Apple
Applebot-Extended
Controls whether Applebot-collected content can train Apple generative models.
Content-use policyPolicy control · no separate crawlerWeb search
Applebot
Indexes content for Apple search experiences including Siri, Spotlight and Safari.
Operated by Apple
See your agent traffic PurposeWeb search
HTTP identifierApplebot
IdentityVerify beyond the name
THE SIGNAL
What this visit tells you
A fetch shows access by a claimed Apple crawler, not a Siri referral. Compare successful content access with actual referral evidence.
Requested pages
Response codes
Crawl volume
Your next move
Check indexable public pages and their rendered content. Decide generative-model training permission separately with Applebot-Extended.
The technical details
MarkdownHow to identify it
Look for the Applebot identifier in a request’s User-Agent. This is a name match, not identity verification. Version strings may change.
How to check identity
Use Apple’s published IP ranges and crawler verification guidance linked in the source.
Access and robots.txt
Applebot follows its own robots.txt rules, falling back to Googlebot rules when no Applebot group exists. Crawl-delay is not supported. Applebot-Extended controls model-training use separately.
Optional full-site opt-out. Merge with existing rules only if intended. robots.txt does not secure private content.
User-agent: Applebot
Disallow: /Seeing 403 or 404 responses?
403 means access was denied; 404 means the resource was not found. Compare the public path, request time, edge security event and origin response to find the cause.
Separate intended restrictions and secret-file probes from pages that should work. A User-Agent name alone does not justify allowing a request.
SourcesReviewed 2026-09-14
Identity and purpose are based on these sources. Analytics interpretation and suggested checks are Apostl guidance.
APOSTL PulseSee Applebot in context
See their requests. Find the pages that matter.
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Different bots, different intent
Googlebot
Crawls pages for Google Search using desktop and smartphone variants.
Web search