Applebot-Extended
Operated by Apple · Governs Apple Intelligence training use
A robots.txt control token for opting out of Apple foundation model training. It does not crawl webpages.
What it does
Apple's documentation is explicit that Applebot-Extended does not crawl webpages. It is only used to determine how data already crawled by the Applebot user agent may be used — specifically, whether it may help train Apple's generative foundation models.
Apple states that webpages disallowing Applebot-Extended can still be included in search results — this token controls training use only, independently of Applebot's search crawling.
Why this is optional to block
- It's a training-use switch, not an access control — it never fetches your pages
- Apple states disallowing it has no effect on search inclusion
- Whether to allow your content into Apple Intelligence training is a content-strategy decision, not a technical requirement
- Blocking Applebot-Extended does not automatically prevent Applebot crawling or search discovery
Identification & robots.txt
Applebot-Extended
Applebot-Extended has no independent crawl to verify by IP or request pattern — it's a named group in your robots.txt file. Additional detail is available in Apple's official documentation.
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Disallow: /