Is APIs-Google a legitimate bot, or is it commonly spoofed?

Yes, APIs-Google is a legitimate bot by Google. However, UA-based spoofing by malicious actors is common for this bot. You can use Google's recommended methods mentioned below to verify a legitimate visit, or use RobotSense.io API to easily verify APIs-Google bot visits.

How can I verify that a request is really coming from APIs-Google bot?

You can use Google's recommended official methods to verify APIs-Google bot visits, these include: - IP range checks - Reverse DNS → forward DNS Do not use User-Agent based detection as that can be easily spoofed. Alternatively, you can use RobotSense.io API to easily verify APIs-Google bot and all other bots from Google and other operators.

Should I allow or block APIs-Google bot on my website?

As APIs-Google is a legitimate bot by Google, you can safely allow it to crawl your public pages. Google does not seem to use this crawler for search indexing purpose of any kind. If you are suddenly seeing too many visits, you can consider adding a small crawl-delay in your robots.txt before completely disallowing.

How can I control or block APIs-Google bot using robots.txt or other methods?

You can add a rule in your robots.txt, as given above to control (crawl-delay) or disallow APIs-Google bot. However, note that since this bot is mainly event-driven, it may not respect your robots.txt settings. Use better controls at your WAF, or in RobotSense enforcement settings.

How often does APIs-Google bot crawl websites, and can it impact server performance?

The APIs-Google bot does not crawl a website that frequently, as it is mostly event-driven. Observed load on servers is nearly minimal.

What happens if I block APIs-Google bot? SEO, visibility, and feature impact explained.

Blocking APIs-Google bot has no direct impact on SEO, Search Visibility, and Search Ranking. However, it may impact below in an undesired way: - Property verifications flow as is used by Google Search Console - Google Indexing API (JobPosting, LiveStreams) and Instant indexing use cases - Google Ads conversion tracking - Merchant center syncs - Offline conversion uploads - Enhanced conversions, and - Feed validations

Does APIs-Google collect, scrape, or use my content for training or reuse?

No, APIs-Google has no officially documented AI purpose.

APIs-Google

Name: APIs-Google
Author: Google

Developer Tools

Operated by GoogleDeveloper Tools

Visit Bot Homepage

Verify APIs-Google IP Address

Verify if an IP address truly belongs to Google, using official verification methods. Enter both IP address and User-Agent from your logs for the most accurate bot verification.

APIs-Google is a service crawler used by Google to verify and interact with endpoints tied to various Google APIs. It is typically triggered when applications, scripts, or integrations using Google services need to fetch or validate external resources. Common use cases include OAuth flows, link previews, data validation, push notification messages, and API-driven checks performed on behalf of Google products. Crawl activity is usually low-volume and event-driven, reflecting specific API operations rather than broad crawling or indexing associated with Google Search. It ignores the global user agent (*) rule. RobotSense.io verifies APIs-Google using Google’s official validation methods, ensuring only genuine APIs-Google traffic is identified.

This bot does not honor Crawl-Delay rule.

User Agent Examples

Contains: APIs-Google (+https://developers.google.com/webmasters/APIs-Google.html)

Robots.txt Configuration for APIs-Google

Robots.txt User-Agent:APIs-Google

Use this identifier in your robots.txt User-agent directive to target APIs-Google.

Recommended Configuration

Our recommended robots.txt configuration for APIs-Google:

User-agent: APIs-Google
Allow: /

Completely Block APIs-Google

Prevent this bot from crawling your entire site:

User-agent: APIs-Google
Disallow: /

Completely Allow APIs-Google

Allow this bot to crawl your entire site:

User-agent: APIs-Google
Allow: /

Block Specific Paths

Block this bot from specific directories or pages:

User-agent: APIs-Google
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /api/

Allow Only Specific Paths

Block everything but allow specific directories:

User-agent: APIs-Google
Disallow: /
Allow: /public/
Allow: /blog/

Set Crawl Delay

Limit how frequently APIs-Google can request pages (in seconds):

User-agent: APIs-Google
Allow: /
Crawl-delay: 10

Note: This bot does not officially mention about honoring Crawl-Delay rule.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is APIs-Google bot, and why is it visiting my website?: APIs-Google is a service crawler from Google that verifies and interact with endpoints tied to various Google APIs. It is typically triggered when applications, scripts, or integrations using Google services need to fetch or validate external resources. Visits from APIs-Google bot are non-harmful and the crawl speed is moderate-to-low.
Is APIs-Google a legitimate bot, or is it commonly spoofed?: Yes, APIs-Google is a legitimate bot by Google. However, UA-based spoofing by malicious actors is common for this bot. You can use Google's recommended methods mentioned below to verify a legitimate visit, or use RobotSense.io API to easily verify APIs-Google bot visits.
How can I verify that a request is really coming from APIs-Google bot?: You can use Google's recommended official methods to verify APIs-Google bot visits, these include: - IP range checks - Reverse DNS → forward DNS Do not use User-Agent based detection as that can be easily spoofed. Alternatively, you can use RobotSense.io API to easily verify APIs-Google bot and all other bots from Google and other operators.
Should I allow or block APIs-Google bot on my website?: As APIs-Google is a legitimate bot by Google, you can safely allow it to crawl your public pages. Google does not seem to use this crawler for search indexing purpose of any kind. If you are suddenly seeing too many visits, you can consider adding a small crawl-delay in your robots.txt before completely disallowing.
How can I control or block APIs-Google bot using robots.txt or other methods?: You can add a rule in your robots.txt, as given above to control (crawl-delay) or disallow APIs-Google bot. However, note that since this bot is mainly event-driven, it may not respect your robots.txt settings. Use better controls at your WAF, or in RobotSense enforcement settings.
How often does APIs-Google bot crawl websites, and can it impact server performance?: The APIs-Google bot does not crawl a website that frequently, as it is mostly event-driven. Observed load on servers is nearly minimal.
What happens if I block APIs-Google bot? SEO, visibility, and feature impact explained.: Blocking APIs-Google bot has no direct impact on SEO, Search Visibility, and Search Ranking. However, it may impact below in an undesired way: - Property verifications flow as is used by Google Search Console - Google Indexing API (JobPosting, LiveStreams) and Instant indexing use cases - Google Ads conversion tracking - Merchant center syncs - Offline conversion uploads - Enhanced conversions, and - Feed validations
Does APIs-Google collect, scrape, or use my content for training or reuse?: No, APIs-Google has no officially documented AI purpose.