CrawlCheck

AI crawlers · Social link previews

Pinterestbot

Pinterestbot is the link-preview fetcher run by Pinterest: fetches pages and images when they are pinned or shared on Pinterest. Its operator documents how to verify it: reverse DNS to pinterest.com, then forward DNS back to the same address. A reverse DNS lookup on the source address must return the operator's domain, and a forward lookup on that name must return the same address.

User-agent tokenPinterestbot
OperatorPinterest
What it doesfetches pages and images when they are pinned or shared on Pinterest
Kindlink-preview fetcher
Can a request be verified?Yes — reverse dns
Verification sourcereverse DNS to pinterest.com, then forward DNS back to the same address
In a CrawlCheck scanRead from robots.txt; reported, never scored

Allow or block it in robots.txt

User-agent: Pinterestbot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Pinterestbot
Allow: /

Add a group that names it: "User-agent: Pinterestbot" followed by "Disallow: /". A crawler follows only the most specific group that names it, so once a group names Pinterestbot, rules under "User-agent: *" no longer apply to it; repeat in that group any Disallow lines you still want.

What blocking it changes

No. It renders the preview card when someone shares your URL. Blocking it breaks those previews, not AI answers.

See what Pinterestbot and every other named agent receive from your own site: run a free scan. The full catalogue is on AI crawlers and as JSON at /ai-crawlers.json.

Questions about Pinterestbot

QHow do I block Pinterestbot in robots.txt?
Add a group that names it: "User-agent: Pinterestbot" followed by "Disallow: /". A crawler follows only the most specific group that names it, so once a group names Pinterestbot, rules under "User-agent: *" no longer apply to it; repeat in that group any Disallow lines you still want.
QHow can I tell if a request from Pinterestbot is real?
Its operator documents how to verify it: reverse DNS to pinterest.com, then forward DNS back to the same address. A reverse DNS lookup on the source address must return the operator's domain, and a forward lookup on that name must return the same address.
QDoes blocking Pinterestbot affect whether my site appears in AI answers?
No. It renders the preview card when someone shares your URL. Blocking it breaks those previews, not AI answers.
QDoes CrawlCheck test my site as Pinterestbot?
Not as a request. CrawlCheck reads the rules your robots.txt sets for Pinterestbot and reports them. Rules for it are reported and never scored, because refusing it is a policy choice.