Google-Extended
// Overview
What it is
Google-Extended is a robots.txt control token, not a standalone HTTP crawler; it controls whether crawled content may help ground or improve Gemini and Vertex AI. Aiola classifies it as training because it performs automated collection rather than a user-triggered fetch.
In Aiola's taxonomy, Training means scraped for model training or dataset development.
// Headers
User agent
Look for the match token inside the complete HTTP User-Agent header. Tokens can be spoofed, so use the network checks below for authentication.
Google-ExtendedGoogle-Extended// Network
Official IP ranges
Google has not published official IP ranges that Aiola successfully fetched for Google-Extended. Aiola does not list cloud-provider ranges or community guesses as if they authenticated this crawler.
// Verification
Verify authenticity
Start with the source IP recorded by your trusted edge or server, not an untrusted forwarded header.
host REQUEST_IP
# Confirm the hostname ends in an official suffix
host RETURNED_HOSTNAME
# The forward lookup must return REQUEST_IPFor production checks, test against every current prefix in the vendor feed. Re-fetch feeds regularly: a July 2026 snapshot is evidence of publication, not a permanent firewall list.
// Robots.txt
Control it with robots.txt
Google documents crawler controls for this bot family. Robots.txt can direct cooperative crawling, but it cannot prove that a request is authentic.
User-agent: Google-Extended
Allow: /User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /// Analytics
Track it
Aiola tracks this crawler on your site — crawls, pages, trends. See when Google-Extended arrives, which URLs it requests, and how activity changes over time.
// FAQ
FAQ
What is Google-Extended?
Google-Extended is a robots.txt control token, not a standalone HTTP crawler; it controls whether crawled content may help ground or improve Gemini and Vertex AI. Aiola classifies it as training because it performs automated collection rather than a user-triggered fetch.
What user-agent token identifies Google-Extended?
Match the case-insensitive token “Google-Extended” in the User-Agent header. A matching header alone does not authenticate the sender.
Can I verify Google-Extended by IP address?
No official Google-Extended CIDR snapshot was successfully fetched for this verification date. Do not treat an arbitrary cloud IP as proof of identity.
Can robots.txt block Google-Extended?
Google documents crawler controls for this bot family. Robots.txt can direct cooperative crawling, but it cannot prove that a request is authentic. Use the specific “Google-Extended” group when you want a rule for this identity without changing rules for every crawler.
// Related