What is Overcast?
Overcast bot fetches RSS feeds and audio metadata from podcast hosting servers to keep the podcast directory and episodes updated for the award-winning iOS podcast player. You can set up Agent Analytics to see when Overcast visits your website.
Overview
| Operated By | Overcast Radio |
| Source | Official Website |
| Expected To Follow Robots.txt | No |
| Insights Last Updated | September 15, 2026 |
Do you operate this agent? Contact us to suggest an update.
Category
Expected Behavior
Overcast usually makes a single request within seconds of a URL being shared, without crawling further. Traffic rises and falls with sharing activity, so a widely circulated link can produce a sharp burst of fetches.
Overcast's User Agent
| User Agent | Overcast/1.0 Podcast Sync (127 subscribers; feed-id=874629; +http://overcast.fm/) |
How To Block Overcast With Robots.txt
Add this rule to your robots.txt file to request that Overcast not access your website, or use Automatic Robots.txt to request the same of all fetchers at once. You can customize which pages are blocked by swapping out / for a different path.
User-agent: Overcast # https://knownagents.com/agents/overcast
Disallow: /Insights for Overcast
As of September 15, 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
7% of top websites block Overcast in their robots.txts.
Overall Fetcher Traffic
1.8% of all web traffic came from fetchers.
Top Visited Website Categories
The types of websites most frequently visited by Overcast.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I Block Overcast?
Usually not. Blocking Overcast may leave shared links without a title or image, making them less inviting to click. If it begins fetching at unexpected volume, try rate limiting before blocking it outright. For context, 7% of the top websites we track currently have robots.txt rules for Overcast.
Does Overcast Follow Robots.txt Rules?
No. Overcast is not expected to follow robots.txt rules, so a disallow rule only communicates your preference. Enforce the block with firewall or server rules, then use Agent Analytics to verify that its requests stop.
Does Overcast Access Private Content?
No. Overcast has no credentials and should access only the public URL and assets needed for a preview. It does not continue through the rest of your site.
How Can I Tell if Overcast Is Visiting My Website?
Agent Analytics tracks Overcast visits in real time. You can also check your server logs for requests whose user-agent string contains "Overcast". Look for a page and its preview assets being requested without follow-up navigation. Because Overcast does not publish a verification method, any client can claim its identity and a log match is only a clue.
Why Is Overcast Visiting My Website?
Someone shared a link to your page. Overcast fetched it to build a preview card, and each new share may trigger another request. A spike often means your content is circulating more widely.