is_bot

Simple PHP function to detect search engines bots and crawlers

It compares the PHP User Agent with a list of common spiders from search engines, more than 200 bots, spiders and crawlers who are honest and say what they are in the User Agent

use $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];

Using this server variable is not enough to block spambots and other kind of traffic, is just for clearly defined user agents, if you are attacked by a storm of AI bots, you'll need a different approach like Cloudflare or block IP ranges of VPS

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Update 2026-10-27

• TalarionSearchBot

Update 2026-09-20

• RetroDocumentResearch
• KeenableBot
• Reflectionbot

Update 2026-08-05

• LyonlBot

Update 2026-08-01

• LinkupBot

Update 2026-06-25

• SleepBot
• Backlinkfetch
• PrivacyBrowser
• meta-webindexer
• CT-WP-Scanner

Update 2026-05-15

• GoogleOther-Image
• MistralBot
• Timpibot
• Google-CloudVertexBoT

Update 2026-05-01

• xAI-SearchBot
• Perplexity-User
• Claude-SearchBot

Update 2026-04-14

• Aranet-SearchBot
• BrokenLinksBot

Update 2026-03-14

• Amazing-SearchBot
• leakix.net
• ShapBot

Update 2026-01-13

• BUbiNG
• WPMU DEV Broken Link Checker Local Engine
• sfFeedReader
• TikTokSpider
• fedistatsCrawler
• SkyWatch
• Instapaper

Update 2025-08-15

• Bluesky Cardyb
• TerraCotta
• IbouBot

Update 2025-07-14

• AdsBot-Google-Mobile
• FreshRSS
• SmartReader
• Dazzle BlueSky
• http.rb

Update 2025-04-16

• AwarioBot +https://awario.com/bots.html
• NetworkingExtension
• ApacheBench

Update 2025-03-30

• GuzzleHttp (thanks guillaume-uH57J9)

Update 2024-12-03

• Fixed some duplicates

Update 2024-11-28

• meta-externalagent/1.1 (+https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/crawler)
• InternetMeasurement/1.0; +https://internet-measurement.com/

Update 2024-08-19

• ev-crawler
• OAI-SearchBot

Update 2024-07-21

• SeznamBot
• SeznamHomepage
• ChatGPT
• Google-Extended
• GoogleOther
• anthropic
• Claude-Web
• cohere-ai
• Diffbot
• FacebookBot
• ImagesiftBot
• PerplexityBot
• Omigili
• yacybot
• RepoLookoutBot
• StractBot
• IABot
• rss-is-dead
• Slackbot
• Storebot-Google
• Google-InspectionTool
• APIs-Google
• AdsBot-Google
• Google-Safety
• WellKnownBot
• ArchiveBot
• Sogou
• iaskspider
• Qwantbot
• keys-so-bot

removed "not" to avoid false detections

Update 2024-07-19

• Owler (ows.eu/owler)
• ImagesiftBot; +imagesift.com

Update 2023-12-04

• Paqlebot/2.0; +http://www.paqle.dk/about/paqlebot

Update 2023-09-05

• PhxBot
• Bytespider
• GPTBot
• SummalyBot
• LinkedInBot
• SpiderWeb
• SpaceCowboys
• LCC

Update 2023-05-07

• Embedly
• Mjukisbyxor
• Giant Rhubarb
• GozleBot
• Friendica
• WhatsApp
• XenForo
• Yeti
• MuckRack

Update 2023-02-02

• Pleroma (Mastodon)
• Akkoma (Mastodon)
• koyu.space

Update 2023-01-12

• Neevabot
• Mastodon

Update 2022-08-17

• Semanticbot/1.0; (http://sempi.tech/bot.html)
• ImageFetcher/9.0; (http://images.weserv.nl/)

Update 2022-08-01

• Protopage/3.0 (http://www.protopage.com)
• Miniflux/2.0.37 (https://miniflux.app)
• Feeder / 2.1.2(233)

Update 2022-07-11

• Petalsearch (https://webmaster.petalsearch.com/site/petalbot)

Update 2022-04-15 (big update)

