Google-Extended: Gemini Use and Grounding Control

Google-Extended is a standalone robots token controlling specified Gemini training and grounding uses of content crawled by Google; it is not a separate HTTP user agent.

Control eligible Gemini uses without misrepresenting Google Search crawl or ranking effects. This page treats that goal as a documentation and implementation problem: identify the exact product or content behavior, collect route-specific evidence, make the narrowest justified change, and preserve the conditions that limit the conclusion.

The term “Google-Extended robots.txt” can invite claims that exceed what a robots rule, content pattern, schema block, or audit record proves. The workflow below keeps access, discovery, interpretation, source quality, eligibility, selection, citation, ranking, and traffic as distinct states.

Readers should be able to use the guidance without accepting a hidden score or vendor label. Each recommendation therefore names the evidence to inspect, the owner to change, the deployment state to validate, and the outcome that remains unmeasured.

Start the Google-Extended robots.txt review at the canonical production URL and record the date, response status, effective directives, visible content, and relevant source version. When logs or provider rows are used, retain the attribution method and sampling limits.

A screenshot or search result can motivate investigation but cannot replace page and protocol evidence. Collect the underlying HTML, headers, robots file, structured data, links, or source records required for the specific question.

Inspect the Google-Extended product-token group in robots.txt. Store the result beside the URL and expected state so another reviewer can reproduce the conclusion without relying on the original operator's memory.

Do not search logs for a separate Google-Extended request agent because Google documents none. Store the result beside the URL and expected state so another reviewer can reproduce the conclusion without relying on the original operator's memory.

Review Googlebot access separately from the Google-Extended use preference. Store the result beside the URL and expected state so another reviewer can reproduce the conclusion without relying on the original operator's memory.

• Inspect the Google-Extended product-token group in robots.txt.
• Do not search logs for a separate Google-Extended request agent because Google documents none.
• Review Googlebot access separately from the Google-Extended use preference.

Resolve Google-Extended robots.txt at the layer that owns the behavior. Content belongs with the page record, crawler policy with the deployed robots configuration, identity with canonical visible profiles, and structured data with the component that renders the corresponding facts.

Write the intended state before editing. That simple contract prevents an optimization request from silently overriding privacy, licensing, access, evidence, or product requirements and gives the validation pass an explicit target.

Set the Google-Extended directive according to the approved Gemini-use policy. Keep the patch narrow, note the affected routes, and avoid unrelated metadata or navigation changes that make the result harder to attribute.

Keep Google Search crawl decisions in the appropriate Googlebot groups. Keep the patch narrow, note the affected routes, and avoid unrelated metadata or navigation changes that make the result harder to attribute.

Document the product-use choice independently from search optimization work. Keep the patch narrow, note the affected routes, and avoid unrelated metadata or navigation changes that make the result harder to attribute.

• Set the Google-Extended directive according to the approved Gemini-use policy.
• Keep Google Search crawl decisions in the appropriate Googlebot groups.
• Document the product-use choice independently from search optimization work.

User-agent: Google-Extended
Allow: /

Validate Google-Extended robots.txt against the deployed canonical route, not only a local component or text fragment. Repeat the original collection method, exercise important variants, and preserve both successful and failed checks.

A technical pass means the intended content, directive, link, identifier, or markup is available under the named conditions. Discovery, selection, citation, ranking, and traffic require separate evidence collected after systems have had time to crawl and process the change.

Fetch the deployed robots.txt and resolve the Google-Extended group. Record the observed value, timestamp, and any measurement gap rather than reducing the result to an unlabeled green check.

Confirm no conflicting generated file overwrites the directive. Record the observed value, timestamp, and any measurement gap rather than reducing the result to an unlabeled green check.

Record the date of the policy decision and official-source review. Record the observed value, timestamp, and any measurement gap rather than reducing the result to an unlabeled green check.

• Fetch the deployed robots.txt and resolve the Google-Extended group.
• Confirm no conflicting generated file overwrites the directive.
• Record the date of the policy decision and official-source review.

Context can make an apparently restrictive, incomplete, or unusual Google-Extended robots.txt state intentional. Review the page purpose, audience, policy owner, and evidence freshness before treating it as a defect.

Google-Extended cannot be verified as a distinct request string in access logs. Preserve that possibility in the audit record until route-level evidence resolves it.

A Google-Extended directive does not change ordinary Google Search inclusion. Preserve that possibility in the audit record until route-level evidence resolves it.

Claim boundary: Google states that Google-Extended does not affect inclusion or ranking in Google Search. Do not frame allow or disallow choices as ranking tactics.

This boundary is part of the implementation contract. It must remain visible near the recommendation and in any downstream summary so a machine-readable extract cannot turn technical eligibility into an outcome promise.

This guide was reviewed on 2026-07-20 against the primary references linked below. Product roles and documentation can change, so crawler strings, directives, feature status, and policy language should be refreshed before acting on a later release.

The source list supports the factual product or protocol description. Atlas workflow language supplies the evidence boundary; it does not claim private provider access, client outcomes, rankings, citations, or traffic.

1. Google's Common CrawlersGoogle for Developers / checked 2026-07-20

   Official crawler tokens, product effects, and control boundaries for Google crawlers including Google-Extended.