Amazonbot
Amazon •
Since 2021
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is Amazonbot?
Amazonbot is Amazon's web crawler that serves multiple purposes across their ecosystem, including improving Alexa's question-answering capabilities and supporting various AI services. The bot helps Amazon understand web content to provide better answers through Alexa devices and enhance their AI-powered features. While primarily associated with Alexa's web-based responses, Amazonbot also contributes to Amazon's broader AI and machine learning initiatives. The crawler respects web standards and robots.txt directives, operating transparently with clear identification. For website owners, Amazonbot represents potential visibility through Alexa's voice responses and Amazon's AI-powered services.
User Agent String
Amazonbot/0.1 (+https://developer.amazon.com/support/amazonbot)
How to Control Amazonbot
Block Completely
To prevent Amazonbot from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block Amazonbot
User-agent: Amazonbot
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: Amazonbot
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /public/
Set Crawl Delay
To slow down the crawl rate (note: not all bots respect this directive):
User-agent: Amazonbot
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify Amazonbot
Verification Method:
Verify via Amazon's published bot information
Verify via Amazon's published bot information
Learn more in the official documentation.
⚠️ AI Training Notice
This bot may collect and use your website content for AI model training. Consider whether you want your content used for this purpose before allowing access.
This bot may collect and use your website content for AI model training. Consider whether you want your content used for this purpose before allowing access.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect Amazonbot in your application:
Basic Pattern
/Amazonbot/i
Strict Pattern
/^Amazonbot/0\.1 \(\+https\://developer\.amazon\.com/support/amazonbot\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/Amazonbot[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Amazon.*Amazonbot/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for Amazonbot
function detect_amazonbot() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Amazonbot/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Amazonbot detected from IP: ' . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
// Set cache headers
header('Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600');
header('X-Robots-Tag: noarchive');
// Optional: Serve cached version
if (file_exists('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html')) {
readfile('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Amazonbot
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_amazonbot():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Amazonbot'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class AmazonbotMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Amazonbot
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect Amazonbot
function detectAmazonbot(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Amazonbot/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Amazonbot detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Amazonbot';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectAmazonbot);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Amazonbot
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Amazonbot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Amazonbot [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Amazonbot" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Amazonbot/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Amazonbot
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_amazonbot {
default 0;
~*Amazonbot 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_amazonbot) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_amazonbot) {
root /var/www/cached;
try_files $uri $uri.html $uri/index.html @backend;
}
try_files $uri @backend;
}
# Add headers for bot requests
location @backend {
if ($is_amazonbot) {
add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600";
add_header X-Robots-Tag "noarchive";
}
proxy_pass http://backend;
}
}
Should You Block This Bot?
Recommendations based on your website type:
| Site Type | Recommendation | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce | Limit Access | Protect pricing and inventory data from AI training |
| Blog/News | Consider Blocking | Your content may be used for AI training without compensation |
| SaaS Application | Block | No benefit for application interfaces; preserve resources |
| Documentation | Selective | Allow for public docs, block for internal docs |
| Corporate Site | Limit | Allow for public pages, block sensitive areas like intranets |
Advanced robots.txt Configurations
E-commerce Site Configuration
User-agent: Amazonbot
Crawl-delay: 5
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /*?sort=
Disallow: /*?filter=
Disallow: /*&page=
Allow: /products/
Allow: /categories/
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
Publishing/Blog Configuration
User-agent: Amazonbot
# Blocking AI training bot
Disallow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: Amazonbot
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
Amazonbot
Robots.txt Name
Amazonbot
Category
ai, other
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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