What is IbouBot? AI crawler guide

IbouBot by Ibou: Ibou crawler for building a graph representation of the web used in search. Check its reported user-agent, robots.txt behavior, source, and verification guidance.

Ibou crawler for building a graph representation of the web used in search.

What is IbouBot?

IbouBot is the web crawler operated by Ibou, the company behind the ibou.io search engine. Its job is to systematically visit public web pages and build a graph representation of the web that powers Ibou's search results. The crawler identifies itself with the user-agent token IbouBot and respects the Robots Exclusion Protocol, meaning it checks robots.txt before fetching pages. Although it was removed from a public crawler registry in mid-2026, the token still appears in robots.txt files and server logs, indicating ongoing or residual crawl activity. Site owners who see IbouBot in their logs are encountering a search-focused bot that contributes to Ibou's web index and search graph.

What it's for

For a site owner, IbouBot's visits mean your content may be discovered, parsed, and included in Ibou's search graph. This can lead to your pages appearing in Ibou search results, potentially driving organic traffic from users of the ibou.io search engine. If you want your site to be findable through Ibou, allowing the crawler is beneficial. Conversely, if you prefer not to have your content surfaced in Ibou's search, you can block it.

Whether to allow IbouBot is a policy call. Either way, check which AI platforms actually send you human visitors before assuming crawl volume equals value.

How to handle IbouBot

To prevent IbouBot from crawling your site, add a disallow rule for the user-agent IbouBot in your robots.txt file. The bot honors robots.txt, so this will stop it from accessing any disallowed paths. If you later decide to allow crawling, simply remove or adjust the rule.

robots.txt rule

User-agent: IbouBot Disallow: /

Blocking cost

Blocking IbouBot may prevent your pages from being included in Ibou's search graph, which could reduce your visibility in Ibou search results and any associated organic traffic.

Examples

A news website allows IbouBot, and its articles begin appearing in Ibou search results, bringing in a small but steady stream of new visitors.
An e-commerce store blocks IbouBot via robots.txt, and its product pages are no longer crawled or shown in Ibou's search index.
A blog notices IbouBot in its server logs months after the bot was delisted from a public registry, confirming that the crawler is still active and respecting robots.txt directives.

Related bots

Timpibot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
PetalBot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
Amzn-SearchBot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
Bingbot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
Bravebot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
Googlebot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
MistralAI-Index: Also tracked as a search crawler.
YandexAdditional: Also tracked as a search crawler.
YandexAdditionalBot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
Robots.txt: Robots.txt is the control file used to allow or block IbouBot.
AI Crawlers: IbouBot is a concrete crawler example for this concept.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does IbouBot respect robots.txt?

Yes, IbouBot honors the Robots Exclusion Protocol. It checks robots.txt before crawling and obeys disallow directives for its user-agent token.

What does IbouBot do with the data it collects?

IbouBot builds a graph representation of the web that is used to power Ibou's search engine. This helps determine how pages are connected and ranked in search results.

Why am I still seeing IbouBot in my logs if it was removed from a registry?

Although IbouBot was removed from a public crawler registry in July 2026, the token continues to appear in robots.txt files and server logs, suggesting the crawler may still be active or that residual references persist.

Will blocking IbouBot affect my site's visibility in other search engines?

No, blocking IbouBot only affects whether your site is included in Ibou's own search graph. It has no impact on crawling or indexing by other search engines.

How can I confirm that IbouBot is really from Ibou?

You can verify the crawler by checking that it uses the user-agent token IbouBot and originates from Ibou's infrastructure. Since no official documentation URL is available, cross-referencing with Ibou's domain ibou.io may help, but the token itself is the primary identifier.

Data & Sources

IbouBot source reference - Source used to verify IbouBot.