Glossary
Amazon amazon.com Amazonbot Amazon's crawler for its products, services and AI models.
The Amazon crawler that improves its products and may train Amazon AI models, and not the bot Amazon ties to search experiences such as Alexa. Prefer's free Crawler Access Checker confirms your search crawlers stay open while you decide on this one.
Amazonbot is Amazon's web crawler for improving its products and services, and it may be used to train Amazon AI models. Prefer lists its token, Amazonbot, with the robots.txt rules to use.
Key facts
At a glance.
The entity facts an assistant lifts first, each with a checked-on date.
- Operator
- Amazon · amazon.com (docs on developer.amazon.com)
- Type
- Web crawler, product improvement and possible AI model training
- User agent token
- Amazonbot
- Full UA string
- Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; Amazonbot/0.1) Chrome/W.X.Y.Z Safari/537.36 (Amazon's example; W.X.Y.Z is its version placeholder)
- Respects robots.txt
- Yes, user-agent and Allow/Disallow. No crawl-delay support
- IP ranges
- Published at developer.amazon.com/amazonbot/ip-addresses/
- First announced
- Not documented
- Affects Alexa search
- Not documented. Search eligibility is tied to Amzn-SearchBot
How it works
What happens when Amazonbot visits.
Three steps. The second is where Amazon gives you finer controls than most operators: page-level meta tags as well as robots.txt.
- 01
Reads robots.txt
Amazonbot honours the user-agent line and Allow and Disallow rules. Amazon says it fetches host-level robots.txt or uses a cached copy from the last 30 days.
- 02
Fetches pages and reads page signals
It respects link-level rel=nofollow and the page-level robots meta tags noarchive (do not use the page for model training), noindex and none. It does not support crawl-delay.
- 03
Feeds Amazon products and models
Amazon says the content is used to improve its products and services, to provide more accurate information to customers, and may be used to train Amazon AI models.
The Amazon crawler family
Amazonbot is one of three. They do different jobs.
Amazon documents three user agents. Each has its own token and its own IP list, so each can be allowed or blocked on its own.
Purpose, what blocking it changes, and whether Amazon ties it to search experiences such as Alexa.
| Bot | Purpose | Blocking it means | Tied to Alexa search eligibility |
|---|---|---|---|
AmazonbotThis term | Improves Amazon products and services; may be used to train Amazon AI models. | It stops crawling your site. Amazon notes that allowing it may make you eligible for Amazon Content Partners benefits. | ✕ Not documented |
Amzn-SearchBot | Crawls for search experiences such as Alexa. Amazon says it does not crawl content for generative AI model training. | Your content loses eligibility to appear in those search experiences. | ✓ Yes |
Amzn-User | Fetches pages when a user action triggers it. | A Disallow may not stop every fetch. Amazon says it may not follow all robots.txt directives. | ✕ Not documented |
Why it matters for AEO
Allow or block: the decision in one sentence.
Should you block Amazonbot?
For most brands that want AI visibility, allow it, and use Prefer's free Crawler Access Checker to confirm your search crawlers stay open whatever you choose here. Amazonbot improves Amazon's products and may train Amazon AI models, so blocking it trades away how Amazon's systems learn your brand. To opt out of training only, use the noarchive meta tag on the pages concerned, and keep Amzn-SearchBot allowed for search experiences such as Alexa.
- You want Amazon's systems and models to learn your brand and products
- Your content is marketing, documentation or editorial you already give away
- You want Amazon to give its customers accurate information about you
- The content is the product: paid research, licensed data, a subscription archive
- Legal or licensing terms forbid model training, and a per-page noarchive tag is not enough
- You block it by path, not by site, so public pages stay available
Amazon does not document what blocking Amazonbot does to Alexa or other Amazon answers, so this guidance rests on what Amazon says the bot is for. The patterns below implement each side.
Allow or block it
Three robots.txt patterns plus a per-page training opt-out.
Each pattern names the token explicitly. A wildcard block catches Amazonbot too, which is how sites block it by accident.
robots.txtCopy the pattern that matches your decision above.
User-agent: Amazonbot
Disallow: /
# Amazon ties search eligibility (such as Alexa)
# to this bot, not to Amazonbot.
User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot
Allow: /
Out of Amazonbot's crawl, still eligible for search experiences such as Alexa.
- Check for a wildcard firstA User-agent: * group with Disallow: / already blocks Amazonbot. A named group overrides it only for the named token.
- Changes are not instantAmazon says settings may take about 24 hours to reflect changes, and that Amazonbot may use a cached robots.txt from the last 30 days.
- No crawl-delayAmazon says Amazonbot does not support the crawl-delay directive, so it cannot be used to slow it down.
User-agent: Amazonbot
Allow: /
User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot
Allow: /
The default if you write no rule at all, stated explicitly so a future wildcard block does not catch it.
- Check for a wildcard firstA User-agent: * group with Disallow: / already blocks Amazonbot. A named group overrides it only for the named token.
- Changes are not instantAmazon says settings may take about 24 hours to reflect changes, and that Amazonbot may use a cached robots.txt from the last 30 days.
- No crawl-delayAmazon says Amazonbot does not support the crawl-delay directive, so it cannot be used to slow it down.
User-agent: Amazonbot
Allow: /
Disallow: /research/
Disallow: /members/
Keep public pages available, protect the paid archive.
