What Is Anchor Browser?

Anchor Browser is Anchor's cloud-hosted browser designed to enable AI agents to interact with websites in a human-like manner while maintaining verified, legitimate automated access. You can use Agent Analytics to see how often Anchor Browser visits your website.

Agent Type

Expected Behavior

The behavior of headless agents generally depends who is using them and what exactly they're using them for. Patterns could vary significantly depending whether the operator is human-guided software (e.g. performance testing), or an autonomous AI agent acting like a human.

Detail

Robots.txt

In this example, all pages are blocked. You can customize which pages are off-limits by swapping out / for a different disallowed path.

User-agent: Anchor Browser # https://darkvisitors.com/agents/anchor-browser
Disallow: /

Frequently Asked Questions About Anchor Browser

Should I Block Anchor Browser?

Evaluate case-by-case. Headless browsers have diverse uses from legitimate testing to automated attacks. Monitor their behavior and block them if they consume excessive resources, attempt unauthorized actions, or show malicious patterns.

How Do I Block Anchor Browser?

If you want to, you can block or limit Anchor Browser's access by configuring user agent token rules in your robots.txt file. The best way to do this is using Robots.txt Categories, which update automatically as new agents are discovered. While the vast majority of agents operated by reputable companies honor these robots.txt directives, bad actors may choose to ignore them entirely. In that case, you'll need to implement alternative blocking methods such as firewall rules or server-level restrictions. You can verify whether Anchor Browser is respecting your rules by setting up Agent Analytics to monitor its visits to your website.

Will Blocking Anchor Browser Hurt My SEO?

The SEO impact of blocking headless agents depends on their specific use case. If they're used for legitimate testing or monitoring that helps maintain site quality, blocking could indirectly hurt SEO. However, malicious headless agents might harm your site, so blocking them could protect your search rankings.

Does Anchor Browser Access Private Content?

Headless agents can access whatever content their controlling software directs them to, which could include both public and private content depending on their configuration. If provided with authentication credentials or authorized access, they can interact with private systems just like a human user would. Their scope is entirely dependent on their programming and permissions.

How Can I Tell if Anchor Browser Is Visiting My Website?

Setting up Agent Analytics will give you realtime visibility into Anchor Browser visiting your website, along with hundreds of other AI agents, crawlers, and scrapers. This will also let you measure human traffic to your website coming from AI search and chat LLM platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini.

Why Is Anchor Browser Visiting My Website?

Anchor Browser accessed your site for purposes that depend on how it's being used. It may have been directed to your site for testing, automation tasks, or by an AI system that identified your content as relevant to its objectives. The specific reason varies based on who is controlling it and what they're trying to accomplish.

How Can I Authenticate Visits From Anchor Browser?

Agent Analytics authenticates agent visits from many agents, letting you know whether each one was actually from that agent, or spoofed by a bad actor. This helps you identify suspicious traffic patterns and make informed decisions about blocking or allowing specific user agents.