• Aipbot
• Alexibot
• AllSubmitter
• Alligator
• AlphaBot
• Anarchie
• Anarchy
• Anarchy99
• Ankit
• Anthill
• Apexoo
• Aspiegel
• Asterias
• Atomseobot
• Attach
• AwarioRssBot
• BBBike
• BDCbot
• BDFetch
• BackDoorBot
• BackStreet
• BackWeb
• Backlink-Ceck
• BacklinkCrawler
• Badass
• Bandit
• Barkrowler
• BatchFTP
• Battleztar Bazinga
• BetaBot
• Bigfoot
• Bitacle
• BlackWidow
• Black Hole
• Blackboard
• Blow
• BlowFish
• Boardreader
• Bolt
• BotALot
• Brandprotect
• Brandwatch
• Buck
• Buddy
• BuiltBotTough
• BuiltWith
• Bullseye
• BunnySlippers
• BuzzSumo
• CATExplorador
• CCBot
• CODE87
• CSHttp
• Calculon
• CazoodleBot
• Cegbfeieh
• CensysInspect
• CheTeam
• CheeseBot
• CherryPicker
• ChinaClaw
• Chlooe
• Citoid
• Claritybot
• Cliqzbot
• Cloud mapping
• Cocolyzebot
• Cogentbot
• Collector
• Copier
• CopyRightCheck
• Copyscape
• Cosmos
• Craftbot
• Crawling at Home Project
• CrazyWebCrawler
• Crescent
• CrunchBot
• Curious
• Custo
• CyotekWebCopy
• DBLBot
• DIIbot
• DSearch
• DTS Agent
• DataCha0s
• DatabaseDriverMysqli
• Demon
• Deusu
• Devil
• Digincore
• DigitalPebble
• Dirbuster
• Disco
• Discobot
• Discoverybot
• Dispatch
• DittoSpyder
• DnBCrawler-Analytics
• DnyzBot
• DomCopBot
• DomainAppender
• DomainCrawler
• DomainSigmaCrawler
• DomainStatsBot
• Domains Project
• Dotbot
• Download Wonder
• Dragonfly
• Drip
• ECCP/1.0
• EMail Siphon
• EMail Wolf
• EasyDL
• Ebingbong
• Ecxi
• EirGrabber
• EroCrawler
• Evil
• Exabot
• Express WebPictures
• ExtLinksBot
• Extractor
• ExtractorPro
• Extreme Picture Finder
• EyeNetIE
• Ezooms
• FDM
• FHscan
• FemtosearchBot
• Fimap
• Firefox/7.0
• FlashGet
• Flunky
• Foobot
• Freeuploader
• FrontPage
• Fuzz
• FyberSpider
• Fyrebot
• G-i-g-a-b-o-t
• GT::WWW
• GalaxyBot
• Genieo
• GermCrawler
• GetRight
• GetWeb
• Getintent
• Gigabot
• Go!Zilla
• Go-Ahead-Got-It
• GoZilla
• Gotit
• GrabNet
• Grabber
• Grafula
• GrapeFX
• GrapeshotCrawler
• GridBot
• HEADMasterSEO
• HMView
• HTMLparser
• HTTP::Lite
• HTTrack
• Haansoft
• HaosouSpider
• Harvest
• Havij
• Heritrix
• Hloader
• HonoluluBot
• Humanlinks
• HybridBot
• IDBTE4M
• IDBot
• IRLbot
• Iblog
• Id-search
• IlseBot
• Image Fetch
• Image Sucker
• IndeedBot
• Indy Library
• InfoNaviRobot
• InfoTekies
• Intelliseek
• InterGET
• InternetSeer
• Internet Ninja
• Iria
• Iskanie
• IstellaBot
• JOC Web Spider
• JamesBOT
• Jbrofuzz
• JennyBot
• JetCar
• Jetty
• JikeSpider
• Joomla
• Jorgee
• JustView
• Jyxobot
• Kenjin Spider
• Keybot Translation-Search-Machine
• Keyword Density
• Kinza
• Kozmosbot
• LNSpiderguy
• LWP::Simple
• Lanshanbot
• Larbin
• Leap
• LeechFTP
• LeechGet
• LexiBot
