Cloudflare, a leader in web security and performance, offers a list of Verified Bots through its Cloudflare Radar service. This list identifies the most active bots on the web, allowing web administrators to distinguish between legitimate traffic and potential threats.
What Are Cloudflare’s Verified Bots?
Verified Bots are those manually approved by Cloudflare for their transparent behavior and compliance with web standards, such as the rules outlined in the robots.txt file. This list includes bots from search engines, security tools, artificial intelligence, website monitoring, and advertising.
The importance of this classification lies in the ability to differentiate legitimate bots from those that could pose a threat to the security or performance of a site.
The 30 Most Active Bots on the Internet
Cloudflare ranks the bots based on the number of requests they make on the web. Below is the ranking of the 30 most active bots:
| Rank | Bot Name | Company | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GoogleBot | Search Crawler | |
| 2 | Qualys | Qualys | Security |
| 3 | GPTBot | OpenAI | AI Crawler |
| 4 | BingBot | Microsoft | Search Crawler |
| 5 | Amazonbot | Amazon | AI Search |
| 6 | GoogleOther | AI Crawler | |
| 7 | Google Image Proxy | Page Preview | |
| 8 | Google AdsBot | Advertising and Marketing | |
| 9 | YandexBot | Yandex | Search Crawler |
| 10 | Synthetic Bot | DataDog | Monitoring and Analytics |
| 11 | AhrefsBot | Ahrefs | SEO |
| 12 | PinterestBot | Aggregrator | |
| 13 | Moz dotbot | Moz | SEO |
| 14 | New Relic | New Relic | Monitoring and Analytics |
| 15 | Google Read Aloud | Accessibility | |
| 16 | PetalBot | Huawei | AI Crawler |
| 17 | Google API | Webhooks | |
| 18 | Google Images | Search Crawler | |
| 19 | UptimeRobot | UptimeRobot | Monitoring and Analytics |
| 20 | Semrushbot | SEMrush | SEO |
| 21 | Applebot | Apple | AI Search |
| 22 | Detectify | Detectify | Security |
| 23 | OAI-SearchBot | OAI SearchBot | AI Search |
| 24 | BLEXBot | WebMeUp | SEO |
| 25 | Barkrowler | Babbar | SEO |
| 26 | Ahrefs Site Audit | Ahrefs | SEO |
| 27 | SendGrid | SendGrid | Webhooks |
| 28 | ChatGPT-User | OpenAI | AI Assistant |
| 29 | Google AdSense | Advertising and Marketing | |
| 30 | DataForSEO Bot | DataForSEO | SEO |
Trends in Bot Activity
The list shows that search engines and artificial intelligence dominate automated traffic. GoogleBot leads the ranking as the most active crawler, followed by BingBot and YandexBot. AI bots have gained prominence with players like OpenAI’s GPTBot and Amazonbot.
Other important categories include security tools like Qualys and Detectify, as well as monitoring bots such as DataDog and UptimeRobot.
Key Categories in the Cloudflare List
The bots on the list serve specific functions on the web. Here are the main categories in which they are grouped:
- Search Engines: Led by GoogleBot, BingBot, YandexBot, and Applebot, responsible for indexing content.
- Artificial Intelligence: Bots like GPTBot and PerplexityBot gather information to train AI models.
- Security: Tools like Qualys, Detectify, and Sucuri scan sites for vulnerabilities.
- Monitoring and Analytics: UptimeRobot, Uptime, New Relic, and DataDog oversee website performance.
- SEO: Companies like Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMrush crawl sites to improve search rankings.
- Advertising and Marketing: Bots like Google AdsBot and CriteoBot optimize advertising campaigns.
The Importance of Identifying Bot Traffic
Cloudflare’s list of verified bots is a valuable tool for website administrators, as it allows:
- Distinguishing legitimate traffic from potentially malicious traffic.
- Optimizing security by allowing or blocking bots based on their function.
- Enhancing site efficiency by avoiding unnecessary traffic that could impact performance.
Cloudflare Radar provides an interface to consult the complete list and analyze bot activity according to its impact on the web.
Conclusion
Bot traffic represents a fundamental part of activity on the internet. Thanks to tools like Cloudflare Radar, site owners can better manage their traffic, ensuring that only legitimate bots access their resources.
The evolution of artificial intelligence and the growth of analytics services have driven the emergence of new specialized bots, making monitoring these web participants even more relevant.
For more information, visit Cloudflare Radar.
via: SEOcretos