What is msnbot?
msnbot is Microsoft's legacy web crawler that indexed web pages for the MSN Search engine, which has since been replaced by Bing's crawling infrastructure, though some references may still appear in logs. Agent Analytics can track when it visits your website.
Overview
| Operated By | Microsoft |
| 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
msnbot follows an algorithmic schedule shaped by your site's popularity, update cadence, and domain authority. It generally spreads requests across recurring crawl passes, throttles itself to limit server load, and respects crawl directives more reliably than most other bots.
msnbot's User Agent
| User Agent | msnbot/1.1 ( http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm) |
How To Block msnbot With Robots.txt
Add this rule to your robots.txt file to block msnbot from accessing your entire website, or use Automatic Robots.txt to block all search engine crawlers at once. You can customize which pages are blocked by swapping out / for a different path.
User-agent: msnbot # https://knownagents.com/agents/msnbot
Disallow: /Global Statistics for msnbot
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
4% of top websites block msnbot in their robots.txt files.
Overall Search Engine Crawler Traffic
15.8% of all web traffic came from search engine crawlers.
Top Visited Website Categories
The types of websites most frequently visited by msnbot.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I Block msnbot?
No, unless you want to remove your pages from that search engine. msnbot supplies its index, so blocking it can eliminate your visibility and organic traffic there. Nearly every website should allow this category. For context, 4% of the top websites we track currently have robots.txt rules for msnbot.
Does msnbot Follow Robots.txt Rules?
Yes. msnbot 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 msnbot respects it.
Does msnbot Access Private Content?
No special access. msnbot can reach only content available to anonymous visitors and does not sign in. Make sure sensitive content is not public by mistake.
Why Is msnbot Visiting My Website?
msnbot is adding new or changed pages to its search index. It may have discovered your site through links, a sitemap, or direct submission.
How Can I Tell if msnbot Is Visiting My Website?
Agent Analytics tracks msnbot 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 "msnbot". Look for recurring passes that revisit changed pages and discover new ones. Because msnbot does not publish a verification method, any client can claim its identity and a log match is only a clue.