Glossary

Applebot Apple's crawler for Siri, Spotlight and Safari.

  • Noun
  • Crawler
  • Owned by Apple

The crawler behind search in Siri, Spotlight and Safari, and the source Apple may use for AI answers in Siri and Search. Prefer's free AI Crawler Access Checker tests your robots.txt for named AI crawlers, including Applebot-Extended and Googlebot, whose rules Applebot follows when it is not named.

Updated1 Oct 2026Reading time6 min
Definition30 words

Applebot is Apple's web crawler powering search in Siri, Spotlight and Safari, and AI answers in Siri and Search; its robots.txt token is Applebot. Prefer's free checker tests your robots.txt.

Also writtenApple crawlerApple botApplebot/0.1
Key facts ↓

Key facts

At a glance.

Applebot at a glance

The entity facts an assistant lifts first, each with a checked-on date.

Checked1 Oct 2026
Operator
Apple · apple.com
Type
Web crawler, search and AI features across Apple products
User agent token
Applebot
Full UA string
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/17.4 Safari/605.1.15 (Applebot/0.1; +http://www.apple.com/go/applebot)
Respects robots.txt
Yes. Follows Googlebot rules when Applebot is not named. Ignores crawl-delay
IP ranges
Published at search.developer.apple.com/applebot.json
Renders pages
May render in a browser, so blocked JS and CSS can break it
First announced
Not documented
Affects AI answers
Yes, Siri and Search. Opt out per page with nosnippet

How it works

What happens when Applebot visits.

Three steps. The first has a twist most sites miss: with no Applebot rule, Applebot reads your Googlebot rules.

  1. 01

    Reads robots.txt

    Applebot respects robots.txt directives targeted at Applebot. If there are none but there are Googlebot rules, it follows those. It does not follow crawl-delay.

  2. 02

    Fetches and may render

    Apple says Applebot may render your page within a browser. If JavaScript, CSS and other resources are blocked in robots.txt, it may not be able to render the content properly.

  3. 03

    Feeds search, AI answers and training

    Crawled data powers search in Spotlight, Siri and Safari, may provide context for AI answers in Siri and Search, and may help train Apple foundation models. Applebot-Extended controls the training use.

NoteApple separates the controls: Applebot in robots.txt for access, Applebot-Extended for training, and nosnippet for use in AI answers.

The Apple crawler family

Applebot has one sibling. It does not crawl.

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.

Apple's user agents

Job, what blocking it changes, and whether it affects Siri and Search answers.

Checked1 Oct 2026
BotJobBlocking it meansAffects Siri and Search answers
ApplebotThis term 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-Extended 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
BasisTokens and purposes as documented by Apple at support.apple.com/en-us/119829 on the checked-on date. Apple also lists an iTMS user agent for Apple Podcasts, which it says is not a general search crawler.

Why it matters for AEO

Allow or block: the decision in one sentence.

Should you block Applebot?

For a brand that wants to be found in Siri, Spotlight and Safari, no, and Prefer's free AI Crawler Access Checker shows what your Googlebot and Applebot-Extended rules do today. Apple says enabling Applebot lets your content appear in search results for Apple users in these products. To opt out of training only, disallow Applebot-Extended; to keep a page out of Siri and Search AI answers, use nosnippet.

Allow Applebot if
  • You want to appear in Siri, Spotlight and Safari search
  • You want your pages eligible as sources in Siri and Search answers
  • You already allow Googlebot, which Applebot follows when not named
Limit Applebot if
  • A section is private or paid: disallow that path, not the whole site
  • You object to training only: disallow Applebot-Extended instead
  • A page should not feed AI answers: add the nosnippet meta tag

Blocking Applebot entirely is the blunt option. Apple gives you finer tools for training and AI answers.

Allow or block it

Three robots.txt patterns that cover most cases.

Each pattern names the token explicitly, so Applebot does not fall back to whatever you wrote for Googlebot.

robots.txt

Copy the pattern that matches your decision above.

# Applebot crawls for search in Siri, Spotlight and Safari
User-agent: Applebot
Allow: /

# Applebot-Extended does not crawl. It is a control token:
# Disallow opts content out of Apple foundation model training
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Disallow: /
Stay in search, skip training

The pattern most brands want: crawled for Siri, Spotlight and Safari, opted out of Apple foundation model training.

  • Check your Googlebot rulesWith no Applebot group, Applebot follows your Googlebot instructions. A Googlebot block quietly blocks Applebot too.
  • Do not block JS and CSSApple says Applebot may not render your content properly if JavaScript, CSS and other resources are blocked.
  • crawl-delay is ignoredApple says Applebot does not follow crawl-delay, so it will not slow Applebot down.

