Applebot
Apple · Apple’s web crawler for Spotlight, Siri, Safari search features; crawled data may also support generative features unless opted out via Applebot-Extended
By Vinespire Editorial Team, Editorial ·
Update: Verified against Apple operator documentation for Applebot.
This page is the operator/profile guide for Applebot. To paste a full robots.txt and check Applebot plus other AI crawlers in one pass, use the Robots.txt AI Crawler Validator. Short definitional entries also live in the AI search glossary.
Related free utilities are in free AI SEO tools.
What is Applebot?
Applebot is Apple’s documented web crawler for powering search technology integrated into experiences such as Spotlight, Siri, and Safari. Apple’s support documentation explains how to identify Applebot traffic (reverse DNS under applebot.apple.com and published IP CIDRs), the User-Agent patterns containing Applebot, and robots.txt customization. Applebot respects standard robots.txt directives for general search crawls targeted at Applebot; if robots instructions omit Applebot but mention Googlebot, Apple documents that Applebot will follow Googlebot instructions. Applebot does not follow crawl-delay. Separately, Applebot-Extended is a product token used to opt out of using website content to train Apple’s general-purpose foundation models for generative AI features; Apple states Applebot-Extended does not crawl webpages itself and that pages disallowing Applebot-Extended can still appear in search results. Crawled Applebot data may still be used for additional context in some AI-generated answers unless publishers use controls such as nosnippet as documented. This registry entry covers the Applebot search crawler token; see Applebot-Extended for generative training preferences. Official source: Apple Support “About Applebot.”
How to block Applebot
Add this group to robots.txt to disallow Applebot. Path rules can be narrowed if you only need to protect parts of the site.
User-agent: Applebot Disallow: /
How to allow Applebot
For most public marketing and documentation sites, allowing well-behaved AI agents is the default recommended stance for AI visibility—while remaining a factual robots.txt Allow rule you can reverse later.
User-agent: Applebot Allow: /
Should you block Applebot?
Allow Applebot if you want content discoverable in Apple’s documented search surfaces (Spotlight, Siri, Safari suggestions and related experiences). Blocking Applebot can reduce that discovery path and is a stronger step than only disallowing Applebot-Extended, which Apple positions as a generative training preference without removing search crawl. Many publishers allow Applebot for search while setting Applebot-Extended according to AI training policy—follow Apple’s current wording for exact effects. If robots.txt only mentions Googlebot, remember Apple may follow Googlebot rules for Applebot. Verify reverse DNS / IP lists before hard-blocking at the firewall so you do not mistake legitimate Applebot for spoofed traffic. Private content still needs authentication. Re-read Apple’s support article after major Apple Intelligence or Search updates.
Category: Search indexing
Official documentation (Apple)
Last verified: . Re-check operator docs after major crawler announcements.
Related bots (Search indexing)
Applebot FAQ
- Apple documents that Applebot respects standard robots.txt directives for general search crawls targeted at Applebot. Applebot does not follow crawl-delay.