What is Applebot, and how do I block it?

Applebot is Apple's search crawler. Search crawlers build the index a search or answer product draws on. From the operator's wording: data may also be used to train Apple models unless Applebot-Extended is disallowed.

This is the user agent string Apple documents for Applebot, as of October 29, 2026. Version numbers and details can change, so match on the token in robots.txt, not on the whole string.

Add this group to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. It asks Applebot to stay out of every page.

To allow it explicitly, for example while a broader rule blocks other bots:

Each Apple user agent has its own token, so you can set them one by one. This file blocks Applebot-Extended and allows Applebot. Every line comes from the rows in this dataset. Whether allowing a bot keeps you in a product is Apple's call, so check each crawler's page.

Apple: 'Enabling Applebot in robots.txt allows website content to appear in search results for Apple users' in Spotlight, Siri and Safari.

Each other Apple user agent has its own robots.txt token, so a rule for Applebot does not cover them. See the related crawlers below.

Yes. Apple: 'Applebot respects standard robots.txt directives in general search crawls that are targeted at Applebot.' If robots.txt does not mention Applebot but mentions Googlebot, Applebot follows Googlebot instructions. No crawl-delay.

Robots.txt is a request, not a lock (RFC 9309).

Apple publishes a list at https://search.developer.apple.com/applebot.json. We did not download or parse it. A request that claims to be Applebot but comes from outside that list is not Applebot.