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. You can set up Agent Analytics to see when special_archiver visits your website.
Overview
| Operated By | Internet Archive |
| Source | Official Website |
| Expected To Follow Robots.txt | Yes |
| Insights Last Updated | September 14, 2026 |
Do you operate this agent? Contact us to suggest an update.
Category
Expected Behavior
special_archiver periodically fetches complete pages rather than checking metadata alone. Visit frequency typically rises with your site's popularity and update cadence.
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 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: /Insights for special_archiver
As of September 14, 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 special_archiver in their robots.txts.
Overall Archiver Traffic
0.0% 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?
Rarely. special_archiver preserves snapshots of your pages through redesigns, migrations, and broken links. Blocking it prevents future captures but does not remove existing snapshots. To remove those, you must contact the archive directly. For context, 7% of the top websites we track currently have robots.txt rules for special_archiver.
Does special_archiver Follow Robots.txt Rules?
Yes. special_archiver is expected to follow robots.txt rules, so a disallow rule is the appropriate first step. Automatic Robots.txt can add and maintain that rule, while Agent Analytics lets you verify whether special_archiver respects it.
Does special_archiver Access Private Content?
No. special_archiver archives only what an anonymous visitor can see. Anything public at crawl time may remain available in its archive long after you remove it from your site.
How Can I Tell if special_archiver Is Visiting My Website?
Agent Analytics tracks special_archiver visits in real time. You can also check your server logs for requests whose user-agent string contains "special_archiver". Look for a page and its embedded assets being fetched again after a long interval. Because special_archiver does not publish a verification method, any client can claim its identity and a log match is only a clue.
Why Is special_archiver Visiting My Website?
special_archiver is preserving your pages as part of a historical record. It returns periodically so the archive can capture how your content changes over time.