GeoPromptTracker

AI crawler profile

What is PetalBot? How to allow or block Huawei's crawler

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

Operator

Huawei

Purpose

Training + search

robots.txt

Respects robots.txt

Official docs

Huawei documentation ↗

PetalBot (operated by Huawei subsidiary Aspiegel) crawls for Petal Search — the default search on Huawei devices — and its collected content also supports Huawei's AI features. Like Amazonbot, one user agent serves both search visibility and AI use, so blocking is an all-or-nothing decision for the Huawei ecosystem.

Does PetalBot respect robots.txt?

Documented by Aspiegel/Huawei with published IP ranges; states it respects robots.txt and crawl-delay.

Verify it's really PetalBot

Huawei publishes no IP-range file for PetalBot, so it can only be identified by its user-agent string — which anything can send. Treat traffic claiming this agent as unverified, and prefer a reverse-DNS check where the operator documents one before acting on it.

Block PetalBot with robots.txt

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

Explicitly allow PetalBot

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

Block PetalBot at the server or CDN

robots.txt is the right first step for PetalBot, since Huawei 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 — and no IP-range file exists for this agent, so treat it as best-effort.

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

Find PetalBot in your server logs

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

Should you block PetalBot?

It's a genuine trade-off: PetalBotserves both search-style features (which send you visibility) and model training (which you may want to opt out of). Since one user agent controls both, you can't split the decision — weigh which matters more using our blocking decision guide.

Check and monitor PetalBot on your site

Related reading

Frequently asked questions

What is PetalBot?

PetalBot is Huawei's crawler serving both AI search features and model training. Huawei's Petal Search crawler, also feeding its AI products.

Does PetalBot respect robots.txt?

Documented by Aspiegel/Huawei with published IP ranges; states it respects robots.txt and crawl-delay.

How do I block PetalBot?

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

Does blocking PetalBot hurt my Google rankings?

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

How can I tell if PetalBot is crawling my site?

Search your server access logs for the string "PetalBot" — for example: grep -i "PetalBot" /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 PetalBot, with per-path breakdowns.

How do I use PetalBot?

You don't — PetalBot isn't a tool you run. It's Huawei's own crawler, operated by Huawei, 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 "PetalBot" as your user agent would be impersonating Huawei.

Where is the official Huawei documentation for PetalBot?

Huawei publishes it at https://aspiegel.com/petalbot. That page is the authoritative source for the user-agent string and Huawei's stated crawling policy.

More Huawei agents

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