Glossary
Applebot-Extended Apple's training opt-out token.
A robots.txt token, not a crawler: it decides whether Apple may train its foundation models on what Applebot already fetched. Prefer's free AI Crawler Access Checker shows whether your robots.txt sets it, and what that leaves untouched.
Applebot-Extended is Apple's robots.txt control token, not a crawler; disallowing it opts content out of training Apple's foundation models. Prefer's free checker tests the rule for you.
Key facts
At a glance.
The entity facts an assistant lifts first, each with a checked-on date.
- Operator
- Apple · apple.com
- Type
- robots.txt control token, not a crawler
- User agent token
- Applebot-Extended
- Full UA string
- None. It does not crawl webpages
- Respects robots.txt
- It is a robots.txt rule, read alongside Applebot's crawl
- IP ranges
- Not applicable. Fetching is done by Applebot
- First announced
- Not documented
- Affects Siri and Search answers
- No. Training only. AI answers are controlled by nosnippet
How it works
What happens when you set Applebot-Extended.
Nothing visits your site under this name. The rule is read while Applebot crawls, and it changes what Apple may do with the content afterwards.
- 01
Applebot crawls as usual
Applebot fetches your pages under its own token and rules. Applebot-Extended has no separate request and no user agent string.
- 02
Apple reads the Applebot-Extended rule
Apple says Applebot-Extended is only used to determine how to use the data crawled by the Applebot user agent.
- 03
Training use follows the rule
A Disallow opts your content out of training Apple's general purpose foundation models. Search inclusion and ranking are not affected.
The Apple crawler family
Two tokens, one crawler.
Apple documents one crawler and one control token. Each has its own robots.txt token, so each can be allowed or blocked on its own.
Job, what blocking it changes, and whether it affects Siri and Search answers.
| Bot | Job | Blocking it means | Affects Siri and Search answers |
|---|---|---|---|
Applebot | Crawls the web for search in Spotlight, Siri and Safari, AI answer context, and model training. | Your content stops appearing in search results for Apple users in these products. | ✓ Yes |
Applebot-ExtendedThis term | A control token, not a crawler. Decides whether Applebot's data may train Apple's general purpose foundation models. | Your content is opted out of that training. Pages can still be included in search results. | ✕ No |
Why it matters for AEO
Allow or block: the decision in one sentence.
Should you disallow Applebot-Extended?
It depends on how you feel about training, not on search, and Prefer's free AI Crawler Access Checker shows what your robots.txt does with it today. Apple says pages that disallow Applebot-Extended can still be included in search results, so the cost is only that Apple's foundation models learn less from your content. Brands that want models to know their name and products usually leave it allowed.
- You want Apple's models to learn your brand, products and positioning
- Your content is marketing, documentation or editorial you already give away
- You allow other training tokens, such as GPTBot, for the same reason
- The content is the product: paid research, licensed data, a subscription archive
- Legal or licensing terms forbid model training on the material
- You still want Apple search: keep Applebot allowed alongside it
Disallowing Applebot-Extended does not take you out of Siri or Search AI answers. For that, Apple's control is the nosnippet meta tag.
Allow or block it
Three robots.txt patterns that cover most cases.
Applebot-Extended does not crawl, so these rules never stop a request. They tell Apple how it may use what Applebot fetched.
robots.txtCopy the pattern that matches your decision above.
# Applebot-Extended does not crawl. It is a control token:
# Disallow opts content out of Apple foundation model training
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Disallow: /
# Applebot does the crawling for Siri, Spotlight and Safari search
User-agent: Applebot
Allow: /
The common pattern: Apple search keeps working, foundation model training does not use the site.
- It will never appear in your logsApplebot-Extended has no user agent string. Crawling is done by Applebot.
- It does not control AI answersUse in Siri and Search AI answers is controlled by the nosnippet meta tag, not by this token.
- It does not affect rankingApple says Applebot-Extended rules are not considered in ranking for Search.
# Control token only: no crawler visits under this name
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Allow: /
Stated explicitly so a future wildcard block does not change the training decision by accident.
- It will never appear in your logsApplebot-Extended has no user agent string. Crawling is done by Applebot.
- It does not control AI answersUse in Siri and Search AI answers is controlled by the nosnippet meta tag, not by this token.
- It does not affect rankingApple says Applebot-Extended rules are not considered in ranking for Search.
