AhrefsBot is a bot in the SEO crawlers category, operated by Ahrefs.
AhrefsBot is a Web Crawler that powers the 12 trillion link database for Ahrefs online marketing toolset. It constantly crawls web to fill our database with new links and check the status of the previously found ones to provide the most comprehensive and up-to-the-minute data to our users.
SEO crawlers map links, keywords and technical issues for SEO tools and backlink databases. They help the tool's customers, often your competitors, rather than you. Rate limit or block the ones you do not use.
AhrefsBot identifies itself with this user agent string:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; AhrefsBot/7.0; +http://ahrefs.com/robot/)Anyone can copy a user agent string. Transfon Security also checks where each request comes from, so a request that claims to be a known crawler but comes from the wrong network is treated as a fake, not as the real crawler.
Share of AhrefsBot requests to sites protected by Transfon Security in the 7 days to 27 October 2026.
| United States | 73% |
| United Kingdom | 20% |
| France | 6% |
| Canada | 1% |
| Ahrefs Pte Ltd AS140577 | 70% |
| OVH SAS AS16276 | 30% |
Genuine AhrefsBot IPs resolve to hostnames ending in ahrefs.net. Run a reverse DNS lookup on the IP, then a forward lookup on the hostname, and check both match:
host 203.0.113.10 # the IP from your logs host crawl-name.ahrefs.net # must return the same IP
AhrefsBot follows robots.txt, so these rules stop it crawling the paths you choose. robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of your domain, such as https://example.com/robots.txt.
User-agent: AhrefsBot Disallow: /
User-agent: AhrefsBot Disallow: /private/ Disallow: /search
User-agent: AhrefsBot Allow: /blog/ Disallow: /
User-agent: AhrefsBot Allow: / User-agent: * Disallow: /
User-agent: AhrefsBot group, AhrefsBot ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.AhrefsBot from AhrefsBot's user agent; check Ahrefs's own documentation if it publishes a different robots.txt name.Treat robots.txt as a statement of your policy, and enforce it where requests arrive.
AhrefsBot works for an SEO tool's customers, often your competitors. It adds server load without readers, so rate limit or block it unless you use the tool.
Transfon Security for publishersSEO crawlers map landing pages and links for competitor research. Keep AhrefsBot's visits out of campaign data.
Transfon Security for advertisersAhrefsBot can map your catalogue, prices and site structure for competitors. Block it unless you use the tool yourself.
Transfon Security for e-commerceAllow AhrefsBot only if your team uses the tool; otherwise rate limit it on docs and marketing pages.
Transfon Security for SaaS and APIsrobots.txt is a request, not an enforcement. Transfon Security shows AhrefsBot by name in the Top Bots report, so you can see how often it visits and which pages it reads. Block or allow it with a User Agent rule, or slow it down with a rate limit decision rule.
Transfon Security
AhrefsBot is a bot in the SEO crawlers category, operated by Ahrefs. AhrefsBot is a Web Crawler that powers the 12 trillion link database for Ahrefs online marketing toolset. It constantly crawls web to fill our database with new links and check the status of the previously found ones to provide the most comprehensive and up-to-the-minute data to our users.
Yes. AhrefsBot follows robots.txt, so a Disallow rule for the AhrefsBot user agent stops it from crawling the paths you list.
Add "User-agent: AhrefsBot" followed by "Disallow: /" to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. To enforce it, block requests whose user agent contains "AhrefsBot" at your WAF. In Transfon Security that is one User Agent block rule.
No. robots.txt is voluntary, so AhrefsBot may not follow it, and anyone can send AhrefsBot's user agent, so a fake AhrefsBot ignores your rule. Enforce the rule where requests arrive, at your WAF, and check the source network.
Run a reverse DNS lookup on the IP. Genuine AhrefsBot IPs resolve to a hostname ending in ahrefs.net, and a forward lookup of that hostname returns the same IP. Anything else using its user agent is an impersonator.
SEO crawlers map links, keywords and technical issues for SEO tools and backlink databases. They help the tool's customers, often your competitors, rather than you. Rate limit or block the ones you do not use.
Transfon Security identifies every bot in this directory in your traffic reports, flags fake search crawlers, and lets you allow, block or rate limit each bot.
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