In short. Google-InspectionTool is the user agent for Google's Search testing tools, with robots.txt controls that affect testing access.

Definition: As of October 2026, Google-InspectionTool is the user agent used by Google's Search testing tools, including the Rich Results Test and Search Console's URL Inspection tool. A user agent is the identifier a client sends in an HTTP request to describe the software making that request.

Key facts

Google's common crawlers documentation lists desktop and mobile Google-InspectionTool agents and states that crawl preferences for this agent affect Search testing tools.
Google's request verification guidance provides both manual DNS checks and automatic matching against published IP address ranges.
The URL Inspection documentation distinguishes information about the indexed page from a live test of the page's current accessibility.

Which requests use this name?

Google's crawler list publishes this desktop user-agent string:

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Google-InspectionTool/1.0)

The mobile string also contains Google-InspectionTool/1.0, together with Android and Chrome identifiers. In that string, Chrome/W.X.Y.Z represents the browser version. Google recommends using wildcards for that version when searching logs or filtering requests because it changes over time.

The same documentation names the Rich Results Test and URL Inspection as affected tools. This gives the identifier a specific diagnostic purpose: a verified request under this name represents access by a Search testing tool. Google lists Googlebot separately as the crawler whose preferences affect Google Search.

How do robots.txt rules apply?

A robots.txt file contains crawl preferences addressed to user-agent tokens. Google's Google-InspectionTool entry lists both Google-InspectionTool and Googlebot as applicable tokens and says that matching one listed token is sufficient for a rule to apply. It gives this example group:

user-agent: Google-InspectionTool
allow: /archive/1Q84
disallow: /archive/

The group combines a path-specific permission with a restriction on the surrounding archive. The documented control scope is Search testing tools. Google states that crawl preferences addressed to Google-InspectionTool have no effect on Google Search or other products.

For a failed live inspection, the existing Googlebot rules therefore also merit review. Search Console's URL Inspection help identifies the Crawl allowed? field as the check for robots.txt blocking and Page fetch as the result of retrieving the page from the server.

How is a request's identity verified?

Google's common crawlers documentation warns that an HTTP user-agent string can be spoofed. Its verification procedure starts with the source IP address recorded in server logs. A reverse DNS lookup obtains a hostname; a forward lookup of that hostname must return the original IP address.

For common crawlers, Google lists hostname patterns under googlebot.com, including the geo.googlebot.com subdomain. For automatic verification, its guidance links to common-crawlers.json, the published address ranges for this crawler category. The address check complements the request's claimed user-agent identity.

What does a live test show?

Google's URL Inspection help directs site owners to Test live URL to check the current page. View tested page exposes response details, including returned HTML and HTTP headers. A screenshot of the rendered page is available after a successful live test.

The Crawled as field identifies the agent type used for the live test. These details help connect an inspection result with the page retrieved during testing. The initial indexed report instead describes Google's stored information about the URL.

FAQ

Does blocking Google-InspectionTool remove my page from Google Search?

Google's crawler documentation says that preferences addressed to this agent affect Search testing tools and have no effect on Google Search. Review your Googlebot controls separately when assessing Search crawling.

Does a successful live test prove that my page is indexed?

Google's URL Inspection help says the live test confirms whether Google-InspectionTool can access your page for indexing. Use the indexed report to inspect the recorded index status; the live test checks only some indexing conditions.

Sources

Check how a page reads to answer engines. Open the GEO score analyzer