See it on a real storeBots, pages and people sent by AI on an example store. No sign-up.Search engines, run by Baidu.
What is Baiduspider? Baidu's search engine crawler. Verifiable by reverse DNS.
Run by Baidu.
Purpose: Search engines. A visit means your page is being crawled for a classic search index.
robots.txt name: Baiduspider.
Verifiable by reverse DNS.
At a glance, the facts in one table.
Baiduspider at a glance. Taken from SenseGap's open bot directory, the same data that sorts every visit in the dashboard.
All bots| Baiduspider | |
|---|---|
| Operator | Baidu |
| Purpose | Search engines |
| User agent contains | Baiduspider |
| robots.txt name | Baiduspider |
| Verification | Reverse DNS |
| Documentation | None listed |
Purpose, what it does and why it came.
What Baiduspider does. SenseGap sorts every visit by purpose. Baiduspider is in the Search engines group.
Baiduspider is Baidu's search engine crawler that indexes pages for Baidu's search results.
What a visit means
A visit means your page is being crawled for a classic search index. SenseGap keeps search engines in your reports so you can compare AI activity with them.
Comparing how often a search engine and AI assistants read the same pages shows which content AI relies on more, or less, than search does.
Detection, the header SenseGap matches.
How SenseGap recognizes Baiduspider. By its User-Agent header. A separate check then decides whether the visit is real.
Every request carries a User-Agent header naming the software that sent it. SenseGap counts a request as Baiduspider when that header contains Baiduspider, in any letter case. The header is plain text, so any script can copy it. Matching the name is where recognition starts, not where trust starts.
/Baiduspider/iVerification, how to tell a real visit from a fake.
How to verify Baiduspider. Baidu publishes the DNS names its servers use, so a real visit can be proven.
How we verify bots- 01
Look up the visiting address
Run a reverse DNS lookup on the IP address the request came from. It returns a hostname.
- 02
Check the hostname
The hostname must end in .baidu.com or .baidu.jp. Anything else is not Baiduspider.
*.baidu.com *.baidu.jp - 03
Look the hostname up again
Run a forward lookup on that hostname. It must return the same IP address, otherwise the reverse record could have been set by anyone.
$ host <visiting-ip>
… domain name pointer <hostname>.baidu.com.
$ host <hostname>.baidu.com
<hostname>.baidu.com has address <visiting-ip>SenseGap runs this check on every visit that claims to be Baiduspider. A pass is marked Real. A visit that sends the name and fails is marked Fake, and stays out of your other reports.
robots.txt, rules you can copy.
Block or allow Baiduspider in robots.txt. Its robots.txt name is Baiduspider. Paste a group into the robots.txt at your site's root.
User-agent: Baiduspider
Disallow: /User-agent: Baiduspider
Allow: /User-agent: Baiduspider
Disallow: /private/One rule catches people out. Under the robots.txt standard (RFC 9309), a crawler that finds a group naming it follows only that group and ignores your User-agent: * rules. If you add a Baiduspider group, repeat in it anything from the catch-all group you still want applied.
robots.txt is a request, not a lock. To enforce a block, match the User-Agent header at your server or CDN. In nginx:
# nginx, inside a server block
if ($http_user_agent ~* "Baiduspider") {
return 403;
}SenseGap reads your robots.txt and shows, bot by bot, what you allow and which bots fetched pages you disallowed. See what you get.
Trade-off, what blocking changes.
Should you block Baiduspider? It depends on what you want from Baidu. Here is what each choice means.
If you allow it
Your pages can rank and be found in that search engine.
If you block it
Your pages drop out of that search engine's results over time. For major engines this is rarely what a site wants.
Search engines, other bots with the same job.
Other search engine crawlers. Same purpose, different companies.
Browse the directoryFAQ, Baiduspider in short answers.
Baiduspider, answered plainly
What is Baiduspider?
Baiduspider is Baidu's search engine crawler that indexes pages for Baidu's search results.
Who runs Baiduspider?
Baidu. SenseGap's directory has no documentation link for it yet.
What does a visit from Baiduspider mean?
A visit means your page is being crawled for a classic search index. SenseGap keeps search engines in your reports so you can compare AI activity with them.
What user agent does Baiduspider use?
Its User-Agent header contains "Baiduspider". SenseGap matches it regardless of letter case.
How do I block Baiduspider?
Add "User-agent: Baiduspider" followed by "Disallow: /" to your robots.txt. robots.txt is a request, not a lock; to enforce it, block the user agent at your server or CDN.
How do I know a visit is really Baiduspider?
Run a reverse DNS lookup on the address: the hostname must end in .baidu.com or .baidu.jp, and a forward lookup of that hostname must return the same address. SenseGap runs these checks on every visit.
Does Baidu publish IP ranges for Baiduspider?
Not as a list SenseGap uses. It can be verified by reverse DNS instead: real hosts end in .baidu.com or .baidu.jp.
What happens if I block Baiduspider?
Your pages drop out of that search engine's results over time. For major engines this is rarely what a site wants.