Is YandexAdditional the same as YandexBot?

No. YandexBot performs primary search indexing. YandexAdditional applies to content already indexed by that crawler and does not make indexing requests.

Does YandexAdditional honor robots.txt?

Yes, when the rule names `YandexAdditional` or `YandexAdditionalBot`. Yandex warns that this kind of robot may ignore restrictions aimed only at `User-agent: *`.

What happens after I disallow YandexAdditional?

The affected content should stop appearing in Yandex AI answers after Yandex recrawls the page. Yandex says that usually takes 2 to 14 days. The rule does not by itself remove the page from ordinary Yandex Search.

Does a YandexAdditional request prove AI training use?

No. The operator's public webmaster guidance documents AI-answer use, not dataset membership or a completed model training run.

Can I authenticate YandexAdditional requests?

No signing method or verified IP list is recorded for this entry. Match the exact user-agent name for policy and logging, but do not treat the string alone as proof of origin.

YandexAdditional AI Crawler Guide

What is YandexAdditional?

YandexAdditional is Yandex's dedicated user agent for content used by YandexGPT and other generative AI features. It is separate from YandexBot, the primary crawler that discovers and indexes pages for conventional Yandex Search. Blocking one does not automatically describe what the other may do.

Search with Yandex AI builds concise answers from web sources and normally includes references to those sources. Yandex says the feature scans for relevant information, analyzes it with a generative neural network in real time, and combines the findings into an answer. Pages must first be present in Yandex's main search index before they can participate in that workflow.

Yandex's robot catalog makes an unusual distinction for YandexAdditional and YandexAdditionalBot: these agents apply to pages already indexed by the primary crawler and do not make indexing requests themselves. A YandexAdditional hit should not be read as first-time discovery of a URL. Its documented purpose is to apply the site's AI-answer preference to material Yandex already knows about.

A specific robots.txt disallow tells Yandex not to use the affected page in Yandex AI answers. Yandex says the change takes effect after its robots recrawl the page, usually within 2 to 14 days. The directive does not remove the page from ordinary search results, which remain under YandexBot and the usual indexing controls.

This entry is categorized for AI training because it collects content for YandexGPT and other generative products. Yandex's webmaster documentation, however, makes a narrower public commitment about appearance in AI answers and does not say that a YandexAdditional request proves inclusion in model training data. The safe conclusion is that the token controls generative product use, not that every fetched page trains a model.

The recorded token is YandexAdditional, and Yandex also documents the YandexAdditionalBot variant. The crawler respects rules addressed to those exact names. Yandex warns that some non-indexing robots may ignore restrictions written only for User-agent: *, so use a dedicated group. No signed-request directory or IP verification method is recorded for this entry.

Relevant for AI search

Is YandexAdditional relevant for AI search?

Yes. YandexAdditional collects pages for an AI product, so what it can crawl influences how AI systems describe your brand.

YandexAdditional gathers public web content that can end up in the training data for large language models. Once your pages are in that set, they influence how the operator's models talk about you for that model generation. Allowing it lets your own writing carry weight in those answers; blocking it means the models learn about you from third parties instead.

How to handle YandexAdditional

Leave YandexAdditional allowed if you want indexed pages to remain eligible as sources in Search with Yandex AI. To opt the whole site out of that use, address the recorded token directly. Adding the documented alternate name covers both Yandex variants.

User-agent: YandexAdditional
Disallow: /

User-agent: YandexAdditionalBot
Disallow: /

Do not rely on a wildcard group for this control. After publishing the file, allow time for Yandex to revisit affected pages; its documentation gives a typical delay of 2 to 14 days. Use Yandex Webmaster's robots.txt analysis when checking a path, and manage ordinary search indexing separately under YandexBot.

Examples

A Russian-language reference site allows YandexBot to index its entries but blocks both additional tokens so the text does not appear in generated Yandex AI answers.
A retailer keeps product guides eligible for Yandex AI citations while disallowing `/account/` and internal search-result paths for YandexAdditional.
A webmaster publishes the dedicated groups, validates them in Yandex Webmaster, and waits for the documented recrawl period before judging whether the change worked.

Frequently asked questions about YandexAdditional

Learn about AI visibility monitoring and how Promptwatch helps your brand succeed in AI search.

It is Yandex's dedicated agent for controlling use of already indexed page content in YandexGPT and Search with Yandex AI. Yandex documents it separately from the main search crawler.