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AI crawler profile

What is Applebot? How to allow or block Apple's crawler

User-agent string to match in robots.txt and server logs: Applebot

Operator

Apple

Purpose

AI search & live answers

robots.txt

Respects robots.txt

Official docs

Apple documentation ↗

Applebot is Apple's standard web crawler, feeding Siri answers and Spotlight web suggestions. It's the crawler that physically fetches pages for Apple — the separate Applebot-Extended token then governs whether that fetched content may also train Apple Intelligence models. Blocking Applebot itself removes you from Siri and Spotlight results.

Does Applebot respect robots.txt?

Apple documents Applebot thoroughly and honors robots.txt directives.

Verify it's really Applebot

The user-agent string above is self-declared, so anything can send it. Apple publishes Applebot's IP ranges as JSON, which is what makes a rule verifiable: check the request's IP against the published prefixes instead of trusting the name. Requests claiming to be Applebot from outside those ranges are spoofed — useful to know whether you're allowing or blocking it.

Block Applebot with robots.txt

robots.txt — block
User-agent: Applebot
Disallow: /

Explicitly allow Applebot

robots.txt — allow
User-agent: Applebot
Allow: /

Block Applebot at the server or CDN

robots.txt is the right first step for Applebot, since Apple honors it. Use these only if you want the block enforced rather than requested — for example to stop agents spoofing the user agent. Matching on the user-agent string still trusts a self-declared header — pair it with an IP check against the published ranges above for a rule that can't be spoofed.

nginx
if ($http_user_agent ~* "Applebot") {
    return 403;
}
apache — .htaccess
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Applebot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
cloudflare — WAF expression
(http.user_agent contains "Applebot")

Find Applebot in your server logs

shell
grep -i "Applebot" /var/log/nginx/access.log | wc -l

Should you block Applebot?

For most sites, no. Applebot powers visibility: blocking it removes your pages from the cited answers Apple's assistant shows its users — the AI-era equivalent of de-indexing yourself from a search engine. Block it only if you deliberately don't want that audience. Our guide on blocking AI bots covers the trade-offs in detail.

Check and monitor Applebot on your site

Related reading

Frequently asked questions

What is Applebot?

Applebot is Apple's agent for AI search and live answers. Apple's crawler powering Siri and Spotlight suggestions.

Does Applebot respect robots.txt?

Apple documents Applebot thoroughly and honors robots.txt directives.

How do I block Applebot?

Add "User-agent: Applebot" followed by "Disallow: /" to your robots.txt file. The change takes effect the next time the bot fetches your robots.txt.

Does blocking Applebot hurt my Google rankings?

No. Applebot is separate from Googlebot, which handles Google Search indexing. Blocking Applebot has no effect on your traditional search rankings, but it does remove your pages from the AI answers Apple's assistant serves to its users.

How can I tell if Applebot is crawling my site?

Search your server access logs for the string "Applebot" — for example: grep -i "Applebot" /var/log/nginx/access.log | wc -l. Our free AI Bot Log Analyzer does this in your browser: paste a log file and it counts hits per AI crawler, including Applebot, with per-path breakdowns.

How do I use Applebot?

You don't — Applebot isn't a tool you run. It's Apple's own crawler, operated by Apple, that visits your site from their infrastructure. The only control you have over it is whether you allow or block it, via robots.txt or a server rule. If you're looking to crawl other sites yourself, you'd write your own crawler or use a crawling library; sending "Applebot" as your user agent would be impersonating Apple.

Where is the official Apple documentation for Applebot?

Apple publishes it at https://support.apple.com/en-us/119829. That page is the authoritative source for the user-agent string and Apple's stated crawling policy, and Apple also publishes Applebot's IP ranges as JSON at https://search.developer.apple.com/applebot.json so you can verify requests rather than trusting the header.

More Apple agents

Part of our directory of every known AI crawler, refreshed monthly. Last verified: 2026-08-14.