What is CloudFlare-Prefetch?
CloudFlare-Prefetch is a bot operated by Cloudflare that prefetches web content to improve page load times and performance for websites using Cloudflare's content delivery network and optimization services. This bot crawls and caches web pages in advance so they can be served more quickly to end users. Agent Analytics can track when it visits your website.
Overview
| Operated By | Cloudflare |
| Source | Official Website |
| Expected To Follow Robots.txt | Yes |
| Insights Last Updated | August 11, 2026 |
Do you operate this agent? Contact us to suggest an update.
Category
Expected Behavior
CloudFlare-Prefetch usually performs comprehensive, link-following crawls rather than spot checks. Visit frequency may rise while a customer actively monitors your site or a related market.
How To Block CloudFlare-Prefetch With Robots.txt
Add this rule to your robots.txt file to block CloudFlare-Prefetch from accessing your entire website, or use Automatic Robots.txt to block all SEO crawlers at once. You can customize which pages are blocked by swapping out / for a different path.
User-agent: CloudFlare-Prefetch # https://knownagents.com/agents/cloudflare-prefetch
Disallow: /Global Statistics for CloudFlare-Prefetch
As of August 11, 2026, this data reflects agent visits measured across thousands of websites using Agent Analytics, combined with daily scans of the top 1000 websites and their robots.txt files.
Robots.txt Blocked Percentage
Country of Origin
Robots.txt Blocking Trend
0% of top websites block CloudFlare-Prefetch in their robots.txt files.
Overall SEO Crawler Traffic
2.2% of all web traffic came from SEO crawlers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I Block CloudFlare-Prefetch?
Consider blocking CloudFlare-Prefetch only if you do not want your pages included in SEO databases. It does not influence how search engines rank you, and blocking it will not hide backlinks to your site because those are discovered on the linking sites. Almost none of the top websites we track currently have robots.txt rules for CloudFlare-Prefetch.
Does CloudFlare-Prefetch Follow Robots.txt Rules?
Yes. CloudFlare-Prefetch is expected to follow robots.txt directives, so a disallow rule is the appropriate first step. Automatic Robots.txt can add and maintain that rule, while Agent Analytics lets you verify whether CloudFlare-Prefetch respects it.
Does CloudFlare-Prefetch Access Private Content?
No. CloudFlare-Prefetch can reach only public pages, and authentication prevents it from accessing private content.
Why Is CloudFlare-Prefetch Visiting My Website?
Your domain appears in the ranking, backlink, or competitor data maintained by CloudFlare-Prefetch's operator. A customer may be tracking your site, one of your competitors, or a backlink that connects another site to yours.
How Can I Tell if CloudFlare-Prefetch Is Visiting My Website?
Agent Analytics tracks CloudFlare-Prefetch visits in real time alongside every other known AI agent, crawler, and scraper. You can also check your server logs for requests whose user-agent string contains "CloudFlare-Prefetch". Look for comprehensive site crawls that follow internal links. Because CloudFlare-Prefetch does not publish a verification method, any client can claim its identity and a log match is only a clue.