AI crawler profile
What is Applebot-Extended? How to allow or block Apple's crawler
Operator
Apple
Purpose
AI model training
robots.txt
Respects robots.txt
Official docs
Applebot-Extended, like Google-Extended, is a robots.txt control token rather than a distinct crawler: pages are still fetched by the regular Applebot that powers Siri and Spotlight. Disallowing Applebot-Extended opts your content out of Apple Intelligence model training without affecting Siri/Spotlight visibility.
Does Applebot-Extended respect robots.txt?
Apple documents the token officially and honors it via Applebot's crawl infrastructure.
Block Applebot-Extended with robots.txt
User-agent: Applebot-Extended Disallow: /
Explicitly allow Applebot-Extended
User-agent: Applebot-Extended Allow: /
Should you block Applebot-Extended?
Blocking Applebot-Extended opts your content out of Apple's model training — a legitimate choice for original content you don't want reproduced by AI. The trade-off: models trained without your content are less likely to know your brand or recommend it unprompted. There is no direct traffic loss today, since training crawlers don't send visitors. See our guide on whether to block AI bots for the full decision framework.
Check and monitor Applebot-Extended on your site
- AI Crawler Access Checker — see whether your current robots.txt allows or blocks Applebot-Extended.
- robots.txt Generator for AI Bots — build a robots.txt with per-bot rules for all 15 known AI crawlers.
- AI Bot Log Analyzer — paste server logs and count real Applebot-Extended hits, entirely in your browser.
Frequently asked questions
What is Applebot-Extended?
Applebot-Extended is Apple's web crawler for collecting AI training data. Controls use of content for training Apple's AI models (Apple Intelligence).
Does Applebot-Extended respect robots.txt?
Apple documents the token officially and honors it via Applebot's crawl infrastructure.
How do I block Applebot-Extended?
Add "User-agent: Applebot-Extended" followed by "Disallow: /" to your robots.txt file. The change takes effect the next time the bot fetches your robots.txt.
Does blocking Applebot-Extended hurt my Google rankings?
No. Applebot-Extended is separate from Googlebot, which handles Google Search indexing. Blocking Applebot-Extended has no effect on your traditional search rankings.
How can I tell if Applebot-Extended is crawling my site?
Search your server access logs for the string "Applebot-Extended". Our free AI Bot Log Analyzer does this in your browser: paste a log file and it counts hits per AI crawler, including Applebot-Extended, with per-path breakdowns.
Part of our directory of every known AI crawler, refreshed monthly. Last verified: 2026-07-15.