AI Bot Directory / Bytespider

What is Bytespider?

Bytespider is ByteDance's bulk crawler that collects web content for training AI models. It doesn't drive traffic back to your site directly, but the content it collects shapes what future models know — and say — about you.

How to spot Bytespider in your logs

Look for this token in the request User-Agent (case-insensitive):

bytespider

Should you allow or block Bytespider?

Blocking it keeps your content out of future training data, at the cost of future models knowing less about you. Most brands chasing AI visibility leave it allowed.

To block it anyway, add this to your robots.txt:

User-agent: Bytespider
Disallow: /

Note: robots.txt is a request, not a lock — well-behaved crawlers honor it; verify with your own traffic data.