ScraperByteDance
Last verified: 2026-06-13 · maintained by Unsourced
Bytespider is ByteDance's crawler, widely observed fetching aggressively and inconsistently honouring robots.txt. With no citation or referral benefit, many sites choose to block it.
ByteDance does not publish a machine-readable IP-range feed for Bytespider. The reliable way to verify it is reverse DNS: a genuine Bytespider request's IP reverse-resolves to bytedance.com (and that hostname forward-resolves back to the same IP).
A User-Agent string is just a claim — anyone can send Bytespider in a header. Confirm identity two ways:
forward-confirmed reverse DNS (the IP resolves to ByteDance, and that host resolves back to the IP), and, where published,
an IP inside the operator's official ranges. If neither holds, it's an impostor wearing the badge — not Bytespider.
Recommended: block. Bulk extraction with no citation or referral benefit — reasonable to block.
If you do choose to act in robots.txt (which crawlers honour but don't enforce):
User-agent: Bytespider Disallow: /
Is Bytespider really from ByteDance?
Bytespider is ByteDance's crawler, but a User-Agent header can be spoofed, so the claim alone isn't proof. Confirm it with forward-confirmed reverse DNS and, where published, a match against ByteDance's official IP ranges.
What are Bytespider's IP ranges?
ByteDance doesn't publish a machine-readable IP-range feed for Bytespider. Verify it by reverse DNS instead: a genuine request reverse-resolves to bytedance.com, and that host forward-resolves back to the same IP.
Should I block Bytespider?
Our recommendation: block. Bulk extraction with no citation or referral benefit — reasonable to block.
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