Google Read Aloud user agent

Google-Read-Aloud is the user agent for the Google Read Aloud service. This service enables reading web pages using text-to-speech (TTS). This service is activated when an end user has TTS enabled and visits a page. The Read Aloud service is used by Google Go, Google Read it, Read Aloud on the Google app, and other Google text-to-speech services.

Crawl frequency and behavior

Google Read Aloud is triggered by a user request. Google Read Aloud conserves bandwidth by caching page results, but you may still see multiple requests for a given page.

Google Read Aloud is not a web crawler: it is activated upon user request, and it doesn't follow links. Google Read Aloud uses stateless rendering to view the page like a user would. In particular, it doesn't use the user's cookies. A user request for listening to a web page may or may not result in page visits, depending on whether the page has been fetched recently.

Reduce Google Read Aloud requests

Since Google Read Aloud is initiated by a user, not a result of automated web crawl, you can't opt out by using a robots.txt file. To opt out of Google Read Aloud functionality, use the nopagereadaloud meta tag:

<meta name="google" content="nopagereadaloud">

In order to recognize meta tags on a page, Google Read Aloud may proactively access and render the page with its embedded resources. Once the meta tag has been recognized on a page, the number of future requests will be reduced automatically.

To prevent paywalled content from being read aloud, use structured data for subscription and paywalled content. Make sure the isAccessibleForFree property is set to False.

What is the google-speakr agent?

The google-speakr agent is an older, deprecated version of the user agent. The user agent's current name is Google-Read-Aloud.