Applebot-Extended
Apple · Model training · robots.txt token applebot-extended
5% of 30,177 measured domains disallow applebot-extended in robots.txt at the site root. Separately, and independently of robots.txt, 17.4% of 30,187 reachable domains refuse an AI crawler user agent at the network edge on two consecutive probes from different locations - a refusal the site's own robots.txt does not declare and its owner often has not chosen.
Measured 2026-10-06 by direct request to every domain in the corpus. Method: how this is measured. Reuse under CC BY 4.0 with attribution.
Cite as: Crawl Census, "Applebot-Extended blocking rate", measured 2026-10-06. https://crawlcensus.com/bot/applebot-extended
What it is definition
Control token with no user agent; disallowing it excludes crawled content from Apple foundation model training.
Applebot-Extended is operated by Apple and classified here as model training. These agents collect text and images that may end up in a training corpus. Disallowing one withholds new content from the next model. It does not withdraw anything collected before the disallow, and it does not remove the site from any answer engine.
Disallowing applebot-extended withholds content crawled from that point on from Apple's training data. It does not withdraw pages collected in earlier crawls, it does not reach copies already sitting in third-party datasets, and it does not remove the site from any answer surface.
- robots.txt token
- applebot-extended
- Operator
- Apple
- Purpose
- Model training
- Honors robots.txt
- yes
- Documentation
- https://support.apple.com/en-us/119829
Identity on the wire no user agent
No user agent. Applebot-Extended is a robots.txt control token only. Nothing connects to a server identifying as Applebot-Extended: the fetching is done by Applebot, and the token governs only what Apple may then do with what was taken. A live request test against this name cannot tell you anything, so it is measured from the file alone.
How to allow it, how to block it robots.txt
User-agent: applebot-extended
Allow: /Absent any rule, the agent is already allowed, so this group only matters when your * group disallows something. Naming the agent replaces the * group for it entirely, so repeat here every disallow you still want to apply to it.
User-agent: applebot-extended
Disallow: /Disallowing applebot-extended withholds content crawled from that point on from Apple's training data. It does not withdraw pages collected in earlier crawls, it does not reach copies already sitting in third-party datasets, and it does not remove the site from any answer surface.
Sites that block it 60 shown
See every measured domain that blocks Applebot-Extended
This list is served from a cache rebuilt just now. It is discarded the moment a rescan records a policy change for this agent, so a site that has just changed its robots.txt will drop off it within one scan rather than waiting for the cache to expire.
Compare Apple
Apple runs 2 agents in this registry, and they do different jobs. Blocking one says nothing about the others.
Common questions answered
Does blocking Applebot-Extended remove me from Apple Intelligence?
No, not by itself. Applebot-Extended collects content for training, not for the index that answers questions. Apple's answer surfaces are governed separately by applebot, which stays allowed unless you disallow it too. Content collected before the disallow is not withdrawn.
How do I verify Applebot-Extended requests are genuine?
There is nothing to verify. Applebot-Extended has no user agent and never issues a request; it is a robots.txt token that governs what Apple may do with content fetched by its ordinary crawler. Verify that crawler instead.
Check your own site free
See whether your robots.txt admits Applebot-Extended today, and whether your edge agrees with it.