{
  "schema_version": "1.1",
  "id": "robots-txt-crawl-delay-slows-googlebot",
  "slug": "robots-txt-crawl-delay-slows-googlebot",
  "url": "https://groundedkit.com/claims/robots-txt-crawl-delay-slows-googlebot/",
  "api_url": "https://groundedkit.com/api/claims/robots-txt-crawl-delay-slows-googlebot.json",
  "claim": "Adding Crawl-delay to robots.txt slows down Googlebot",
  "commonly_cited_as": "\"Set Crawl-delay: 10 to reduce Google crawling\"",
  "verdict": "misquoted",
  "verdict_definition": "Primary source found, but the way it is quoted changes the subject, metric, population or precision.",
  "confidence": "high",
  "rating": {
    "value": 2,
    "best": 5,
    "worst": 1
  },
  "origin": {
    "publisher": "Google Search Central",
    "title": "How Google interprets the robots.txt specification",
    "year": "Current documentation"
  },
  "quote": "Google supports the following fields (other fields such as crawl-delay aren't supported): user-agent : identifies which crawler the rules apply to.",
  "method": "Official Google documentation (current version read Oct. 17, 2026).",
  "drift": [
    "Type: a rule some other crawlers honor presented as working for Google; Googlebot ignores it"
  ],
  "interest": "Google operates Google Search and documents its own systems.",
  "safe_rephrasing": "Google does not support the crawl-delay field in robots.txt; Googlebot ignores it, though some other crawlers honor it.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Google Search Central — robots.txt specification",
      "url": "https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/robots_txt",
      "primary": true
    }
  ],
  "kind": "stat_check",
  "as_of": "Documentation read on 2026-10-17",
  "last_checked": "2026-10-17",
  "stale": false,
  "date_reviewed": "2026-10-17",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0",
  "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}