msnbot
Microsoft · Answer index · robots.txt token msnbot
What it is definition
Legacy Microsoft search crawler token still honored alongside bingbot.
msnbot is operated by Microsoft and classified here as answer index. These agents build the index an answer engine queries at question time. Disallowing one removes the site from those answers and from the citations that link back to it. Training is governed by separate tokens, so this is the expensive block, not the protective one.
Disallowing msnbot removes the site from the index Bing queries when it answers a question. The engine can then neither quote nor link the page, which is a traffic decision rather than a licensing one. Model training is governed by separate tokens.
- robots.txt token
- msnbot
- Operator
- Microsoft
- Purpose
- Answer index
- Honors robots.txt
- yes
- Documentation
- https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/which-crawlers-does-bing-use-8c184ec0
Identity on the wire exact string
msnbot/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)curl -A 'msnbot/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)' https://example.com/Replace the host with your own. A 403, a challenge page or an empty body means the edge is blocking the agent whatever robots.txt says.
How to allow it, how to block it robots.txt
User-agent: msnbot
Allow: /Absent any rule, the agent is already allowed, so this group only matters when your * group disallows something. Naming the agent replaces the * group for it entirely, so repeat here every disallow you still want to apply to it.
User-agent: msnbot
Disallow: /Disallowing msnbot removes the site from the index Bing queries when it answers a question. The engine can then neither quote nor link the page, which is a traffic decision rather than a licensing one. Model training is governed by separate tokens.
Sites that block it 5 shown
| Domain | AI access score | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| mos.ru | 80 | 1,988 |
| cia.gov | 55 | 3,872 |
| rutracker.org | 55 | 5,371 |
| uzh.ch | 73 | 5,840 |
| leroymerlin.pt | 53 | 8,967 |
Compare Microsoft
Microsoft runs 2 agents in this registry, and they do different jobs. Blocking one says nothing about the others.
Common questions answered
Does blocking msnbot remove me from Bing?
Yes, in effect. msnbot builds the index Bing reads at question time, so disallowing it takes the site out of those answers and out of the citations that link back to it. This is the block that costs traffic.
How do I verify msnbot requests are genuine?
Run a reverse DNS lookup on the source address. It must resolve to a host under search.msn.com, and a forward lookup of that host must return the same address. Bing Webmaster Tools exposes the same check, and Microsoft publishes its crawler ranges as JSON.
Check your own site free
See whether your robots.txt admits msnbot today, and whether your edge agrees with it.