- Run by
- Microsoft
- Type
- Ad crawler
- Visits
- On its own schedule
- robots.txt
- Follows robots.txt
- robots.txt name
adidxbot- Documentation
- Microsoft's page
What AdIdxBot does
AdIdxBot crawls for Microsoft Advertising. It checks ads and visits the landing pages they point to for quality control, in desktop and mobile versions like Bingbot.
- Microsoft Advertising's editorial reason codes include "website not accessible". Source
Does AdIdxBot follow robots.txt?
Search Engine Land reports that AdIdxBot follows standard robots.txt rules and, unlike Google's AdsBot, doesn't ignore a site-wide Disallow. Microsoft's own page doesn't spell this out.
How to block or allow AdIdxBot
Block it from the whole site:
User-agent: adidxbot
Disallow: /Keep it out of one folder only:
User-agent: adidxbot
Disallow: /private/ A crawler that finds a group with its own name follows only that group and ignores User-agent: *. If your * group disallows paths such as /admin/, repeat those lines in the AdIdxBot group. robots.txt works per host, so add the rules to each subdomain you want covered.
Test the result with the robots.txt checker, or write a new file with the robots.txt generator.
What blocking AdIdxBot changes
Microsoft Advertising may not be able to review your landing pages, and its rules list an unreachable website as a reason to reject ads.
Where to see AdIdxBot visits
Most bots never appear in Google Analytics. Many don't run JavaScript, so the analytics tag never loads, and Google Analytics 4 automatically excludes traffic from known bots and spiders. Your server or CDN logs record every request with its user agent, so search them for the bot's name.
OneLence recognizes AdIdxBot and keeps it out of your visitor counts. With Premium, bot traffic shows which bots visit your site, how often and what kind they are.
Other bots from Microsoft
- Bingbot: Bingbot builds Bing's search index, which also feeds Microsoft Copilot's citations, DuckDuckGo and much of Yahoo. It follows robots.txt and Crawl-delay.
- msnbot: msnbot was the crawler for MSN Search and Live Search. Bingbot replaced it in 2010, but Bing still applies msnbot rules when robots.txt has no bingbot group.
- Microsoft Copilot: Microsoft documents no separate Copilot crawler. Copilot cites pages from Bing's index, so bingbot rules and two meta tags decide whether it can use your pages.
Frequently asked questions
What is AdIdxBot?
AdIdxBot crawls for Microsoft Advertising. It checks ads and visits the landing pages they point to for quality control, in desktop and mobile versions like Bingbot.
Does AdIdxBot follow robots.txt?
Search Engine Land reports that AdIdxBot follows standard robots.txt rules and, unlike Google's AdsBot, doesn't ignore a site-wide Disallow. Microsoft's own page doesn't spell this out.
How do I block AdIdxBot?
Add a group to robots.txt with User-agent: adidxbot, then Disallow: /.
What happens if I block AdIdxBot?
Microsoft Advertising may not be able to review your landing pages, and its rules list an unreachable website as a reason to reject ads.
Why doesn't AdIdxBot show up in Google Analytics?
Most bots never appear in Google Analytics. Many don't run JavaScript, so the analytics tag never loads, and Google Analytics 4 automatically excludes traffic from known bots and spiders. Your server or CDN logs record every request with its user agent, so search them for the bot's name.