Search index crawler from Apple

Applebot

In short

Applebot is Apple's search index crawler. The token to write in robots.txt is Applebot. Verify it by reverse DNS, then a forward lookup. Mixed-use crawler; Cloudflare classes it Accountable (2026-09-15). Applebot: enabling Applebot in robots.txt allows content to appear in Apple search results; data may also train Apple foundation models unless Applebot-Extended is disallowed.

Operator

Apple Vendor profile: Apple

Purpose

Search index All search index rows. Builds a search index that sends visitors back. Refusing it removes pages from that product.

User-agent 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)

robots.txt token

Applebot Matched case-insensitively (RFC 9309). The token and the user-agent string are different things.

Respects robots.txt

Yes, per operator

Apple: enabling Applebot in robots.txt allows content to appear in Apple search results; data may also train Apple foundation models unless Applebot-Extended is disallowed. Source, read 2026-11-04.

Verification

Reverse DNS

Reverse-resolve the source address, then forward-resolve the name and require the same address. Documentation, read 2026-11-04.

IP ranges

search.developer.apple.com/applebot.json

Rate behaviour

Not published.

Block rate

14.8% of 5,938 top-10,000 sites with a parsed robots.txt disallow Applebot at the root (877 sites). 11.6% name it; 3.1% refuse it only through a * group. Rank 12 of 31 tokens measured.

Across all 8,624 parsed robots.txt files in the crawl: 11.1% (8.8% named). Crawl of 2026-11-04; report.

Documentation

support.apple.com, read 2026-11-04.

Note. Reverse DNS in *.applebot.apple.com. Mixed-use crawler; Cloudflare classes it Accountable (2026-09-15). Apple says nosnippet opts content out of broad world knowledge answers.

Allow and refuse lines

User-agent: Applebot
Allow: /

User-agent: Applebot
Disallow: /

Refusing or allowing in robots.txt states a preference. Enforcement of a refusal belongs in your WAF; see how to verify the identity above.

Apple in the Verification Ledger

IP list and reverse DNS. All operators.

IP lists

• search.developer.apple.com/applebot.json

Reverse DNS

*.applebot.apple.com

Key directory

publishes nothing

Cloudflare

not checked

Visa TAP registry

no public operator-level registration found (checked 2026-11-04)

Mastercard Agent Pay

no public operator-level registration found (checked 2026-11-04)

In the news

• 2026-09-15Cloudflare adds Disallow AI Training and the Accountable label

Other Apple rows

• Applebot-Extended (control token) Training token Applebot-Extended

Last reviewed 2026-11-04