in Yandex Webmaster. No IP range list is documented for this bot.
- Does YandexScreenshotBot run JavaScript?
- The operator's documentation does not say. The user agent is a Chrome-like string with a documented placeholder for the Chrome version, and Yandex says the bot takes a screenshot of the page, but it makes no statement 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.