Google-ilp
Google-ilp is a generic scraper operated by Google Inc. Intent varies case-by-case, some scrapers are legitimate research, some power useful aggregators, some are abusive.
Look at the request pattern before deciding what to do. A polite scraper crawls slowly, respects robots.txt, and identifies itself. An abusive one ignores all three.
If you are not sure, the safest move is to rate-limit rather than block outright. That keeps the legitimate use cases working while neutralizing the abusive ones.
See Google-ilp on your own site
Match the User-Agent header on incoming requests against the pattern below.
regex
For higher confidence, also verify the source IP against the operator's published ranges. UA strings can be spoofed; IP ownership is harder to fake.
Renders JavaScript
No
IP verification
User-Agent only
Crawl frequency
Variable
Honors robots.txt
Often ignored
Honors Crawl-delay
No
Google Inc runs 2 bots in total. Each one is a separate user-agent so you can allow or block them independently.
DevOps & Monitoring
1Generic Crawler
1- Google-ilpYou are here
Should I let Google-ilp through?
Watch your logs for a week first. Behavior varies wildly. Observe the request pattern before allow/block decisions.
Does blocking Google-ilp affect my Google rankings?
No. Google-ilp is not a search-engine crawler. Your ranking on Google or Bing is unaffected by what you do here.
How do I confirm a request is really from Google-ilp?
Look at the User-Agent header in your access logs and match it against the strings listed above. Worth knowing that the User-Agent is easy to fake, so this check tells you "the traffic claims to be Google-ilp", not "the traffic is genuinely Google-ilp". If you need stronger guarantees, look for a reverse-DNS check or wait for Google Inc to publish IP ranges.
What's the best way to understand what Google-ilp is doing on my site?
Look at which URLs it hits, how often, and what time of day. The request pattern usually tells you whether it's building an index, watching for a specific change, or trying to pull data in bulk. The User-Agent name alone rarely tells the full story.
How is Google-ilp different from Google Inc's other bots?
Google Inc splits work across multiple user-agents so site owners can decide on each one independently. Training crawlers, live-fetch agents, search indexers, and agentic browsers each get their own name. Worth scanning the rest of the Google Inc family above to see which ones actually matter for your site.
What's the cleanest way to control Google-ilp?
Two layers. Robots.txt for the polite crawlers that read it, and rules at your CDN or edge for the ones that don't. Rankly's Agent Experience handles both from a single config, so you can allow, block, rate-limit, or serve a stripped-down version per bot. Agent Analytics handles the observation half so you know which bots are actually worth a rule.