What is special_archiver?
special_archiver is a web crawler operated by Internet Archive as part of their Archive-It service, which creates and preserves collections of web content. This bot visits websites to capture and archive web pages for long-term preservation and historical research purposes. Agent Analytics can track when it visits your website.
Overview
| Operated By | Internet Archive |
| Source | Official Website |
| Expected To Follow Robots.txt | Yes |
| Insights Last Updated | July 31, 2026 |
Do you operate this agent? Contact us to suggest an update.
Category
Expected Behavior
special_archiver returns on a cadence to capture full snapshots of your pages for the historical record. Expect complete page fetches rather than metadata checks, at a frequency that rises with your site's popularity and how often your content changes.
special_archiver's User Agent
| User Agent | Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; special_archiver; Archive-It; +http://archive-it.org/files/site-owners-special.html) |
How To Block special_archiver With Robots.txt
Add this rule to your robots.txt file to block special_archiver from accessing your entire website, or use Automatic Robots.txt to block all archivers at once. You can customize which pages are blocked by swapping out / for a different path.
User-agent: special_archiver # https://knownagents.com/agents/special-archiver
Disallow: /Global Insights for special_archiver
As of July 31, 2026, this data reflects agent visits measured across thousands of websites using Agent Analytics, combined with daily scans of the world's top 1000 websites and their robots.txt files.
Robots.txt Blocked Percentage
Country of Origin
Robots.txt Blocking Trend
0% of top websites block special_archiver in their robots.txt files.
Overall Archiver Traffic
0.1% of all web traffic came from archivers.
Top Visited Website Categories
The types of websites most frequently visited by special_archiver.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I Block special_archiver?
Almost never. special_archiver preserves snapshots of your pages so the record survives redesigns, migrations, and dead links. Blocking only stops new captures. Snapshots that already exist stay public until you ask the archive itself to remove them. Almost none of the top websites we track have robots.txt rules for special_archiver right now.
Does special_archiver Follow Robots.txt Rules?
Yes. special_archiver is expected to follow robots.txt rules, so a disallow rule is the right first move. Automatic Robots.txt adds and maintains that rule for you, and Agent Analytics confirms special_archiver actually follows it.
Does special_archiver Access Private Content?
It archives only what any anonymous visitor can see. Anything public at crawl time can stay retrievable in special_archiver's archive long after you take it down.
Why Is special_archiver Visiting My Website?
special_archiver is preserving your pages as part of the historical record. Visits recur on a schedule so the archive can capture how your content changes over time.
How Can I Tell if special_archiver Is Visiting My Website?
Agent Analytics tracks special_archiver visits in real time alongside every other known AI agent, crawler, and scraper. You can also check your server logs for requests whose user agent string contains "special_archiver". Look for periodic full page captures that recur on a schedule. Keep in mind that special_archiver doesn't publish a verification method, so any client can claim its user agent string and a log match is a hint rather than proof.