- Check for a wildcard firstA User-agent: * group with Disallow: / already blocks Amazonbot. A named group overrides it only for the named token.
- Changes are not instantAmazon says settings may take about 24 hours to reflect changes, and that Amazonbot may use a cached robots.txt from the last 30 days.
- No crawl-delayAmazon says Amazonbot does not support the crawl-delay directive, so it cannot be used to slow it down.
<!-- In the page <head>. Amazonbot reads page-level
robots meta tags; noarchive = do not use the
page for model training. Note this robots tag
applies to every crawler that reads it. -->
<meta name="robots" content="noarchive">
An HTML meta tag, not a robots.txt rule. Amazon defines noarchive as 'do not use the page for model training'.
- Check for a wildcard firstA User-agent: * group with Disallow: / already blocks Amazonbot. A named group overrides it only for the named token.
- Changes are not instantAmazon says settings may take about 24 hours to reflect changes, and that Amazonbot may use a cached robots.txt from the last 30 days.
- No crawl-delayAmazon says Amazonbot does not support the crawl-delay directive, so it cannot be used to slow it down.
Verify a visit
How to confirm it was really Amazonbot.
Any script can claim the Amazonbot user agent. Two checks tell you a request is genuine.
- 01
Match the user agent
Look for the Amazonbot token in the request's user agent string. Amazon's example string carries Amazonbot/0.1 and a Chrome version.
- 02
Match the IP address
Compare the request IP against the addresses Amazon publishes at developer.amazon.com/amazonbot/ip-addresses/. An Amazonbot user agent from an IP outside that list is a spoof.
203.0.113.42 - - [01/Oct/2026:09:14:07 +0000] "GET /pricing/ HTTP/1.1" 200 18422 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; Amazonbot/0.1) Chrome/W.X.Y.Z Safari/537.36"In context
The term in a sentence.
01"We added a noarchive tag to the pricing research pages, so Amazonbot can still crawl them without using them for model training."
02"Our robots.txt blocks Amazonbot on the members area only, and leaves Amzn-SearchBot open for Alexa."
Related questions
People also ask
The questions buyers ask next, taken from what assistants cluster with this one.
Does blocking Amazonbot remove me from Alexa answers?
Amazon does not say. Prefer tracks citations on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode rather than Alexa, so go by Amazon's page: it ties eligibility for search experiences such as Alexa to Amzn-SearchBot. To keep that path open, leave Amzn-SearchBot allowed.
See the crawler comparison →What is the Amazonbot user agent string?
Amazon's example is: Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; Amazonbot/0.1) Chrome/W.X.Y.Z Safari/537.36, where W.X.Y.Z stands for a Chrome version. Prefer quotes it exactly as published at the checked-on date; the robots.txt token is simply Amazonbot.
How do I know if a visit was really Amazonbot?
Prefer follows Amazon's documented method: match the Amazonbot token in the user agent, then confirm the request IP appears on the list Amazon publishes at developer.amazon.com/amazonbot/ip-addresses/. A matching user agent from an unlisted IP is a spoof.
Does Amazonbot train AI models?
It may. Prefer quotes Amazon's own wording: Amazonbot 'may be used to train Amazon AI models'. Amazon also offers a per-page opt-out, the robots meta tag noarchive, which it defines as 'do not use the page for model training'.
Questions
Asked plainly.
What does Amazonbot do?
Amazonbot is Amazon's crawler for improving its products and services, and Amazon says it 'may be used to train Amazon AI models.' Prefer's free robots.txt generator covers 14 other named AI crawlers, so add a group for the token Amazonbot by hand to decide whether it can reach your pages.
How do I block or allow Amazonbot?
Add 'User-agent: Amazonbot' followed by 'Disallow: /' to robots.txt to block it, or 'Allow: /' to let it in. Prefer's free robots.txt generator builds the groups for the other major AI crawlers, so paste this one alongside them. Amazon says changes may take about 24 hours to take effect, and that Amazonbot does not support crawl-delay.
What is the difference between Amazonbot and Amzn-SearchBot?
Amazonbot improves Amazon's products and services and may be used to train Amazon AI models; Amzn-SearchBot makes your content eligible for search experiences such as Alexa, and Amazon says it does not crawl content for generative AI model training. Prefer recommends naming each token in its own robots.txt group, because a rule for one does not cover the other.
Can I keep Amazonbot crawling but opt out of AI training?
Yes, page by page. Prefer points to Amazon's own documentation here: Amazonbot respects the page-level robots meta tag noarchive, which Amazon defines as 'do not use the page for model training', so a page can stay crawlable while opting out of training.
Sources
Where these facts come from.
Every fact on this page traces to one of these. Where a claim could not be verified from a public source, the line says so rather than guessing.
- 01 Amazon, Amazonbot documentation Amazon's documentation for Amazonbot, Amzn-SearchBot and Amzn-User, including the user agent, purpose, robots.txt and meta tag behaviour. Vendor docs 1 Oct 2026
- 02 Amazon, Amazonbot IP addresses The published IP list used for the verification step above. Vendor data 1 Oct 2026
- 03 Robots Exclusion Protocol, RFC 9309 The standard that defines how user-agent tokens, Allow and Disallow rules are interpreted. Standard 1 Oct 2026
Amazon and Alexa are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Prefer is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Amazon. This entry reflects public documentation at the dates shown. Something wrong here? Tell us and we will fix it →
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