Amzn-SearchBot
Amazon •
Web Crawler
What is Amzn-SearchBot?
Amazon distinguishes this crawler from Amazonbot and Amzn-User. It says Amzn-SearchBot improves search experiences in Amazon products, including Alexa, and is not used for generative-AI model training. The value shown here is the stable bot identifier within Amazon's example browser-style header; the Chrome version in a full header varies. Amazon says automated crawling respects robots.txt, while its documentation explains how this crawler handles rules for other search bots when there is no dedicated Amzn-SearchBot group.
User Agent String
Amzn-SearchBot/0.1
How to Control Amzn-SearchBot
Block Completely
To prevent Amzn-SearchBot from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block Amzn-SearchBot
User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot
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: Amzn-SearchBot
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify Amzn-SearchBot
Verification Method:
Match the source IP to Amazon's published Amzn-SearchBot IP list; the header text alone can be spoofed.
Match the source IP to Amazon's published Amzn-SearchBot IP list; the header text alone can be spoofed.
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 Amzn-SearchBot in your application:
Basic Pattern
/Amzn\-SearchBot/i
Strict Pattern
/^Amzn\-SearchBot\/0\.1$/
Flexible Pattern
/Amzn\-SearchBot[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Amazon.*Amzn\-SearchBot/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for Amzn-SearchBot
function detect_amzn_searchbot() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Amzn\-SearchBot/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Amzn-SearchBot 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Amzn-SearchBot
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_amzn_searchbot():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Amzn\-SearchBot'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class amzn_searchbotMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Amzn-SearchBot
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect Amzn-SearchBot
function detect_amzn_searchbot(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Amzn\-SearchBot/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Amzn-SearchBot detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Amzn-SearchBot';
}
next();
}
app.use(detect_amzn_searchbot);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Amzn-SearchBot
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Amzn\-SearchBot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Amzn\-SearchBot [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Amzn\-SearchBot" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Amzn\-SearchBot/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Amzn-SearchBot
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_amzn_searchbot {
default 0;
~*Amzn\-SearchBot 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_amzn_searchbot) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_amzn_searchbot) {
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_amzn_searchbot) {
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 | Allow | Essential for product visibility in search results |
| 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 | Allow | Improves documentation discoverability for developers |
| Corporate Site | Allow | Allow for public pages, block sensitive areas like intranets |
Advanced robots.txt Configurations
E-commerce Site Configuration
User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot
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: Amzn-SearchBot
# Blocking AI training bot
Disallow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
Amzn-SearchBot
Robots.txt Name
Amzn-SearchBot
Category
search, ai
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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