• Lftp
• LibWeb
• Libwhisker
• LieBaoFast
• Lightspeedsystems
• Likse
• LinkScan
• LinkWalker
• Linkbot
• LinkextractorPro
• LinkpadBot
• LinksManager
• LinqiaMetadataDownloaderBot
• LinqiaRSSBot
• LinqiaScrapeBot
• Lipperhey
• Lipperhey Spider
• Litemage_walker
• Lmspider
• Ltx71
• MFC_Tear_Sample
• MIDown tool
• MIIxpc
• MJ12bot
• MQQBrowser
• MSFrontPage
• MSIECrawler
• MTRobot
• Mag-Net
• Magnet
• Mail.RU_Bot
• Majestic-SEO
• Majestic12
• Majestic SEO
• MarkMonitor
• MarkWatch
• Mass Downloader
• Masscan
• Mata Hari
• MauiBot
• Mb2345Browser
• MeanPath Bot
• Meanpathbot
• Mediatoolkitbot
• MegaIndex.ru
• Metauri
• MicroMessenger
• Microsoft Data Access
• Microsoft URL Control
• Minefield
• Mister PiX
• Moblie Safari
• Mojeek
• Mojolicious
• MolokaiBot
• Morfeus Fucking Scanner
• Mozlila
• Mr.4x3
• Msrabot
• Musobot
• NICErsPRO
• NPbot
• Name Intelligence
• Nameprotect
• Navroad
• NearSite
• Needle
• Nessus
• NetAnts
• NetLyzer
• NetMechanic
• NetSpider
• NetZIP
• Net Vampire
• Netcraft
• Nettrack
• Netvibes
• NextGenSearchBot
• Nibbler
• Niki-bot
• Nikto
• NimbleCrawler
• Nimbostratus
• Ninja
• Nmap
• Not
• Nuclei
• Nutch
• Octopus
• Offline Explorer
• Offline Navigator
• OnCrawl
• OpenLinkProfiler
• OpenVAS
• Openfind
• Openvas
• OrangeBot
• OrangeSpider
• OutclicksBot
• OutfoxBot
• PECL::HTTP
• PHPCrawl
• POE-Component-Client-HTTP
• PageAnalyzer
• PageGrabber
• PageScorer
• PageThing.com
• Page Analyzer
• Pandalytics
• Panscient
• Papa Foto
• Pavuk
• PeoplePal
• Petalbot
• Pi-Monster
• Picscout
• Picsearch
• PictureFinder
• Piepmatz
• Pimonster
• Pixray
• PleaseCrawl
• Pockey
• ProPowerBot
• ProWebWalker
• Probethenet
• Psbot
• Pu_iN
• Pump
• PxBroker
• PyCurl
• QueryN Metasearch
• Quick-Crawler
• RSSingBot
• RankActive
• RankActiveLinkBot
• RankFlex
• RankingBot
• RankingBot2
• Rankivabot
• RankurBot
• Re-re
• ReGet
• RealDownload
• Reaper
• RebelMouse
• Recorder
• RedesScrapy
• RepoMonkey
• Ripper
• RocketCrawler
• Rogerbot
• SBIder
• SEOkicks
• SEOkicks-Robot
• SEOlyticsCrawler
• SEOprofiler
• SEOstats
• SISTRIX
• SMTBot
• SalesIntelligent
• ScanAlert
• Scanbot
• ScoutJet
• Scrapy
• Screaming
• ScreenerBot
• ScrepyBot
• Searchestate
• SearchmetricsBot
• Seekport
• SemanticJuice
• Semrush
• SemrushBot
• SentiBot
• SeoSiteCheckup
• SeobilityBot
• Seomoz
• Shodan
• Siphon
• SiteCheckerBotCrawler
• SiteExplorer
• SiteLockSpider
• SiteSnagger
• SiteSucker
• Site Sucker
• Sitebeam
• Siteimprove
• Sitevigil
• SlySearch
• SmartDownload
• Snake
• Snapbot
• Snoopy
• SocialRankIOBot
• Sociscraper
• Sogou web spider
• Sosospider
• Sottopop
• SpaceBison
• Spammen
