What is Applebot-Extended?
Applebot-Extended is a robots.txt control token, not a crawler. Apple says it does not crawl web pages: disallowing it tells Apple not to use content that Applebot crawls to train its foundation models.
Last verified 2026-09-30 against the operator's documentation. All bots
Applebot-Extended at a glance
- Operator
- Apple
- Type
- AI robots.txt control tokens
- Purpose
- A robots.txt token that opts content out of Apple model training.
- robots.txt token
Applebot-Extended- How to verify
- There is nothing to verify: Apple says Applebot-Extended does not crawl. A request that uses the name is not from Apple.
- Operator documentation
- https://support.apple.com/en-us/119829
How often is Applebot-Extended impersonated?
No real crawler sends Applebot-Extended as its user agent, so every request that claims it is fake; there is nothing to verify.
This directory measures requests between 3 July 2026 and 28 September 2026. The fake crawler report covers its own, earlier window (late June to 21 September 2026), so its figures differ from the ones here. Read it for the method.
Have a request that claims to be Applebot-Extended? Check its IP address.
Should you block Applebot-Extended?
- Allow it if
- you are content for Apple to use your pages in model training.
- Block it if
- you want to stay in Apple search features but opt out of model training.
- What blocking changes
- Apple may not use your content to train its foundation models. Your pages can still appear in Apple's search features.
To block it, add this group to your robots.txt. Apple reads this token from robots.txt. Applebot keeps crawling for search either way.
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Disallow: /robots.txt only asks. It does nothing against a client that ignores it or only pretends to be Applebot-Extended. Stopping those takes verification at your edge.
Applebot-Extended: common questions
See which bots reach your site, and which of them are who they claim to be.
What is Applebot-Extended?
Applebot-Extended is a robots.txt control token, not a crawler. Apple says it does not crawl web pages: disallowing it tells Apple not to use content that Applebot crawls to train its foundation models.
How do I verify that a request is really Applebot-Extended?
There is nothing to verify: Apple says Applebot-Extended does not crawl. A request that uses the name is not from Apple. The user agent alone proves nothing: any client can send it.
How do I block Applebot-Extended in robots.txt?
Add a group for User-agent: Applebot-Extended with Disallow: /. Apple reads this token from robots.txt. Applebot keeps crawling for search either way. robots.txt only asks. A client that ignores it, or pretends to be Applebot-Extended, has to be stopped at your edge.
What happens if I block Applebot-Extended?
Apple may not use your content to train its foundation models. Your pages can still appear in Apple's search features.
Related bots
- Applebot (Apple): Crawls pages for Spotlight, Siri and Safari search features.
- Google-Extended (Google): A robots.txt token that controls Gemini training and grounding use.