Amzn-SearchBot (Amazon): what it is and how to allow or block it
Updated · checked against the operator's documentation on
Amzn-SearchBot is Amazon's crawler for search such as Alexa, not AI training. Verify it by Amazon's IP list; it obeys robots.txt, so block or allow it by name. Its robots.txt token is Amzn-SearchBot.
Facts
- Operator
- Amazon
- Category
- AI search crawler
- robots.txt token
Amzn-SearchBot
- Honors robots.txt?
- Yes, per Amazon. Amazon says its automated crawling respects the Robots Exclusion Protocol and does not support crawl-delay. If robots.txt does not mention Amzn-SearchBot but allows other search bots, Amazon says it follows the rules given to those bots.
- User-agent example
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; Amzn-SearchBot/0.1) Chrome/W.X.Y.Z Safari/537.36
- Official source
- Amazon: Amazon Web Search crawlers
- Published IP ranges
- https://developer.amazon.com/amazonbot/searchbot-ip-addresses/
- Compared with the source
What it is used for
Per Amazon, Amzn-SearchBot is used to improve search experiences in Amazon products and services, and content it may access is eligible to appear in search experiences such as Alexa. Amazon says it does not crawl content for generative AI model training.
Builds the index an AI assistant searches when it answers. Blocking it can keep you out of that assistant's answers.
What happens if you block it
Per Amazon, allowing it makes your content eligible to appear in Amazon search experiences such as Alexa, so a block gives that up. Amazonbot, whose data may be used to train Amazon AI models, has its own token.
Is it really Amzn-SearchBot?
Anyone can send Amzn-SearchBot as a user agent, so a log line proves nothing by itself. The way to tell is the requesting IP address.
- Compare the IP address with the Amazon: published IP ranges. A request from outside those ranges is not the operator's crawler.
- Guide: How to block AI crawlers in robots.txt: tokens for training, search and user requests.
- Guide: How to let AI assistants read your site (and which bots to block).
- Guide: Do ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini obey your robots.txt? What operators document, and a test for your logs.
- Paste any user agent from your logs into the user-agent lookup, or follow the scripts in Fake Googlebots and PHP scanners.
How to allow or block Amzn-SearchBot
Add one of these groups to the robots.txt at the root of your domain. A group that names the bot overrides a general User-agent: * group.
User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot Allow: /
User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot Disallow: /
Does your site allow Amzn-SearchBot today? The checker evaluates your robots.txt for this and every other bot.Check my site
What we see on this site
No request identifying as Amzn-SearchBot has been recorded since 19 Oct, so there is nothing to show yet. We never fill this in with estimates.
Counts come from this site's own server; they hold no IP addresses or URLs, and a user agent is only a claim. See the bot traffic data and the methodology.
Questions about Amzn-SearchBot
What is Amzn-SearchBot?
Amazon's crawler for search experiences in Amazon products and services, such as Alexa. Per Amazon, Amzn-SearchBot is used to improve search experiences in Amazon products and services, and content it may access is eligible to appear in search experiences such as Alexa. Amazon says it does not crawl content for generative AI model training.
Is Amzn-SearchBot safe and legitimate?
The real Amzn-SearchBot is an AI search crawler run by Amazon. A user-agent string is only a claim, though, so anyone can send it. Compare the requesting IP address with the published IP ranges.
Does Amzn-SearchBot obey robots.txt?
Yes, per Amazon. Amazon says its automated crawling respects the Robots Exclusion Protocol and does not support crawl-delay. If robots.txt does not mention Amzn-SearchBot but allows other search bots, Amazon says it follows the rules given to those bots.
How do I block Amzn-SearchBot?
Add a group to the robots.txt at the root of your domain: User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot followed by Disallow: /. A group that names the bot overrides a general User-agent: * group.
Will blocking Amzn-SearchBot hurt my Google rankings or AI visibility?
It can. This bot builds the index an AI assistant searches when it answers, so blocking it can keep you out of that assistant's answers. Per Amazon, allowing it makes your content eligible to appear in Amazon search experiences such as Alexa, so a block gives that up. Amazonbot, whose data may be used to train Amazon AI models, has its own token.
Related bots
More from Amazon
- Amazonbot AI training crawlerAmazon's crawler, used to improve its products and services and possibly to train Amazon AI models.
- Amzn-User AI user-triggered fetcherAmazon's fetcher that retrieves live web pages for user actions, such as answering Alexa questions.
Other AI search crawlers
- OAI-SearchBot OpenAIOpenAI's crawler that surfaces websites in ChatGPT's search features.
- Claude-SearchBot AnthropicAnthropic's crawler that analyzes online content to improve the quality of Claude's search results.
- PerplexityBot PerplexityPerplexity's crawler that surfaces and links websites in Perplexity search results.
- ExaSearchBot ExaExa's crawler that discovers and indexes public pages for its search and retrieval service.
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