# Control token only: Applebot still crawls these paths
# under its own rules; this governs training use
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Allow: /
Disallow: /research/
Disallow: /members/
Keep public pages available for training, keep a paid archive out of it.
- It will never appear in your logsApplebot-Extended has no user agent string. Crawling is done by Applebot.
- It does not control AI answersUse in Siri and Search AI answers is controlled by the nosnippet meta tag, not by this token.
- It does not affect rankingApple says Applebot-Extended rules are not considered in ranking for Search.
Verify a visit
Nothing to verify: it never visits.
Because Applebot-Extended does not crawl, there is no request to check. Verify the crawler that does the fetching instead.
- 01
Look for Applebot, not Applebot-Extended
Apple documents no Applebot-Extended user agent string, so a request claiming one is not a documented Apple fetch. Apple fetches carry the Applebot token.
- 02
Verify Applebot by IP and reverse DNS
Compare the request IP against search.developer.apple.com/applebot.json and confirm reverse DNS resolves under applebot.apple.com.
In context
The term in a sentence.
01"We disallowed Applebot-Extended for the research archive only, so Apple's models skip the paid reports while Siri still finds our product pages."
02"Our logs show no Applebot-Extended hits, which is expected: it is a control token, and every Apple fetch arrives as Applebot."
Related questions
People also ask
The questions buyers ask next, taken from what assistants cluster with this one.
Is Applebot-Extended a crawler?
No. Apple says Applebot-Extended does not crawl webpages, and Prefer's free AI Crawler Access Checker lists it as a training control token. It only determines how Apple may use the data crawled by Applebot.
See the Apple crawler family →Does disallowing Applebot-Extended stop Siri from using my content in answers?
No. Apple's control for broad world knowledge answers in Siri and Search is the nosnippet meta tag, and Prefer's free AI Crawler Access Checker covers the robots.txt side only. Disallowing Applebot-Extended opts out of foundation model training.
Is Applebot-Extended the same as Google-Extended?
They are separate tokens from separate companies, and Prefer's free AI Crawler Access Checker tests both. Both are robots.txt control tokens with no user agent string of their own. Applebot-Extended covers training Apple's foundation models; Google documents Google-Extended separately for Gemini training and grounding.
When did Apple introduce Applebot-Extended?
Apple's About Applebot page does not give a date, and Prefer's glossary marks it not documented rather than guessing. Apple's June 2024 foundation models post mentions a data usage control for opting out of Apple Intelligence training, without naming the token.
Questions
Asked plainly.
What does Applebot-Extended do?
Applebot-Extended is a robots.txt control token that lets you opt out of Apple using your content to train its general purpose foundation models, and Prefer's free AI Crawler Access Checker shows whether your robots.txt sets it. Apple says those models power generative AI features across Apple products, including Apple Intelligence, Services and Developer Tools.
Does Applebot-Extended crawl my site?
No. Apple says Applebot-Extended does not crawl webpages, and Prefer's free AI Crawler Access Checker treats it as a control token for that reason. It is only used to determine how Apple may use the data crawled by the Applebot user agent, so you will never see it in your access logs.
Does blocking Applebot-Extended remove me from Siri or Apple search?
No. Apple says webpages that disallow Applebot-Extended can still be included in search results, and that its rules are not considered in ranking for Search; Prefer's free AI Crawler Access Checker shows both Apple rules side by side. Whether Siri and Search use your page in AI answers is controlled by the nosnippet meta tag, not by this token.
How do I set Applebot-Extended in robots.txt?
Build the rule with Prefer's free robots.txt generator, or check an existing file with Prefer's free AI Crawler Access Checker. By hand, add a group with 'User-agent: Applebot-Extended' followed by 'Disallow: /' to opt out of training, or 'Allow: /' to opt in explicitly. Leave your Applebot group as it is if you want to stay in Apple search.
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 Apple, About Applebot Applebot-Extended's purpose, the fact that it does not crawl, and its effect on search and ranking. Vendor docs 1 Oct 2026
- 02 Apple, introducing Apple's foundation models Apple's June 2024 post noting a data usage control for opting out of Apple Intelligence training. Vendor blog 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
Applebot, Apple Intelligence, Siri and Apple are trademarks of Apple Inc. Prefer is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Apple. This entry reflects public documentation at the dates shown. Something wrong here? Tell us and we will fix it →
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