See it on a real storeBots, pages and people sent by AI on an example store. No sign-up.Search engines, run by Apple.
What is Applebot? Apple's search engine crawler. Verifiable by IP ranges and reverse DNS.
Run by Apple, which documents it.
Purpose: Search engines. A visit means your page is being crawled for a classic search index.
robots.txt name: Applebot.
Verifiable by IP ranges and reverse DNS.
At a glance, the facts in one table.
Applebot at a glance. Taken from SenseGap's open bot directory, the same data that sorts every visit in the dashboard.
All bots| Applebot | |
|---|---|
| Operator | Apple |
| Purpose | Search engines |
| User agent contains | Applebot |
| robots.txt name | Applebot |
| Verification | IP ranges + Reverse DNS |
| Documentation | support.apple.com |
Purpose, what it does and why it came.
What Applebot does. SenseGap sorts every visit by purpose. Applebot is in the Search engines group.
Applebot is Apple's search engine crawler that indexes pages for Apple's search results. Apple says Applebot powers search features such as Siri and Spotlight Suggestions.
What a visit means
A visit means your page is being crawled for a classic search index. SenseGap keeps search engines in your reports so you can compare AI activity with them.
Comparing how often a search engine and AI assistants read the same pages shows which content AI relies on more, or less, than search does.
Detection, the header SenseGap matches.
How SenseGap recognizes Applebot. By its User-Agent header. A separate check then decides whether the visit is real.
Every request carries a User-Agent header naming the software that sent it. SenseGap counts a request as Applebot when that header contains Applebot, in any letter case. The header is plain text, so any script can copy it. Matching the name is where recognition starts, not where trust starts.
/Applebot/iVerification, how to tell a real visit from a fake.
How to verify Applebot. Apple publishes its IP ranges and DNS names, so a real visit can be proven.
How we verify botsapplebot.json
Published by Apple at search.developer.apple.com. A real Applebot visit comes from an address in this list.
Open the listChecked on every visit
SenseGap runs both checks on every visit that claims to be Applebot, IP ranges first, then reverse DNS confirmed by a forward lookup. A pass is marked Real. A visit that sends the name and fails is marked Fake, and stays out of your other reports.
- 01
Look up the visiting address
Run a reverse DNS lookup on the IP address the request came from. It returns a hostname.
- 02
Check the hostname
The hostname must end in .applebot.apple.com. Anything else is not Applebot.
*.applebot.apple.com - 03
Look the hostname up again
Run a forward lookup on that hostname. It must return the same IP address, otherwise the reverse record could have been set by anyone.
$ host <visiting-ip>
… domain name pointer <hostname>.applebot.apple.com.
$ host <hostname>.applebot.apple.com
<hostname>.applebot.apple.com has address <visiting-ip>robots.txt, rules you can copy.
Block or allow Applebot in robots.txt. Its robots.txt name is Applebot. Paste a group into the robots.txt at your site's root.
User-agent: Applebot
Disallow: /User-agent: Applebot
Allow: /User-agent: Applebot
Disallow: /private/One rule catches people out. Under the robots.txt standard (RFC 9309), a crawler that finds a group naming it follows only that group and ignores your User-agent: * rules. If you add a Applebot group, repeat in it anything from the catch-all group you still want applied.
robots.txt is a request, not a lock. To enforce a block, match the User-Agent header at your server or CDN. In nginx:
# nginx, inside a server block
if ($http_user_agent ~* "Applebot") {
return 403;
}SenseGap reads your robots.txt and shows, bot by bot, what you allow and which bots fetched pages you disallowed. See what you get.
Trade-off, what blocking changes.
Should you block Applebot? It depends on what you want from Apple. Here is what each choice means.
If you allow it
Your pages can rank and be found in that search engine.
If you block it
Your pages drop out of that search engine's results over time. For major engines this is rarely what a site wants. Apple documents a separate robots.txt token, Applebot-Extended, for opting out of training its generative AI models while staying in Apple's search features.
Search engines, other bots with the same job.
Other search engine crawlers. Same purpose, different companies.
Browse the directoryFAQ, Applebot in short answers.
Applebot, answered plainly
What is Applebot?
Applebot is Apple's search engine crawler that indexes pages for Apple's search results. Apple says Applebot powers search features such as Siri and Spotlight Suggestions.
Who runs Applebot?
Apple. Apple documents it at https://support.apple.com/en-us/119829.
What does a visit from Applebot mean?
A visit means your page is being crawled for a classic search index. SenseGap keeps search engines in your reports so you can compare AI activity with them.
What user agent does Applebot use?
Its User-Agent header contains "Applebot". SenseGap matches it regardless of letter case.
How do I block Applebot?
Add "User-agent: Applebot" followed by "Disallow: /" to your robots.txt. robots.txt is a request, not a lock; to enforce it, block the user agent at your server or CDN.
How do I know a visit is really Applebot?
Apple publishes the IP ranges Applebot uses (applebot.json), so check that the visiting address falls inside one of them. You can also run a reverse DNS lookup on the address: the hostname must end in .applebot.apple.com, and a forward lookup of that hostname must return the same address. SenseGap runs these checks on every visit.
Does Apple publish IP ranges for Applebot?
Yes, at https://search.developer.apple.com/applebot.json.
What happens if I block Applebot?
Your pages drop out of that search engine's results over time. For major engines this is rarely what a site wants. Apple documents a separate robots.txt token, Applebot-Extended, for opting out of training its generative AI models while staying in Apple's search features.