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# FeedFetcher-Google

> FeedFetcher-Google is an other bot run by Google. It fetches RSS and Atom feeds for Google News and WebSub, at the request of users of apps and services.

- Operator: Google
- Kind: Other bot
- robots.txt token: none documented
- Follows robots.txt: no
- Source: https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/feedfetcher (checked 2026-11-05)
- Page: https://invisit.dev/bots/google-feedfetcher

## What is FeedFetcher-Google?

It fetches RSS and Atom feeds for Google News and WebSub, at the request of users of apps and services.

A bot that fits none of the groups above, such as an ad review crawler.

Google says Feedfetcher ignores robots.txt because it acts for human users, and it should not fetch a feed more than about once an hour on average.

- [Google’s documentation](https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/feedfetcher)

## FeedFetcher-Google user agent

Google documents this user agent for FeedFetcher-Google. Version numbers in it change over time, so match on the name, not the whole string.

```
FeedFetcher-Google; (+http://www.google.com/feedfetcher.html)
```

## Should you block FeedFetcher-Google?

It depends on what it does; read the operator’s page below.

## How to block FeedFetcher-Google in robots.txt

Google says FeedFetcher-Google does not follow robots.txt, so a robots.txt rule won’t stop it. Block it at your server or firewall by user agent, and by IP if Google publishes its ranges.

Google suggests serving a 404, 410 or other error status to the Feedfetcher-Google user agent if you do not want your feeds fetched.

- [Build a robots.txt for AI bots](https://invisit.dev/tools/robots-txt-generator)

## How to verify a request is really FeedFetcher-Google

Anyone can send any user agent, so the string alone proves nothing.

Google publishes the IP ranges FeedFetcher-Google crawls from. A request that claims to be FeedFetcher-Google from any other address is not FeedFetcher-Google.

Or check by reverse DNS: look up the hostname of the request’s IP, confirm it ends in `google.com`, then look that hostname up again and confirm it points back to the same IP.

- [FeedFetcher-Google IP ranges](https://developers.google.com/static/crawling/ipranges/user-triggered-fetchers-google.json)

## See when FeedFetcher-Google reads your site

Bots don’t run JavaScript analytics, so a script tag never sees them. invisit records crawler reads on the server instead, through its server SDK or a Cloudflare Worker, and shows which bots read which pages, next to your visitors.

- [Track crawlers with invisit](https://invisit.dev/docs/server/sdk#crawler-reads)

## Common questions

### What is FeedFetcher-Google?

FeedFetcher-Google is an other bot run by Google. It fetches RSS and Atom feeds for Google News and WebSub, at the request of users of apps and services.

### Is FeedFetcher-Google safe to block?

It depends on what it does; read the operator’s page below.

### How do I block FeedFetcher-Google?

Google documents no robots.txt token for it that we could confirm, so block it at your server or firewall by its user agent.