What is CloudflareCrawler?

CloudflareCrawler is an AI agent in the AI crawlers category, operated by Cloudflare.

Bot name
CloudflareCrawler
Operator
Cloudflare
Category
AI Crawlers
Type
AI agent
Respects robots.txt
Not confirmed
robots.txt user agent
CloudflareBrowserRenderingCrawler
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
Yes

About CloudflareCrawler

The Cloudflare Crawler is a well-behaved crawler that retrieves web content. By default, it self-identifies as a bot, honors robots.txt directives, and cannot bypass CAPTCHAs or bot protection. Used by Cloudflare customers via the Browser Run /crawl endpoint.

AI crawlers collect web pages in bulk to build training data for large language models and other AI systems. They take content without sending visitors back. Most publishers block them in robots.txt or at the WAF unless they have a licensing deal with the operator.

CloudflareCrawler user agent

CloudflareCrawler identifies itself with this user agent string:

  • CloudflareBrowserRenderingCrawler/1.0

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.

How to block CloudflareCrawler in robots.txt

We have not confirmed whether CloudflareCrawler follows robots.txt. Add a rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped. robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of your domain, such as https://example.com/robots.txt.

Block CloudflareCrawler from the whole site

User-agent: CloudflareBrowserRenderingCrawler
Disallow: /

Block CloudflareCrawler from some folders

User-agent: CloudflareBrowserRenderingCrawler
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /search

Allow CloudflareCrawler only on some folders

User-agent: CloudflareBrowserRenderingCrawler
Allow: /blog/
Disallow: /

Allow CloudflareCrawler and block other crawlers

User-agent: CloudflareBrowserRenderingCrawler
Allow: /

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Things to know

  • Each host needs its own file. Rules on www.example.com do not apply to shop.example.com.
  • A crawler obeys only the most specific group that names it. Once you add a User-agent: CloudflareBrowserRenderingCrawler group, CloudflareCrawler ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.
  • The user agent name is not case sensitive. We take CloudflareBrowserRenderingCrawler from CloudflareCrawler's user agent; check Cloudflare's own documentation if it publishes a different robots.txt name.
  • Crawlers cache robots.txt, so changes can take up to a day to apply. Disallow stops crawling but does not remove pages already collected or indexed.

Limits of robots.txt

  1. CloudflareCrawler may not follow the rule. robots.txt is a request that nothing enforces, and we have not confirmed that CloudflareCrawler follows it. Check your logs after adding a rule.
  2. The user agent could be fake. robots.txt matches the name a request claims. Anyone can send CloudflareCrawler's user agent, and a scraper using it is not bound by Cloudflare's robots.txt policy. Only checking the source network tells a real CloudflareCrawler from a fake one.

Treat robots.txt as a statement of your policy, and enforce it where requests arrive.

Who should care about CloudflareCrawler

Publishers

CloudflareCrawler takes articles for AI training without sending readers back, and its page loads count as invalid traffic if your ad tags fire. Decide whether to license, limit or block it, and keep it out of ad requests.

Transfon Security for publishers

Media buyers and advertisers

Visits from CloudflareCrawler to your landing pages are not people. Keep them out of conversion, retargeting and audience data so you do not pay to reach a crawler.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

CloudflareCrawler can copy product descriptions, prices and reviews in bulk. Allow it on pages you want AI models to know about and block it on search, cart and account pages.

Transfon Security for e-commerce

SaaS and APIs

CloudflareCrawler can fetch documentation and public app pages at scale. Rate limit it so it does not slow the product for paying users.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block CloudflareCrawler with Transfon Security

robots.txt is a request, not an enforcement. Transfon Security shows CloudflareCrawler 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

Control CloudflareCrawler on your site

  • See every CloudflareCrawler visit and the pages it reads
  • Spot bots that fake trusted crawler names
  • Block, allow or rate limit CloudflareCrawler with one rule
  • Works with or without robots.txt support

Frequently asked questions

What is CloudflareCrawler?

CloudflareCrawler is an AI agent in the AI crawlers category, operated by Cloudflare. The Cloudflare Crawler is a well-behaved crawler that retrieves web content. By default, it self-identifies as a bot, honors robots.txt directives, and cannot bypass CAPTCHAs or bot protection. Used by Cloudflare customers via the Browser Run /crawl endpoint.

Does CloudflareCrawler respect robots.txt?

We have not confirmed whether CloudflareCrawler follows robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped, and block it by user agent if it did not.

How do I block CloudflareCrawler?

Add "User-agent: CloudflareBrowserRenderingCrawler" followed by "Disallow: /" to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. To enforce it, block requests whose user agent contains "CloudflareBrowserRenderingCrawler/" at your WAF. In Transfon Security that is one User Agent block rule.

Is robots.txt enough to block CloudflareCrawler?

No. robots.txt is voluntary, so CloudflareCrawler may not follow it, and anyone can send CloudflareCrawler's user agent, so a fake CloudflareCrawler ignores your rule. Enforce the rule where requests arrive, at your WAF, and check the source network.

Should I block CloudflareCrawler?

AI crawlers collect web pages in bulk to build training data for large language models and other AI systems. They take content without sending visitors back. Most publishers block them in robots.txt or at the WAF unless they have a licensing deal with the operator.

Related bots

All AI crawlers · Full bot directory

See Which Bots Visit Your Site

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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