• SpankBot
• Spanner
• Spbot
• Spinn3r
• SputnikBot
• Sqlmap
• Sqlworm
• Sqworm
• Steeler
• Stripper
• Sucker
• Sucuri
• SuperBot
• SuperHTTP
• Surfbot
• SurveyBot
• Suzuran
• Swiftbot
• Szukacz
• T0PHackTeam
• T8Abot
• Teleport
• TeleportPro
• Telesoft
• Telesphoreo
• Telesphorep
• TheNomad
• The Intraformant
• Thumbor
• TightTwatBot
• Titan
• Toata
• Toweyabot
• Tracemyfile
• Trendiction
• Trendictionbot
• True_Robot
• Turingos
• Turnitin
• TurnitinBot
• TwengaBot
• Twice
• Typhoeus
• URLy.Warning
• URLy Warning
• UnisterBot
• Upflow
• V-BOT
• VB Project
• VCI
• Vacuum
• Vagabondo
• VelenPublicWebCrawler
• VeriCiteCrawler
• VidibleScraper
• Virusdie
• VoidEYE
• Voil
• Voltron
• WASALive-Bot
• WBSearchBot
• WEBDAV
• WISENutbot
• WPScan
• WWW-Collector-E
• WWW-Mechanize
• WWW::Mechanize
• WWWOFFLE
• Wallpapers
• Wallpapers/3.0
• WallpapersHD
• WeSEE
• WebAuto
• WebBandit
• WebCollage
• WebCopier
• WebEnhancer
• WebFetch
• WebFuck
• WebGo IS
• WebImageCollector
• WebLeacher
• WebPix
• WebReaper
• WebSauger
• WebStripper
• WebSucker
• WebWhacker
• WebZIP
• Web Auto
• Web Collage
• Web Enhancer
• Web Fetch
• Web Fuck
• Web Pix
• Web Sauger
• Web Sucker
• Webalta
• WebmasterWorldForumBot
• Webshag
• WebsiteExtractor
• WebsiteQuester
• Website Quester
• Webster
• Whack
• Whacker
• Whatweb
• Who.is Bot
• Widow
• WinHTTrack
• WiseGuys Robot
• Wonderbot
• Woobot
• Wotbox
• Wprecon
• Xaldon WebSpider
• Xaldon_WebSpider
• Xenu
• YoudaoBot
• Zade
• Zauba
• Zermelo
• Zeus
• Zitebot
• ZmEu
• ZoomBot
• ZoominfoBot
• ZumBot
• ZyBorg
• adscanner
• archive.org_bot
• arquivo-web-crawler
• arquivo.pt
• autoemailspider
• backlink-check
• cah.io.community
• check1.exe
• clark-crawler
• coccocbot
• cognitiveseo
• com.plumanalytics
• crawl.sogou.com
• crawler.feedback
• crawler4j
• dataforseo.com
• demandbase-bot
• domainsproject.org
• eCatch
• evc-batch
• facebookscraper
• gopher
• heritrix
• instabid
• internetVista monitor
• ips-agent
• isitwp.com
• iubenda-radar
• linkdexbot
• lwp-request
• lwp-trivial
• magpie-crawler
• meanpathbot
• mediawords
• muhstik-scan
• netEstate NE Crawler
• oBot
• page scorer
• pcBrowser
• plumanalytics
• polaris version
• probe-image-size
• ripz
• s1z.ru
• satoristudio.net
• scalaj-http
• scan.lol
• seobility
• seocompany.store
• seoscanners
• seostar
• serpstatbot
• sexsearcher
• sitechecker.pro
• siteripz
• sogouspider
• sp_auditbot
• spyfu
• sysscan
• tAkeOut
• trendiction.com
• trendiction.de
• ubermetrics-technologies.com
• voyagerx.com
• webgains-bot
• webmeup-crawler
• webpros.com
• webprosbot
• x09Mozilla
• x22Mozilla
• xpymep1.exe
• zauba.io
• zgrab

