Key point. Google-CloudVertexBot is a Google crawler with a narrow purpose. It does not decide whether AI search engines can find or cite you. It follows robots.txt.
Google-CloudVertexBot at a glance
These are the facts our registry holds for Google-CloudVertexBot, checked against Google's documentation on October 14, 2026.
| Vendor | |
| Purpose | Other |
| Type | User agent |
| Follows robots.txt | Yes; source: community ai.robots.txt list (commit 9ad8a47e) |
| Vendor documentation | Google crawler page, checked October 14, 2026 |
| Published IP ranges | developers.google.com/static/crawling/ipranges/common-crawlers.json |
What is Google-CloudVertexBot?
Google-CloudVertexBot is a Google crawler with a narrow purpose. It does not decide whether AI search engines can find or cite you. Our registry notes: Crawls only for Vertex AI Agents that a site owner set up. Google says it does not affect Google Search.
In Google's own words (Google's crawler documentation, read October 14, 2026):
- “Crawling preferences addressed to the Google-CloudVertexBot user agent affect crawls requested by the site owners' for building Vertex AI Agents.”
- “It has no effect on Google Search or other products.”
Google uses other names for other jobs: Googlebot (web search); Google-Extended (AI training); GoogleOther (other). Each takes its own robots.txt group.
Does Google-CloudVertexBot follow robots.txt?
Yes, Google-CloudVertexBot follows robots.txt: our registry records this from the community ai.robots.txt list (commit 9ad8a47e).
What Google says about its common crawlers (Google's crawler documentation, read October 14, 2026):
- “They always obey robots.txt rules when crawling automatically.”
A robots.txt rule records your request. It does not prove a crawler honours it, and firewall or CDN bot settings can refuse a crawler that robots.txt allows, so check those too.
How do I block Google-CloudVertexBot in robots.txt?
Add a group that names Google-CloudVertexBot and disallows the whole site:
User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot
Disallow: /To keep it out of one folder only, disallow that path instead, for example Disallow: /private/.
How do I allow Google-CloudVertexBot?
Google-CloudVertexBot is allowed by default: if no group names it and no User-agent: * rule blocks it, it may read every page. A crawler obeys the most specific group that names it and falls back to User-agent: * only when no group names it (RFC 9309), so if a catch-all rule blocks crawlers, add a group for it:
User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot
Allow: /How can I tell if a request really comes from Google-CloudVertexBot?
Match the request's IP address against Google's published list, because user agents can be faked: https://developers.google.com/static/crawling/ipranges/common-crawlers.json.
How often do startup websites block Google-CloudVertexBot?
We have no figure for Google-CloudVertexBot: it was not one of the crawlers our AI Crawler Access Report tracked. For the crawlers it did track, the headline figure is: “3 of 569 startup websites (0.5%; 95% interval 0.2% to 1.5%) block at least one AI search crawler (Elementera AI Crawler Access Report, October 2026).”
The method and the per-crawler table are in the AI Crawler Access Report.
How do I check whether my robots.txt blocks Google-CloudVertexBot?
Paste your robots.txt into our free checker and it shows, crawler by crawler, whether Google-CloudVertexBot may read the path you choose. Nothing you paste leaves the page.