# Googlebot-News

> A robots.txt token controlling inclusion in Google News. It does not have its own user-agent string; the fetch arrives as Googlebot.

| field | value |
|---|---|
| operator | Google |
| category | Search engines |
| robots.txt token | `Googlebot-News` |
| user-agent contains | `Googlebot-News` |
| robots.txt | obeys robots.txt (documented) |
| verify by | published IP ranges |
| published IP ranges | https://developers.google.com/static/search/apis/ipranges/googlebot.json |
| prefixes mirrored | 170 IPv4 / 147 IPv6 |
| operator docs | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/overview-google-crawlers |
| last reviewed | 2026-09-14 |

## What blocking it costs you

Removal from Google News, with normal Search unaffected.

## Full user-agent string

```
(uses the Googlebot user-agent; controlled by the Googlebot-News robots token)
```

## Block it

```
User-agent: Googlebot-News
Disallow: /
```

## Allow it

```
User-agent: Googlebot-News
Allow: /
```

## Ask this page a question, with one GET

A question about this page, answered by a call you can make right now — no key, no account, no JSON-RPC, nothing to assemble. The query string is already filled in with this page's own subject.

- **How do I prove a request really is Googlebot-News?**  
  `curl -s 'https://www.pathwren.workers.dev/tools/verification-methods?crawler=googlebot-news&s=client-dossiers'`  
  The verification method its operator actually publishes — published IP ranges, reverse DNS, or nothing at all — and the mirror of it on this host.
- **Is 192.178.4.0 really Googlebot-News?**  
  `curl -s 'https://www.pathwren.workers.dev/tools/verify-crawler?ip=192.178.4.0&ua=Googlebot-News&s=client-dossiers'`  
  That address checked against every prefix this host mirrors. 192.178.4.0 is the first address of 192.178.4.0/27, one of the ranges listed on this page — so the link is a worked example that returns a match. Swap in an address from your own log.

Every parameter above is a value the endpoint reads, not an address it visits: nothing is fetched on your behalf. Called without any parameter, each endpoint returns its own specification instead of an error.

JSON: https://www.pathwren.workers.dev/crawler/googlebot-news.json · index: https://www.pathwren.workers.dev/llms.txt