Knocklog

YandexAdditional

Yandex's AI search crawler.

Operator
Yandex
Type
AI search crawler
In the user agent
YandexAdditionalBot, YandexAdditional
robots.txt token
YandexAdditional, YandexAdditionalBot
Follows robots.txt
says it follows robots.txt only in part
Official documentation
yandex.com
Checked on
2026-11-11

What is YandexAdditional?

YandexAdditional is Yandex's AI search crawler. It builds the index an AI assistant searches when it answers. If it cannot read your pages, the assistant cannot cite or recommend them.

The operator's description: Reads robots.txt to decide which indexed content Yandex's AI answers may use; makes no indexing requests. (yandex.com)

How do I block or allow YandexAdditional?

With robots.txt, using the token YandexAdditional, YandexAdditionalBot. Yandex says it follows robots.txt only in part. To block the whole site:

User-agent: YandexAdditional
Disallow: /

User-agent: YandexAdditionalBot
Disallow: /

To allow it, use Allow instead of Disallow. Before blocking, weigh what it brings: without it, the assistant cannot find your pages to cite or recommend them.

How do I see whether YandexAdditional visits my site?

In your server or CDN access logs, look for YandexAdditionalBot, YandexAdditional in the user agent. Google Analytics does not show these visits: agents do not run its JavaScript.

Anyone can copy the name in a user agent, so counting log lines is not enough. Knocklog reads your site's traffic on any host, confirms who is who, and shows how often YandexAdditional came, which pages it read and what that brought you.

How do I know it is really YandexAdditional?

The IP's reverse DNS, confirmed forward and back, must end in .yandex.ru or .yandex.net or .yandex.com.

Knocklog runs this check on every visit and separates the genuine agent from impostors.

Does YandexAdditional visit your site?

See in seconds how your site treats AI agents. Then connect your traffic to learn who really came.

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