Applebot-Extended
Apple •
Since 2024
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is Applebot-Extended?
Applebot-Extended is Apple's specialized crawler introduced to support their expanding artificial intelligence and machine learning initiatives. This bot operates separately from the standard Applebot, focusing on gathering training data for Apple's AI models, including those powering Apple Intelligence features. Website owners can control Applebot-Extended independently through robots.txt, allowing them to participate in Apple's search features while opting out of AI training. This separation reflects Apple's commitment to user choice and transparency in AI development.
User Agent String
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_5) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/13.1.1 Safari/605.1.15 (Applebot-Extended/0.1; +http://www.apple.com/go/applebot)
How to Control Applebot-Extended
Block Completely
To prevent Applebot-Extended from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block Applebot-Extended
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
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: Applebot-Extended
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify Applebot-Extended
Verification Method:
Same as standard Applebot
Same as standard Applebot
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 Applebot-Extended in your application:
Basic Pattern
/Applebot\-Extended/i
Strict Pattern
/^Mozilla/5\.0 \(Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_5\) AppleWebKit/605\.1\.15 \(KHTML, like Gecko\) Version/13\.1\.1 Safari/605\.1\.15 \(Applebot\-Extended/0\.1; \+http\://www\.apple\.com/go/applebot\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/Applebot\-Extended[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Apple.*Applebot\-Extended/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for Applebot-Extended
function detect_applebot_extended() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Applebot\\-Extended/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Applebot-Extended 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Applebot-Extended
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_applebot_extended():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Applebot-Extended'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class ApplebotExtendedMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Applebot-Extended
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect Applebot-Extended
function detectApplebotExtended(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Applebot-Extended/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Applebot-Extended detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Applebot-Extended';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectApplebotExtended);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Applebot-Extended
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Applebot\-Extended [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Applebot\-Extended [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Applebot\-Extended" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Applebot\-Extended/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Applebot-Extended
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_applebot_extended {
default 0;
~*Applebot\-Extended 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_applebot_extended) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_applebot_extended) {
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_applebot_extended) {
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: Applebot-Extended
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: Applebot-Extended
# Blocking AI training bot
Disallow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
Applebot-Extended
Robots.txt Name
Applebot-Extended
Category
ai
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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