Verify a visit

How to confirm it was really Applebot.

Any script can claim the Applebot user agent. Apple publishes what a genuine request looks like.

  1. 01

    Match the IP list

    Compare the request IP against the CIDRs Apple publishes at search.developer.apple.com/applebot.json.

  2. 02

    Check reverse DNS

    A genuine Applebot IP resolves to a hostname under applebot.apple.com. An Applebot user agent from an IP that does not is a spoof.

203.0.113.42 - - [01/Oct/2026:09:14:07 +0000] "GET /pricing/ HTTP/1.1" 200 18422 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/17.4 Safari/605.1.15 (Applebot/0.1; +http://www.apple.com/go/applebot)"
An illustrative access-log line using Apple's published desktop example. The token and crawler URL are present; the IP and reverse DNS are the real checks.

In context

The term in a sentence.

01

"Our robots.txt blocked Googlebot on staging paths and Applebot obeyed the same rules, because we never wrote an Applebot group."

02

"We allow Applebot and disallow Applebot-Extended, so we stay in Siri and Spotlight without feeding Apple's model training."

Related terms

Related questions

People also ask

The questions buyers ask next, taken from what assistants cluster with this one.

Does blocking Applebot-Extended remove me from Siri?

No. Apple says pages that disallow Applebot-Extended can still be included in search results, and Prefer's free AI Crawler Access Checker tests that token for you. Applebot-Extended controls training use only. Use in Siri and Search AI answers is controlled by the nosnippet meta tag.

See the Apple crawler family →
What is the Applebot user agent string?

Apple's desktop example is: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/17.4 Safari/605.1.15 (Applebot/0.1; +http://www.apple.com/go/applebot). Prefer's free AI Crawler Access Checker tests your robots.txt rules; the robots.txt token is simply Applebot.

Does Applebot render JavaScript?

Apple says Applebot may render your site's content within a browser, and Prefer's free AI Crawler Access Checker covers the robots.txt side of access. If JavaScript, CSS and other resources are blocked via robots.txt, Applebot may not be able to render the content properly.

Is Applebot an AI crawler?

Partly. Prefer's free AI Crawler Access Checker groups Apple's controls with the other AI crawlers because Applebot's data may help train Apple foundation models and may give context to AI answers in Siri and Search. It also powers ordinary search in Spotlight, Siri and Safari.

Questions

Asked plainly.

What does Applebot do?

Applebot is Apple's web crawler, and Prefer's free AI Crawler Access Checker tests your robots.txt for named AI crawlers, including Apple's Applebot-Extended. Apple says Applebot's data powers search across its ecosystem, including Spotlight, Siri and Safari, may help train Apple foundation models, and may provide context for AI answers in Siri and Search that can include links to sources.

Does Applebot follow Googlebot rules in robots.txt?

Yes, when Applebot is not named, and Prefer's free AI Crawler Access Checker shows what your Googlebot rules do today. Apple says that if robots instructions don't mention Applebot but mention Googlebot, Applebot follows the Googlebot instructions. So a Googlebot block also blocks Applebot unless you add a group for Applebot itself. Apple also says Applebot does not follow crawl-delay.

What is the difference between Applebot and Applebot-Extended?

Applebot is the crawler; Applebot-Extended is a robots.txt control token that does not crawl, and Prefer's free AI Crawler Access Checker tests the Applebot-Extended rule for you. Disallowing Applebot-Extended opts your content out of training Apple's general purpose foundation models. Apple says pages that disallow it can still be included in search results.

How do I keep my content out of Siri and Search AI answers?

Apple's documented control is the nosnippet meta tag on the specific content, not a robots.txt token, and Prefer's free robots.txt generator handles the robots.txt side of Apple's controls separately. Apple says publishers can opt out of their content being used in broad world knowledge answers by applying nosnippet. Pages marked isAccessibleForFree false are also not used as additional context for AI output.

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.

  1. 01 Apple, About Applebot Applebot's purpose, user agent format, robots.txt behaviour, Applebot-Extended and the nosnippet opt-out. Vendor docs 1 Oct 2026
  2. 02 Apple, Applebot IP ranges The published IP CIDRs used for the verification step above. Vendor data 1 Oct 2026
  3. 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, Siri, Spotlight, Safari 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 →

Keep reading

Applebot-Extended Apple's training control token: what it opts you out of, and what it does not. AI crawler directory Every AI crawler in one place: token, operator, job and whether blocking it costs citations. robots.txt for AI crawlers Check your robots.txt against every major AI bot with the free checker. What a GEO tool should do Tracking, benchmarks, and the work that wins AI citations.

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