Applebot Checker for Siri, Spotlight and Apple AI
Can Siri, Spotlight and Apple's AI features use your website? Test Applebot's access and your Applebot-Extended training opt-out live, including the Googlebot rule that Applebot quietly inherits.
Check your home page or any page URL. Free, no sign-up, and we don't save results.
- Apple's crawlers first
- Live robots.txt check
- Firewall test
- Fix-it advice
Apple: every crawler at a glance
| User agent | What it does | Follows robots.txt | If you block it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Applebot | Powers search in Siri, Spotlight and Safari, and can supply context for Apple's AI answers. | Yes | You lose visibility in Siri and Spotlight suggestions. |
| Applebot-Extended | Controls whether Apple may use content Applebot collects to train its foundation models. It does not crawl. | Read as a robots.txt token | Siri and Spotlight search are unaffected. Only Apple's model training. |
How Apple uses your website
Applebot is Apple's web crawler. Apple says the data it collects powers search features in Spotlight, Siri and Safari, may help train Apple's foundation models, and may provide context for AI-generated answers in Siri and Search.
Applebot-Extended is a control, not a crawler. Disallowing it stops your content being used to train Apple's general-purpose foundation models. Apple says pages that disallow Applebot-Extended can still appear in search results, and that the rule isn't considered in ranking.
Applebot follows Googlebot's rules when it has none of its own. Apple says that if your robots.txt doesn't mention Applebot but does mention Googlebot, Applebot follows the Googlebot instructions. This checker applies that rule, which surprises a lot of site owners.
Apple says Applebot may render your pages in a browser, so blocking the JavaScript or CSS it needs can stop it seeing your content properly. Apple also says Applebot does not follow Crawl-delay.
How to allow or block Apple in robots.txt
Give Applebot its own group if your Googlebot rules aren't what you want Apple to follow.
Stay in Siri and Spotlight, opt out of Apple AI training
Applebot keeps crawling for search features. Applebot-Extended opts you out of foundation model training.
User-agent: Applebot
Allow: /
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Disallow: /Stop Applebot inheriting a Googlebot rule
Without an Applebot group, a Googlebot-only block (here /beta/) also applies to Applebot.
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /beta/
# Applebot gets its own rules instead of Googlebot's
User-agent: Applebot
Allow: /How to tell if it's really Applebot
Apple says genuine Applebot traffic reverse-resolves to the *.applebot.apple.com domain. Confirm with a forward lookup that the hostname returns the same IP.
Apple also publishes Applebot's IP ranges at search.developer.apple.com/applebot.json.
Why Apple might not see your site
Googlebot rules leaking to Applebot
If Applebot has no group, it follows your Googlebot group. A Googlebot-specific Disallow applies to Apple too.
Blocking scripts and styles
Applebot may render pages in a browser. Blocking JavaScript or CSS in robots.txt can stop it seeing your content.
Relying on Crawl-delay
Apple says Applebot doesn't follow Crawl-delay. Manage load at the server or firewall level instead.
Blocking Applebot to stop AI training
That also removes you from Siri and Spotlight. Disallow Applebot-Extended instead.
Readable by Apple is not the same as recommended
Passing this check means Apple can read your site. Whether it cites or recommends you depends on what it finds: clear answers to your customers' questions, consistent business details and mentions on sites it trusts. That's the work of generative engine optimisation (GEO) and AI SEO, built on solid technical SEO. Our AI search team does exactly this for Australian businesses.
Readable by Apple is step one. Let's get it recommending you.
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Apple crawler questions, answered.
Does blocking Applebot-Extended remove me from Siri or Spotlight?
No. Apple says pages that disallow Applebot-Extended can still be included in search results, and the rule isn't considered in ranking. It only opts you out of training Apple's foundation models.
Why does Applebot follow my Googlebot rules?
Apple says that if robots.txt doesn't mention Applebot but mentions Googlebot, Applebot follows the Googlebot instructions. Add an Applebot group if you want different rules.
Does Applebot run JavaScript?
Apple says Applebot may render your site within a browser. Don't block the JavaScript and CSS files it needs, or it may not see your content properly.
Does Applebot respect Crawl-delay?
No. Apple says Applebot does not follow Crawl-delay.
Sources
Facts on this page were checked against these sources in November 2026. AI crawlers change often, so we review this page regularly.
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