Update 2022-04-08

• 01h4x.com
• 404checker
• 404enemy
• AIBOT
• ALittle Client
• ASPSeek
• Aboundex
• Acunetix
• AfD-Verbotsverfahren
• AiHitBot

Update 2022-04-05

• CriteoBot (+https://www.criteo.com/criteo-crawler/)
• aiohttp
• AppEngine-Google (+http://code.google.com/appengine; appid: s~snapchat-proxy)
• heritrix (heritrix/3.3.0-SNAPSHOT-20150302-2206)
• sqlmap (https://sqlmap.org)
• Buck (https://app.hypefactors.com)
• MJ12bot
• wp_is_mobile
• SerendeputyBot (http://serendeputy.com/about/serendeputy-bot)
• MetaInspector
• PetalBot

Update 2021-11-20

• GoogleProducer; (+http://goo.gl/7y4SX)
• TinEye-bot-live; +http://www.tineye.com/crawler.html)
• got (https://github.com/sindresorhus/got)
• CriteoBot/0.1 (+https://www.criteo.com/criteo-crawler/)
• Down/5.2.3
• Yahoo Ad monitoring; https://help.yahoo.com/kb/yahoo-ad-monitoring-SLN24857.html

Update 2021-10-01

• Symfony BrowserKit
• DataForSeoBot

Update 2021-05-24

• Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; +http://tweetedtimes.com)
• Amazonbot/0.1; +https://developer.amazon.com/support/amazonbot
• MauiBot ([email protected])

Update 2021-02-26

• CensysInspect/1.1; (+https://about.censys.io/)
• Reeder/4020.89.01

Update 2021-01-05 Happy New Year

• Twingly Recon-Klondike/1.0 (+https://developer.twingly.com)
• Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Google-Apps-Script; beanserver; +https://script.google.com; id: UAEmdDd824zcSIvptez-dRAaFIs3vGDfB8Q)
• SerendeputyBot/0.8.6 (http://serendeputy.com/about/serendeputy-bot)
• Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; LinkpadBot/2.3; +http://linkpad.org/robot/)

Update 2020-10-29

• Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; AhrefsBot/7.0; +http://ahrefs.com/robot/)"
• Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; TTD-Content; +https://www.thetradedesk.com/general/ttd-content)
• Superfeedr bot/2.0 http://superfeedr.com - Checking HTML reverse link.

Update 2020-09-23

• SerendeputyBot/0.8.6 (http://serendeputy.com/about/serendeputy-bot)
• Cocolyzebot/1.0; https://cocolyze.com/bot

Update 2020-08-13

• acebookexternalhit/1.0 (+http://www.facebook.com/externalhit_uatext.php)
• SpiderLing (a SPIDER for LINGustic research); +http://nlp.fi.muni.cz/projects/biwec/

Update 2020-07-28

• check_http/v2.2 (monitoring-plugins 2.2)
• Selfoss/2.18 (+https://selfoss.aditu.de)
• Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Adsbot/3.1)

Update 2020-06-10

• Domains Project
• SerendeputyBot
• Moreover
• DuckDuckGo

Update 2020-04-01

• AHC/2.1
• eCairn-Grabber
• mediawords bot
• PHP-Curl-Class
• Scrapy
• curl/7
• Blackboard
• NetNewsWire
• node-fetch
• admantx
• metadataparser

Update 2019-12-17

• Added Seekport Crawler

Update 2019-10-21

• AwarioSmartBot
• Apache-HttpClient/5

Update 2019-06-28

• Winds: Open Source RSS & Podcast
• dlvr.it
• BehloolBot
• 7Siters

Update 2019-06-19

• DomainStatsBot
• SeznamBot/3.2
• VelenPublicWebCrawler/1.0
• WordPress.com mShots
• adscanner
• BacklinkCrawler
• netEstate NE Crawler
• Astute SRM
• GigablastOpenSource/1.0

Update 2019-06-07

• serpstatbot

Update 2019-05-21

• PocketParser
• newspaper

Update 2019-03-25

• scalaj-http
• XoviBot
• sysomos.com
• Jetslide

Update 2019-02-12

• OnalyticaBot
• Linguee Bot
• admantx-adform
• Buck/2.2
• Barkrowler

Update 2019-02-08

• ZoominfoBot
• Seokicks
• barkrowler
• DuckDuckBot (thanks RaphaelWimmer)

Update 2019-01-24

• axios/0.17.0
• semantic-visions.com crawler;
• webdatastats.com
• AnyEvent-HTTP/2.24;

Update 2018-12-31

• 360Spider
• linkfluence.com
• glutenfreepleasure.com
• Gluten Free Crawler
• YaK/1.0
• Cliqzbot
• app.hypefactors.com

Update 2018-12-27

• semantic-visions.com
• archive.org_bot
• FemtosearchBot

Update 2018-11-27

• SemrushBot
• ltx71
• commoncrawl
• istellabot
• DomainCrawler
• cs.daum.net
• StormCrawler
• GarlikCrawler
• The Knowledge AI
• getstream.io/winds
• YisouSpider
• ScooperBot
• TrendsmapResolver
• Nuzzel
• Go-http-client
• Applebot
• LivelapBot
• GroupHigh